How much does alcohol cost in your city?

[Bdog]

Liquor laws and systems vary substantially across the country. From the LCBOs and Beer Stores in Ontario, to the Liquor Barns and Depots of Alberta, how much are you paying for various alcohol products in your cities?

e.g.
6-pack of Blue
12-pack of Bud
26 oz. of Captain Morgan
40 oz. of Smirnoff
etc., etc.

[leftimage]

Originally Posted by Bdog

Liquor laws and systems vary substantially across the country. From the LCBOs and Beer Stores in Ontario, to the Liquor Barns and Depots of Alberta, how much are you paying for various alcohol products in your cities?

e.g.
6-pack of Blue
12-pack of Bud
26 oz. of Captain Morgan
40 oz. of Smirnoff
etc., etc.

(Montreal)

6-pack domestic: 6.99 - 11,99$ (brands like Molson, Labatt usually settle around 9$ for a 6-pack.)

12-pack domestic: 15-20$

26 ounce liquor: begins around 21$ for lower-end stuff (Smirnoff, ''basic'' white Captain Morgan)

40 ounce liquor: begins around 30$.

The latter two categories are priced very firm... as SAQ is the only place you can legally acquire liquor in Quebec.

[BLACK STAR]

Doesn't matter...sett-em up knock-em down...Burp....

[SignalHillHiker]

This is probably the same in every other province and need not be explained, but in Newfoundland and Labrador we have provincially-mandated minimum prices for alcohol.

What you actually pay can be higher depending on if you go to the grocery, gas station, convenience store, etc. For the most part, though, alcohol and cigarettes are two of the items businesses tend not to make a profit on and use instead to get customers in the door.

6-pack of Blue: $13.28
12-pack of Bud: $23.99
26 oz. of Captain Morgan: $26.19
40 oz. of Smirnoff: $38.99

The ones I usually drink:

6-pack Storm Brewing Island Gold or Coffee Porter: $14.61
6-pack Quidi Vidi Brewing Iceberg Beer: $18.30
26 oz. of Iceberg Gin: $25.69

I believe our prices will shape up to be higher than average. However, prices to drink at the pubs and clubs are often all but the same as buying it yourself - so it may be cheaper to go out here than in other provinces. There's certainly less pressure to "drink before you go out" than I encountered living in other provinces.

The most common special I see is 2 for $5 Beer/Highballs until 12:30.

[Acajack]

Freudian narcissism of minor differences moment:

Living in Quebec, when I saw the title of this thread the first thing I thought about was the price of wine, which is the top-selling alcohol in the province by far (along with beer).

And then I see it's not even on the list...

[SignalHillHiker]

You're winning in beer as well.

Alcoholic Consumption per Capita (Litres per Person)

Beer
1. Yukon (145.1)
2. Quebec (93.9)
3. Newfoundland and Labrador (93.3)
Canadian Average (85.6)

Wine
1. Yukon (18.3)
2. Quebec (17.4)
3. British Columbia (14.5)
Canadian Average (13.1)

Spirits
1. Yukon (13.8)
2. NWT (10.8)
3. Prince Edward Island (9.7)
Canadian Average (7.5)

Total Alcohol Consumption
1. Yukon
2. NWT
3. Alberta
4. Newfoundland and Labrador
5. British Columbia
6. Ontario
7. Quebec
8. Prince Edward Island
9. Nova Scotia
10. Manitoba
11. Saskatchewan
12. New Brunswick

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol...ages_in_Canada

[harls]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

6-pack Storm Brewing Island Gold or Coffee Porter: $14.61
6-pack Quidi Vidi Brewing Iceberg Beer: $18.30

That's nuts for a 6-pack! Must be damn good beer.

..and I don't mean this stuff.

• Video Link

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

You're winning in beer as well.

Alcoholic Consumption per Capita (Litres per Person)

Yeah. Quebec is basically a wine and beer province. SAQ stores are generally 80+% wine on the racks. Spirits are there for sure but they take up a really small space comparatively to wine.

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by harls

That's nuts for a 6-pack! Must be damn good beer.

..and I don't mean this stuff.

Storm Coffee Porter is my favourite beer.

Storm Island Gold floored me when I first tasted it. It is the best ale I have ever tasted in my life. It changed the way I look at beer.

Iceberg... it's not awful. I mostly like it because the bottles are beautiful. What can I say? I'm a Trudeau supporter.

[kwoldtimer]

I didn't realize until now that both The Beer Store (yuck) and LCBO (hooray), including Vintages ( ) list all their product prices on-line, including items on sale in the case of the LCBO. I think that wine prices in Ontario tend to be a bit lower than the Canadian average, thanks to LCBOs huge buying power.

The best wine-buying location in Canada has got to be Ottawa-Gatineau. You can spend ages browsing in the Vintages on Rideau at King Edward and then drive five minutes to the SAQ across the bridge to buy bulk table wine. (At least that used to be the case, is that SAQ still there, Acajack? I've been away for a few years)

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

I didn't realize until now that both The Beer Store (yuck) and LCBO (hooray), including Vintages ( ) list all their product prices on-line, including items on sale in the case of the LCBO. I think that wine prices in Ontario tend to be a bit lower than the Canadian average, thanks to LCBOs huge buying power.

