One of the key recommendations from the 2013 Liquor Policy Review Final Report in BC was that liquor should be made available in grocery stores. Earlier this year, the Liquor Control and Licensing Branch (LCLB) implemented this recommendation by issuing a policy directive, effective April 1, 2015, that describes how grocery stores may sell liquor.
However, as readers of this blog in BC will have noticed, very few grocery stores have started selling liquor. In fact, currently only one grocery store is doing so: the Save-On-Foods in Surrey. Why is this? As described below, there are two significant impediments.
The first is a licencing impediment. A grocery store wishing to sell liquor requires either a licensee retail store (LRS) or wine store licence. An LRS licence permits the sale of beer, wine, cider, coolers and a full range of spirits.
Canadianrealpropertylawblog.com –Â Craig Shirreff on September 14th, 2015.
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NDP government perhaps. BC is big into unions and that would threaten government liquor store jobs.