I buy a lot of wine in Alberta, and it's true that pricing is generally no better than Ontario.

The big difference is that privatization has brought selection without full case minimum purchases. I would take Alberta's system any day over Ontario's... but agree that it is far from ideal.

Thank you futronic for the information. The bad is LCBO's high markups/prices; the good is LCBO is the only one can add markups in Ontario. Actually I like LCBO because it carries almost everything, and you can return an item as long as they still have it in their system.

Yes, like mitPradikat said "I hung around all day every day, they would still not bother to see if I needed assistance" But I found some of their(Vintages)staff are knowledgeable and friendly. Once an Vintages manager approached me and offered assistance; and now whenever I need something from her store, just one email she will pack everything in a box and call me to pick up. I know she has a book of contacts listing a lot of people like me. This is also a reason whenever i go to LCBO, i buy from Vintages.

Looks like the strike has been postponed indefinitely.

Strolled over to Summerhill and I've never seen the shelves so bare! I think LCBO may have found the secret to clearing inventory. Forget margin killing bin end sales, all they have to do is to get the union to threaten a strike and BINGO!!!... bottles fly off the shelves.

Maybe that was LCBO's plan all along?? The union has been played like cheap part time labour!

Interview on CFRB to-day stated it was the all-time record setting sales day at 60 million$. Beat the previous record of 56 million$ which was a pre Christmas sales day. Lots of sales but I wonder how much of it was Vintages where the overstock problem exists.

The next question is how much of it will get returned since the strike has been called off? There were reports of some people spending several thousand dollars (a person in front of someone I know rung up $6700), and probably don't want to carry that on their credit card for no reason!

How's that for a restocking plan?

I, for one, am disappointed if there's no strike. I was hoping to give my self-discipline a few weeks off!

quote:

Originally posted by bman:
I, for one, am disappointed if there's no strike. I was hoping to give my self-discipline a few weeks off!

I was plotting some much-needed cellar diminishment.

quote:

Originally posted by LongJ:
Thank you futronic for the information. The bad is LCBO's high markups/prices; the good is LCBO is the only one can add markups in Ontario. Actually I like LCBO because it carries almost everything, and you can return an item as long as they still have it in their system.

Yes, like mitPradikat said "I hung around all day every day, they would still not bother to see if I needed assistance" But I found some of their(Vintages)staff are knowledgeable and friendly. Once an Vintages manager approached me and offered assistance; and now whenever I need something from her store, just one email she will pack everything in a box and call me to pick up. I know she has a book of contacts listing a lot of people like me. This is also a reason whenever i go to LCBO, i buy from Vintages.

The benefits that I get from being able to return defective bottles or bottles I decide I dont want, or to exchange bottles for which I don't even have a receipt (where they are in saleable condition...and I would never return a bottle that was not in saleable condition as a result of something that I did) far outweights any benefit that I would get from privatization. With privatization I doubt that prices would go down (taxes won't change with privatization), I doubt that supply would be as varied (maybe you would see some things you don't see now, but you would also not see some things that you do see now), and I have no doubt that the return policy would suck.

quote:

Originally posted by Machine:

quote:

Originally posted by LongJ:
Thank you futronic for the information. The bad is LCBO's high markups/prices; the good is LCBO is the only one can add markups in Ontario. Actually I like LCBO because it carries almost everything, and you can return an item as long as they still have it in their system.

Yes, like mitPradikat said "I hung around all day every day, they would still not bother to see if I needed assistance" But I found some of their(Vintages)staff are knowledgeable and friendly. Once an Vintages manager approached me and offered assistance; and now whenever I need something from her store, just one email she will pack everything in a box and call me to pick up. I know she has a book of contacts listing a lot of people like me. This is also a reason whenever i go to LCBO, i buy from Vintages.

The benefits that I get from being able to return defective bottles or bottles I decide I dont want, or to exchange bottles for which I don't even have a receipt (where they are in saleable condition...and I would never return a bottle that was not in saleable condition as a result of something that I did) far outweights any benefit that I would get from privatization. With privatization I doubt that prices would go down (taxes won't change with privatization), I doubt that supply would be as varied (maybe you would see some things you don't see now, but you would also not see some things that you do see now), and I have no doubt that the return policy would suck.

If Alberta is any indication...

Pricing: Much better on low end wines (hard to compete with Costco), higher on wines in short supply (ie. High end CNDP), similar on the rest

Return policies: I haven't tested this. I'm sure that no private enterprise would give us the kind of return policy the LCBO does, so I suspect you're right on this.

Availability: Here you need to specify whether you're talking about a single store or the entire market. It is true that there is no single store in Alberta that has the selection that Summerhill has... but taken as a whole, there is far, far, far better availability in Alberta if you're willing to visit multiple stores. (Each store tends to use different importers and have a different product mix). The only exception is Bordeaux... I haven't seen any offering that comes close to the LCBO's Bordeaux futures offerings.

quote:

Originally posted by SThomas:
...Pricing: Much better on low end wines (hard to compete with Costco), higher on wines in short supply (ie. High end CNDP)
...

That's the way it should be in an open and free market!! Yeah, prices of high end CdP such as Clos de Papes and Ex Machina are sometimes cheaper at LCBO but what's the use if supply is so low that you have to win a tainted lottery in which the odds are slim to none you'll get anything.

quote:

Originally posted by SThomas:
Availability: ... but taken as a whole, there is far, far, far better availability in Alberta if you're willing to visit multiple stores. (Each store tends to use different importers and have a different product mix)...

