The Saskatchewan Party wants to change the province’s liquor laws. They also happen to want to make it an election issue, saying nothing will be done unless they get a renewed mandate in April. Though they are likely well aware that this is going to anger certain groups those happen to be groups – such as the SGEU – that do not like them anyway. So we have a plan to overhaul how licensing laws work, privatize some stores and introduce new stores to other areas. I can understand why they government wants to privatize these locations.
The 40 stores that are to be sold off are not exactly the crown jewels of the SLGA. Most are in smaller communities – such as Watson or Indian Head – and even the stores in Saskatoon and Regina are far from the go-to place for buying alcohol in their respective towns. Market Mall, for example, can feel like Saskatoon’s forgotten mall unless you’re looking for hearing aid service, and its proximity to 8th Street means most people are going to go to the much larger nearby location a former roommate once dubbed the “Liquor Church.” There are market opportunities in the mix – I’m sure our neighbours in Melville and Canora could make a store profitable – but looking at the list of stores on the docket, I couldn’t help but think if one was compiling a list of the forty least profitable liquor stores in the province, it probably wouldn’t look very different from the one provided. It also makes me wonder if the stores in healthy markets might need major upgrades or renovations in the near future, though I haven’t been able to do an in depth inspection of the province’s liquor stores so I could be wrong about that.
The list of stores makes one wonder how much of the SGEU’s claims of lost profits will remain true. If there is a liquor store in the province that is losing money, it’s on that list somewhere, and none of those locations are going to be among the stores that are providing the government the best bang for their buck. In many cases I’m not sure why a private company would want to buy – a private company selling alcohol in Lloydminster is just going to go across the border to Alberta – and the majority of locations seem to just be using the changes in regulations as an excuse to get out of markets that the government doesn’t have that much interest in serving.
The plan for new liquor stores is somewhat more curious. The idea is to put stores in “under-served” areas, which means letting people open up in towns that have only recently even allowed liquor sales, like Dalmeny, or expanding locations in Saskatchewan’s cities. Yorkton would be in the latter category, listed as a potential candidate for a new, privately run location. I’m not sure that Yorkton actually is under-served for alcohol at the moment – the store has varieties that friends elsewhere say are difficult to find, and I’ve never found it inconveniently busy – but we are among the towns on the list. While the stores being sold might be there to get the government out of the province’s less lucrative markets, the new locations are frequently head-scratchers, possibly decided purely by numbers rather than actually examining the community. I doubt that a sleepy town full of Mennonites, like Osler, is going to be highly lucrative for alcohol sales. Even fans of alcohol would probably go to a nearby town like Martinsville in order to escape the watchful eye of their neighbours.
But the government’s stance on staying out of liquor store expansion is well known, they’ve long stated they want to spend infrastructure dollars on things like hospitals and schools – they’re much more interested in feel-good builds rather than building liquor stores.
There are other things in the changed laws that make sense no matter where you want to buy your drinks. Letting everyone have the same rules for hours, pricing and store design would make the government locations more competitive, if requiring extensive upgrades. The giant beer coolers of the current private stores would be more than welcome anywhere they’re established, as they are a huge competitive advantage on a hot summer day, so bring them to government-run locations. Also, by normalizing the way liquor sales are handled, it takes out a lot of the administrative headaches inherent in a multi-tier system. One rule for everyone is simpler, more effective and easier to administer.
We can argue all we want about whether or not the government should be in alcohol sales, and we effectively have all winter to do it in the lead up to the next provincial election. There will be plenty of opportunity to discuss whether or not the new rules or move towards private sales is a good move in that time. But, if we’re talking about profits overall, it’s more than likely that this move is an attempt to off-load some of the less profitable stores.
