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I went this morning before work, got there at 9:45 and by opening at 10am there was a 20 person line.

I saw a lady grab like 15 bottles of white wine.

Liquor stores crowded as customers grudgingly stock up

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/655286

John Goddard
Staff Reporter

Liquor stores were jammed with mostly unhappy customers today as a province-wide strike looms for midnight tonight.

"Because they have a monopoly they can do this to the public," said Derek Rostant, far back in a line-up at a Queens Quay outlet where, despite the crowds, four counters out of six were open.

Provinces such as Alberta and Quebec show that private retail stores can successfully handle wine sales, he said.

Price was uppermost in the mind of a woman who identified herself only as a bar owner on Ossington Ave.

"If I opened a bar in the United States, a bottle of vodka would cost me five bucks and I'd sell a cocktail for $4.25," she said hotly.

"Here a bottle of vodka costs $35.26 and I still have to sell a cocktail for $4.25, and I have to pay a 10 per cent liquor tax and GST, and I have to go through all these hoops for licensing."

Cars were circling for his parking spot as Kerim Sursal loaded 50 bottles of wine into his car as quickly as he could.

"Nothing brings Canadians together like shopping for booze," he said ambiguously.

The bottles are for his Aug. 1 wedding, Sursal said. His biggest concern had been to secure a liquor permit. He applied in May and was told to check back in July, he said.

Over several weeks he kept asking and finally got a store manager to help him with one - "A bit of an ordeal," he said.

Marika Pick and Carlie Clough waited in line together with 40 bottles of red and white wines for a TV cooking show they said was in production.

"This supply should last about four weeks," Pick said. "If the strike is still on after that we'll go to Buffalo."

"Or we'll make our own," said Clough.

Nothing could wipe the smile from the face of Allison Marshall as she loaded her trunk with wine for 85 guests at her July 11 wedding.

"We had ordered in some wine but we're concerned we might not get it in time," she said of her and her fiancé Steve Bedarf. "We decided to stock up today with whatever they had on the shelves."

I wish Ontario would privatize like Quebec.