The best wine-buying location in Canada has got to be Ottawa-Gatineau. You can spend ages browsing in the Vintages on Rideau at King Edward and then drive five minutes to the SAQ across the bridge to buy bulk table wine. (At least that used to be the case, is that SAQ still there, Acajack? I've been away for a few years)

Yes it is. They've been talking about revamping or repositioning the SAQ Dépôt concept, but I am not sure where that will lead.

[vid]

What happened to Lucky Lager and what is this JR shit that all the kids are drinking?

[shreddog]

As I posted in the booze laws thread, prices for standard beers appears to be cheapest in QC and for premium beers it's AB.

That said, I only really focused on QC, ON and AB, though it is known that BC is more expensive.

Originally Posted by shreddog

A bit dated, but since I trave alot between AB, ON and QC, in summer of 2010 I selected a number of items that I purchase regularly and compared the prices between SAQ, LCBO and Olympia liquor (my store of preference in Calgary).

Here was what I found : (AB / ON / QC)

Crown -21.19 / 27.95 / 26.75
Absolut - 20.10 / 36.95 / 23.45
Baileys - 31.69 / 39.95 / 40.75
Grey Goose - 34.84 / 46.95 / 43.25
Kahlua - 23.29 / 27.95 / 24.95
Appelton - 21.19 / 29.95 / 24.95
Bacadi - 18.04 / 23.95 / 22.60

In all but 1 case, Ontario was the most expensive (QC for Baileys). All prices were for 26oz (I believe). Note, this was 2 years ago so prices likely have increased, however I expect the differentials to remain the same.

My experience has also shown that for generic beer (Molson, Bud, etc) Quebec is the cheapest then Ontario, but once you move up the quality chain, it becomes more cheaper in Alberta. Same for wine. Basically under $12 is same or cheaper in Ontario, though beyond the $12 price range it get more expensive. Also, though LCBO is the largest booze purchaser in the world, this works to their disadvantage in that they often cannot buy small lots thus they are late to new trends (Malbec selection is still no where near as robust as AB) or just unable to get items that don't sell by huge volumes.

Wine Canada (the magazine) often laments how many great niche wines cannot be found in Ontario (at any price) yet can be found in AB, BC or even NS.

All that said, I still find the whole LCBO model crazy. ON has roughly 850 licensed sellers of booze - 625 LCBO and 225 "agency" stores, AB has over 1300. What this means is that within a 10 minute walk of where I live I have 5 places to buy booze - CSN which has a better boutique and the same high end selection as Summerhill Vintage, Olympia which has the best prices anywhere (albeit a limited selection), Lees which is open til 1 every night, Nics which has an affinity program and emails me when my normal purchases come on sale and Kings which is a 60 second walk from my door and will mainly match Olympic's prices. All 5 have been in business for over 4 years, so the market can obviously support them.

Again, in my experience ON and QC come out ahead on cheap beer/wine, appear to lose on hard liquor and quality beer/wine and absolutely bite on service/selection - though QC is miles ahead because of the Dep's, though I find the service at SAQ still pretty much stuck in the 90's.

[shreddog]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

The best wine-buying location in Canada has got to be Ottawa-Gatineau. You can spend ages browsing in the Vintages on Rideau at King Edward and then drive five minutes to the SAQ across the bridge to buy bulk table wine. (At least that used to be the case, is that SAQ still there, Acajack? I've been away for a few years)

The problem with LCBO's buying power is that they cannot provide access to the smaller vintages as they must buy in bulk and their prices really aren't that great on bottles selling at more than $15. SAQ has a better niche selection, but only for certain world regions; They're still lacking on niche wines from South America and Australia. To me the only place Ottawa has the advantage of anywhere else in ON is being able to go to Costco ... but really everyone in QC has that option.

[shreddog]

Originally Posted by vid

What happened to Lucky Lager and what is this JR shit that all the kids are drinking?

Unfortunately you can still buy Lucky in Alberta

Not sure what JR is, and not sure I wanna know!

[Xelebes]

Originally Posted by shreddog

Unfortunately you can still buy Lucky in Alberta

Not sure what JR is, and not sure I wanna know!

You can also get TNT here too. Fine stuff!

[manny_santos]

JR is James Ready. It's actually better than Bud or Coors, though that's not saying much.

Pabst Blue Ribbon is popular among some young people who like cheap beer as well.

[manny_santos]

Even within Ontario, alcohol prices can vary from city to city, if we're talking about bars/restaurants. On average, I have found booze to be more expensive in Kingston bars than in other cities, save for Toronto. London seems to have more bars offering cheap booze deals on certain nights of the week than other Ontario cities I've been to. There was one sports bar in London I used to go to in university that had really cheap beer and food on Wednesday nights. A downtown spot had great Sleeman and Corona deals on certain nights as well. I have yet to find equally attractive deals in Kingston. In London's case the prices might be forced lower by a combination of high unemployment and high downtown bar competition.

Downtown Toronto is still the most expensive, from my experience. Probably because the people there can well afford it.

[DrNest]

How much does alcohol cost in your city?

Simple answer: Too much!

When wine imported from Australia is cheaper than wine produced in Ontario, there is something wrong. And beer is far too expensive too. Coming from the UK, I'm used to alcohol being much more affordable, even with our very high tax.

[Bdog]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Freudian narcissism of minor differences moment:

Living in Quebec, when I saw the title of this thread the first thing I thought about was the price of wine, which is the top-selling alcohol in the province by far (along with beer).

And then I see it's not even on the list...

Haha, touché! Thanks for bringing wine into the discussion as well!