B.C. government announces that grocery stores can apply for new licences to sell B.C. wines

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      Justice Minister Suzanne Anton has given grocery chains a holiday gift.

      Today, her ministry announced that food retailers can apply for a limited number of new licences to sell B.C. wines beginning April 1.

      Grocery stores will also be permitted to buy existing wine-only licences from independent wine stores and VQA stores and sell B.C. wines.

      This came a month after the justice ministry had announced that grocery stores could buy licences from private liquor stores starting on April 1 to sell beer and wine.

      Private-liquor-store licences can only go to grocery stores that don't have another liquor store within one kilometre.

      The one-kilometre rule will not apply to the 100-percent B.C.-wine-only licences.

      In each category of licensing, grocery retailers will have to operate a store-within-a-store model with a separate cash register. There will have to be a minimum 10,000 square feet and approximately 75 percent of the focus on food products and services.

      Comments

      1 Comments

      Alex T

      Dec 20, 2014 at 9:26pm

      Why not BC beers? I wonder if it's merely cynicism to think that politicians drink wine but voting schmos drink beer.