What is there not to be learned about the oligopolistic institution that sells macrogak, literally and utterly unimaginatively The Beer Store, that governs most beer sales here in Ontario from this gorgeous photo published in yesterday's Toronto Star. It was taken by Lucas Olenuik and is posted here for purposes of review. So, let's review it.
The photo smells. At TBS, you return your empties and order your beer in the same room. The empties stink. Stink of old beer and the cigarette butts people leave behind. That's no doubt why the lady in the yellow dress has her hand to her face. I also like how Olenuik makes the photo two dimensional and framed squarely on the menu of beers... or rather "beer" as the plural for beer in Ontario is beer even if the multiple of beer brands is sometimes beers. You drink five beer. Not five beers. Five beers imply they are different from each other. The beer at the TBS are not. I like the irritated boredom of the man in tie-die. Best of all, that wall of mindless branding stickers. I love how "premium" and "discount" are only relative to each other. And, brutally, they only refer to price as most beer to the left tastes the same as most beer to the right. You can pay a premium or get a discount but you get pretty much the same thing.
The photo highlights a story about how folk are fed up with the system. The store is fairly described as "the world’s most mysterious retail wasteland." The photo conveys that. And there's more in there than I have mentioned. What else do you see?
Comments
itslunchtimeca - December 23, 2012 9:59 AM
What drives me a little bonkers about this setup is where the board is located. It is almost impossible to see the full list and make a decision without stepping out of line. There is no ability to discover interesting, new or even new to you brands with this type of setup.
The other 'updated' beer stores where you step into the back and peruse the shelves are one step up and I guess fits their original name around warehousing...or was their original name Brewer's Retail. I can never remember. There are so few singles, so you are dissuaded from trying any other brands. Plain and simple, this store is to maximize profits for its owners. It does that well. The store is not to sell beer but to sell the big brands in larger quantities.
That is about all I can see in the picture. The inability to read those boards just irk me.
Brian J. Papineau - December 23, 2012 10:06 AM
For all the ragging people do on TBS, I must admit that my local store (1845 Carling, Ottawa) really does do a good job of keeping Ontario, Quebec, BC Saskatchewan and Alberta craft beers in stock. It certainly is a rarity, but there are a few "good" The Beer Store locations out there.
You're right though Alan, the stores smell awful and they never seem to even rinse the bins.
Alan - December 23, 2012 10:46 AM
Good point. I forgot about the use of 12 font sized lettering at 11 feet above the floor level. I go so rarely these things don't affect me.
Patrick Hirlehey - December 23, 2012 3:09 PM
On the plus side, you can exchange your empties for dusty, pre-aged La Fin Du Monde (they have a very robust cellaring program on some of their less well advertised brews)... and they are always diversifying their offerings, they carry Four Loko now.
Craig - December 23, 2012 5:52 PM
That looks like a line at the DMV.
Chris - December 23, 2012 6:54 PM
I never knew how bad these stores were until I went to the US. I always wondered why the people of Ontario put up with it. The Beer Store did one good thing to me, and that is make me so disgusted with the whole buying experience that I started to make my own beer 20 years ago. I haven't gone there in years and will never, ever go there as long as I live.
Alan - December 23, 2012 7:26 PM
And how many times a year do you go to the DMV, Craig? I should have taken you to one when you were up. Stick got in the way.
Craig - December 23, 2012 10:59 PM
I got to go on my birthday this year—that's enough. By the way, the Albany DMV is on the site of the Boyd Brewery/Albany Brewing Company. That fact didn't much console me when I was waiting in line.
Come to Albany and we'll go to Oliver's and/or Westmere Beverage.
Alsiem - December 24, 2012 12:00 PM
In the location near me, the board is above the space where you return the empties. You then walk across 30 feet of empty space which house a line of coolers along the back wall of molson/coors/labatts 12/24 packs to get to the cashier to buy beer. Try to read 12 point font/make out labels from 30 feet away.
You better have remembered what you wanted.
Alan - December 26, 2012 12:54 PM
You mean like this?
Ryan Morrow - December 27, 2012 9:49 PM
Just wanted to clear something up I saw Brian talk about. An individual TBS does not decide what 'outside' breweries beer are sold at a location.
The process works like this, unless you're one of the original grandfathered in micro's back in the day. If I, as an outside brewer, want to sell my beer at the beer store we first have a to pay a listing fee for an individual product. We then choose which store we would like it sold at and then pay another fee to sell it at said store. Thus, if a certain beer store has a decent selectio of craft beer at the store it has nothing to do with said beer store's operators but actually the breweries paying to be sold at that store.
That's the TBS system. We pay our most disliked competition twice in order to sell at any given location. And of course they are going to treat our products with the utmost care once it gets in their hands..