Considering the size and buying power of the LCBO, I consider this monopoly to perform poorly in the areas of availability and variety. With all that clout of being the self-professed largest retailer of its kind in the world, IMHO, LCBO's buyers do a poor job of product selection. Most products you see on the shelves are sourced from the big player producers and agents and it's mostly the same wines being released year after year. Hardly the epitome of a creative buyer.

When I visit cellar doors in places like recently in Australia and they hear I'm from Ontario, many will cringe at the mention of LCBO. They say the monopoly is arrogant, difficult to deal with and slow; a few even refused to deal with them in principal or simply gave up. And LCBO's releases are sometimes slow too. Sometimes I see US retailers with 2006 vintages of Wine X on the shelf when LCBO has yet to release the 2005 vintage. They appear to be holding back and sitting on inventory to suit their own needs regardless of public demand. This exemplifies the nature of a monopoly where customer service is mostly PR because customers have no choice and all of this points to, all else considering, poor availability and variety.

quote:

Originally posted by SThomas:
It is true that there is no single store in Alberta that has the selection that Summerhill has... but taken as a whole, there is far, far, far better availability in Alberta if you're willing to visit multiple stores. (Each store tends to use different importers and have a different product mix).

Visiting multiple stores is one of my favourite ways to spend a day, especially on Saturdays when they have agents in pouring samples!

Interestingly, there is a great deal of camaraderie between the different independent stores. Even though they are competing for business, they never seem to have a bad thing to say about their competition. Sometimes people will wander into a high end store looking for Little Penguin or Wolf Blass and the staff will tactfully refer them to the store down the road without any disparaging remarks about the wine or the other store. I remember one time the employee even phoned ahead for the guy to make sure they had the Little Penguin in stock. Very classy indeed.

quote:

Originally posted by bman:
I, for one, am disappointed if there's no strike. I was hoping to give my self-discipline a few weeks off!

Exactly my sentiments! Close 'er down and watch the savings rate improve!

quote:

Originally posted by on the wine:

quote:

Originally posted by bman:
I, for one, am disappointed if there's no strike. I was hoping to give my self-discipline a few weeks off!

Exactly my sentiments! Close 'er down and watch the savings rate improve!

I am going to do even better by taking back a bottle of 99 Foris Rogue Valley Merlot Reserve that we opened last night which had the worst case of cork taint I have run into in a long time. So thanks for not being on strike - if I can make it through the dyke march, I'll be there to get my money back!

quote:

Originally posted by SThomas:

Availability: Here you need to specify whether you're talking about a single store or the entire market. It is true that there is no single store in Alberta that has the selection that Summerhill has... but taken as a whole, there is far, far, far better availability in Alberta if you're willing to visit multiple stores. (Each store tends to use different importers and have a different product mix). The only exception is Bordeaux... I haven't seen any offering that comes close to the LCBO's Bordeaux futures offerings.

But what good is a better selection if the prices suck?

quote:

Originally posted by steve8:

quote:

Originally posted by SThomas:

Availability: Here you need to specify whether you're talking about a single store or the entire market. It is true that there is no single store in Alberta that has the selection that Summerhill has... but taken as a whole, there is far, far, far better availability in Alberta if you're willing to visit multiple stores. (Each store tends to use different importers and have a different product mix). The only exception is Bordeaux... I haven't seen any offering that comes close to the LCBO's Bordeaux futures offerings.

But what good is a better selection if the prices suck?

If you're going to live in Canada... the prices are going to suck. Might as well get the wine you want at the crazy price, rather than the wine the LCBO decides to carry because the Agent spends enough on advertising.

If you're referring to futures... similar argument. The LCBO futures campaign is the 2nd least painfully priced offer you'll ever see in Canada for any given vintage (2nd only to the SAQ's offer)

quote:

Originally posted by winepro23:
Interview on CFRB to-day stated it was the all-time record setting sales day at 60 million$. Beat the previous record of 56 million$ which was a pre Christmas sales day. Lots of sales but I wonder how much of it was Vintages where the overstock problem exists.

Can't speak for other stores within the province, but here is the result from my store in Oakville.

Ninety-four percent of all customers making a purchase included Vintages among their selections on that very busy Tuesday.

But then, I stocked up on those products that were marked down in price under various Delistings and the customers did the math themselves.

At the close of business that day, Vintages contributed 20% to the overall dollar sales.

Never forget the 5P's : Proper planning prevents poor performance :-)

CHEERS

quote:

Originally posted by futronic:
Here's what we have going on right now in Toronto:

1. LCBO Strike
2. Garbage Strike
3. City Workers strike (different union than the garbage situation I think)

Anyone think that people just want a summer holiday? I don't think I've ever seen any of these strikes occur in, say, the middle of January when there are blizzards and it's -20C outside.

I see that the garbage strike is still ongoing. I knew that Toronto had a large Italian population, I just didn't realize how much you wanted to be like Napoli.

lol! Well, we *do* have many immigrants from that area ...

quote:

Originally posted by steve8:
I'm really glad we did the Italian Offline before this all happened.

Maybe the city can call in the army...

Touché, Steve8. I think nothing less than the Royal 22nd Regiment will do in this case.

All I know is that a vintages online purchase I made a MONTH ago has still not arrived at my Hawkesbury store. I used to get my products within a week of ordering. Something is definitely wrong.

quote:

Originally posted by Mimik:
All I know is that a vintages online purchase I made a MONTH ago has still not arrived at my Hawkesbury store. I used to get my products within a week of ordering. Something is definitely wrong.

I heard that there is a lag between when they actually receive the wine and when the paperwork gets there. The wine could very well be there but the call not placed because of paperwork. If that is the case, I believe you can retrieve the wine with your copy of the receipt. Might want to give them a call if you haven't done so already.