These Ontario Grocery Stores May Soon Sell Beer

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Ontario’s push to allow beer to be sold at grocery stores reached a milestone today with the announcement of grocers that have passed the province’s first hurdle.

The initial grocers to be eligible to sell beer in Ontario grocery stores were announced Wednesday morning following a competitive bidding process.

They include:

• Coppa’s Fresh Market
• Farm Boy 2012 Inc.
• Galleria Supermarket
• Hanahreuem Mart Inc.
• J & B La Mantia Ltd. (La Mantia’s Country Market)
• Loblaws Inc.
• Longo Brothers Fruit Market Inc.
• Metro Ontario Inc.
• Michael-Angelos Market Place Inc.
• Pino’s Get Fresh
• Sobeys Capital Incorporated
• Starsky Fine Foods Hamilton Inc.
• Wal-Mart Canada Corp.

To move forward with selling beer, the companies will apply to the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario to seek authorization for individual store locations.

Upon completion of that review, the province says up to 60 grocery store locations could be authorized to sell beer by December.

“We are moving quickly to ensure that beer will be sold in grocery stores in a socially responsible manner,” said finance minister Charles Sousa. “Using the existing low-cost distribution system keeps Ontario’s beer prices below the Canadian average while offering greater ability to fund key government services and programs that people rely on.”

By law, the province says grocers will have to abide by the requirements for the safe retail of alcohol, including designated sales areas and restricted hours of sale, limitations to package sizes and alcohol by volume, and rigorous staffing and social responsibility training requirements.