Ontario’s Environment Minister Jim Bradley went to a Beer Store yesterday. He was there for another ribbon cutting ceremony. It was to recognize the new role of the Brewers Warehousing and its Beer Stores across Ontario. This Beer Store is now officially Recycling Plus.
Instead of the cooling glass of beer, symbol of the Beer Store for many years, the new store sports a Statue of Liberty with the slogan: Give me your empties, your tired electronics, your muddied paint cans…the contents of your teeming garage (paraphrased from Emma Lazarus, American poet, 1849 to 1887).
Instead of wielding a giant pair of scissors, Jimmy Bradley pushed the first bin of junk to be recycled down the rails of the store. All of this was duly recorded by the news media. The only regret was that the Minister could not then offer the media a cooling beer for all their hard work covering the event. This recycling place does not have any beer.
And that has been our point for years. The stores should either sell beer or be recycling depots. They are lousy retailers and they are destroying Ontario’s beer business. Step two is to get Brewers Warehousing completely out of the beer business. The company is not good at that job. Maybe it has a role in distribution but that is up to the beer companies. They might appreciate the efficiencies of having their products all delivered at the same time but we really should return to a more competitive beer business in Ontario. It is also better for business to ask for the elimination of government price fixing.
Convenience stores and grocery stores need to be free to create their own specials and price cuts on six packs to attract business. All that government should care about is that it gets its due in tax revenues.
We had better admit that this first Beer Store/recycling centre is just a pilot but Babel-on-the-Bay has been advocating getting the Beer Stores out of retail beer sales for many years. There is hope on the horizon.
But one question, if we may, about the new role: Will the employees of these new recycling centres have to wear hazmat outfits?
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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry
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