graham the eggman

Doesn't answer the question why I can't pick up a 6 pack of beer with a can of soup like in the UK, plus buy a bottle gin in the NSLC store but they don't sell the tonic water to mix with it, barmy.

DandNHill

I noticed in the LCBO here in Ontario that a person under the age of 19 isn't even allowed to hold a can of beer/ bottle of wine in the store! They're allowed in the store though...now that is crazy!

graham the eggman

This is Canada/Provence's and there antiquated liquor laws that benefit only those they allow to sell it-monopolies. It's called "keeping up appearances" to justify their existence. In the UK you HAVE to show ID where ever alcohol is sold if you appear under 25 years, you can drink at 18 but again ID required in any bar and it is enforced.

christmasoompa

Graham the Eggman - I've just removed all copies of your telephone number. This is a public forum, so unless you want to have your personal details picked up by every spambot out there and visible to millions of people, I'd suggest you don't put your email address (which I also removed earlier) or tel number on BE.

Hopefully I've deleted it quickly enough for you to avoid getting huge numbers of calls from all manner of weirdos!

Please don't post it again, remember that the OP can easily contact you via the forum if they wish to without you needing to give out personal info at all.

Thx.

DandNHill

Agreed, it's insane. My husband manages a resort here and has to purchase all alcohol through LCBO... they really have got a monopoly going on.
I personally don't care what happens with alcohol, I'm allergic to the stuff so can't drink anymore

BristolUK

This is a major difference though. It's really not like for like.

A UK offer is not like a Canadian one. There are far more Canadian offers in any given week for things that are half to two-thirds normal price. Any comparable reduction in the UK appears to be a loss leader...just one or two bargains rather than the 20 or so in the Canadian supermarket.

graham the eggman

So when are you Canadians going to wake up to the racket Then start looking at the milk/cheese etc quote system where you pay 3 times the UK price, are you ripped off !!

graham the eggman

Rubbish, first in NS there is a total lack of competition in many aspects. Why can I not buy liquor in a grocery store ????? Not a problem in the UK just another item that goes through the check out.
Milk/cheese/eggs etc are 3 times the price of the UK. Why, Canada still persists with the dairy quota system so old and out of date but cost the consumer big big bucks but they don't understand. I'll leave you with this, how can milk be 2 bucks a litre and gas $1.30, it's taxed milk is not.

DandNHill

I'm not sure what the answer is. As far as milk is concerned, I understand it even less. In Ontario 4 litres is $3.99 as opposed to $7.99 in NS. How much is milk in the UK now?

You can't criticise a country just because it doesn't do things the way they are done in the UK. Some of this is just about dealing with change. We used the flyers all the time and stocked on offers every week. It's a way of life and how it is done here...

graham the eggman

Most Canadians-Nova Scotia I know don't understand the dairy quoter system which is why you pay so much. Then the NSLC just another BIG rip off you put up with. WHY ??

BristolUK

But you're trying to compare like with like. That one can't buy booze in Canada as conveniently as the UK shows it's not the same. You appear to be missing my point. I am not saying stuff is cheaper or more expensive.

I am saying that the flyers for Canadian supermarkets show very many items at two-thirds or half the normal cost. UK offers tend to be just one or two items with a decent reduction and other things with not much off.

As for no competition....rubbish. If that was true, please explain how one supermarket produces a flyer with an offer on a particular item and then the rival changes it's price to compete. Just coincidence?

And then there are the stores with price matching.

Tirytory

I admit buying alcohol from one store is a bit rubbish but it's not really the end of the world. You just get used to it! Or not as it appears

graham the eggman

OK right, how many supermarkets have you ? Here in Bromsgrove UK, small town. We have Morrison/Sainsbury/Asda/Aldi and small shops plus 14 pubs who can buy from where they like hence beer is $4.50 a 20 ounce pint not the 18 so called Canadian pint which is illegal.

dbd33

The liquor control boards are a crazy system. The unpleasant people work there will grudgingly shove a bottle of booze at you if it's not one of their many tea breaks, and they'll charge you an arm and a leg for it. The LCBO is as inefficient a distribution system as you could ask for and the equivalent is only found in a few counties in the deep south. It's shit. Or, as they say here, it's like todally, awesumly, shit.

However, even I only go to the liquor store once a week. It's a nasty business and I leave feeling cheated and sneered at but it's only 45 minutes of queuing at the cash register. It's not as bad as, for example, having to take a child to an iced hockey game and then wait for an hour and a half for the pratting around to end.

Canada is not a good place for people for whom drink is important, especially not for people who like good beer. Such people should move to America or not move at all. People should not be all about drink though, we need to step above that, and realise that, for all the trouble getting a bottle of Blue Nun, Canada offers other things. Snow, for example, you don't get snow like this at home.

MillieF

I lived for 15 years in France before I came to Canada, and during that period too I also commuted to Libya...one was 'dry' and one had excellent cheap wine at every pitstop....I cannot compare either country to Canada
I enjoy a glass of wine, but life cannot be judged on ones ability to buy a 'bottle' for cheap!

Special offers are important to those of us that live in Atlantic Canada as prices are a bit higher here....that isn't mitigated by the low cost of housing, that's a one off cost and HST is greater here than in the rest of Canada on a daily basis.

My life here is totally different. I don't know if it's better or worse? My son who is now 13 has been here 2 years and loves every second....he achieves and achieves and in his spare time he achieves! I don't know How...but he is!

I didn't come here for "the sake of the children" but it's been a wonderful payoff and not one I had expected.

Canada IS different, that's the joy of it! I'm a bit dodgy with the winter months, but that is probably my ingrained horror of cold....I can sand drive a Jeep through a desert without a backward glance, but get scared in snow. It is growing on me. I think it's a bit like most things, if you think you can, and want to, then you probably wiil...very best of luck