Three privately owned liquor stores will soon be opening in the province. They will be in Regina and Saskatoon, and I find myself hoping that private liquor stores will soon pop up across the province. The reason is simple, and it comes down to one line in the release on the subject: The stores will be able to stock any product they choose.
This is important, because variety is one of the areas I've found to be extremely lacking in the public stores in the province. I am not a heavy drinker by any means, but I have become fond of various Belgian beers lately, and would like to try more. The Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority (SLGA), by contrast, is not a fan of Belgian beer, which means that their stores are distinctly lacking in that area, and if I want some on hand at home, I've either got to do a special order or travel out of province. It's annoying, and a combination of public and private liquor stores might finally alleviate the issue.
In my case, and in a lot of other cases, there are small markets for specialty brews. Maybe it's something which the SLGA has not had much success trying to capture, since they don't tend to make much of an effort to actually attempt to satisfy a lot of these very niche markets. That's their prerogative as a business, and they know what sells overall in their system. But a private vendor is better suited to adapt to their specific market, and maybe try to bring in drinks which might not play in the larger SLGA system. It might be the case that outside of small pockets in the province, nobody particularly cares for the Belgian beers I prefer. I know even among my group of friends Hoegaarden gets a mix of reactions, with some loving it and others spitting its name in disgust. That's fine, that's why we have plenty of brands, but I find myself wishing that there would be cracks in the provincial monopoly on liquor sales, just so we could find brands and drinks which we might otherwise be unable to sample. It gives us the chance to experiment.
That is really the entire reason why competition exists in most food and beverage. I know each grocery store in this city stocks something I like which none of the others do. It might be a store brand that has pulled something off that is particularly delicious. It might be a certain brand or style of product that, for whatever reason, nobody else sells. In many cases, I don't completely understand why one place stocks the product and others don't, but that doesn't matter. We have multiple stores because each offers something unique, if all the stores were the same there would be no reason to shop around.
And that's why private liquor stores are a good thing, not to replace the SLGA, but to compliment it. It will allow for the chance to experiment, and bring in products that other stores might be unwilling to stock. For the majority of people, SLGA is fine, but competition allows for new stores, new areas, and new products. It also allows people to try to enter arenas where the SLGA is unwilling to tread, selling products that may not play province-wide but will get a small but loyal regular clientele. Personally, I'm excited to see if these private sellers can shake up the liquor market in this province, and encourage the SLGA to start looking at some new product lines and different drinks.
