Six-pack of beer will rise $3 under B.C. NDP: retailers

I certainly don't agree with all NDP policies, but this one seems reasonable.

What's so wrong about paying people $10/hr? And why should Beer & Wine stores pay 6% less than rural grocery stores for their products? What's wrong with putting all independent retailers on a level playing field?

Hops hypocrisy: beer, wine, liquor and the Campbell record

May 1, 2009
If Gordon Campbell's so worried about the price of alcohol, why did he raise prices by as much as $2 a bottle on April 1st? And why didn't he make sure consumers benefited from the $62 million break he gave to private liquor stores?

The Campbell Liberals have raised the discount on wholesale alcohol purchases given to private liquor stores to 16 per cent. That means private liquor stores pay 16 per cent less for alcohol than the government-run BC Liquor Stores. It's a break worth $62 million.

But none of that has ended up in consumers' pockets. In fact the cost of a case of beer has gone up, not down, after the break.

Let's look at the Victoria market for a 12-pack of Bud (cans). The BC Liquor Stores sell it for $19.95. With the discount, Liquor Depot (Blanshard location) buys Bud for $16.75 and sells it for $25.49 - that's $8.75 more than they pay and $5.50 more than the BC Liquor Store charges.

In fact, not one Victoria private liquor store sells Bud for less than the BC Liquor Store. Logan's sells it for $26.20. Liquor Express sells it for $24.99. Harris Green Liquour sells it for $24.65. Rosie's Holiday Inn sells it for $23.85.

It's not just Bud - the same could be said about other alcohol.

It's no surprise that companies like Liquor Depot are cashing in - the Campbell Liberals' discount gift is padding their profits, not dropping prices.

Liquor Stores Group, which operates Liquor Depot and Liquor Barn in BC and Alberta, recorded a 24 per cent increase in their operating margin between 2007 and 2008. In 2006 they issued a press release thanking the Campbell Liberals for the break saying the break would make them even more profitable. Not a word about a break for consumers.

The NDP plan ensures a level playing between the public liquor stores and the private liquor stores.

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All liquor sales should be private. Alberta has a great system that gives consumers more choice and cheaper prices.
As for minimum wage, very few places pay less than $10 per hour. Most of the jobs that do, are held by high school students. Jobs that would be reduced or disappear with a higher pay scale.

Again, sanook confuses me.

He provides evidence that a 12-pack of Bud costs the consumer more at privately-owned stores than at government stores. No, really?!?!. So a lower purchase price for beer at a government store is an unfair playing field for government stores? No! That is a silly, lazy consumer who can't be bothered to travel a bit farther or to purchase alcohol during the government stores' limited operating hours.

Want the government stores to be competitive? On price, they have the advantage. Just extend hours and add some beer coolers and the privates will have a harder time competing. Then you won't see hotel/bars moving their liquor store next door to a government store, as if they can no longer compete by providing better service then their advantage disappears.

Just when you thought the NDP had run out of things to tax, they've found two more - death and beer.

Yes, these two bombshells rocked the NDP campaign today.

THE NDP DEATH TAX

Recently an NDP candidate surprised all participants at an
all-candidates forum when he directly endorsed the introduction of a new tax on inheritance – sometimes called a “death tax” – if the NDP were elected.

Shockingly, the NDP not only want to increase taxes on you while you’re alive, but they also want to increase taxes on you after you’re gone.

THE NDP BEER TAX

Yesterday the NDP confirmed they will increase costs for private liquor retailers by $155-million over the next three years resulting in an average $3 increase in the price of a six-pack of beer – risking thousands of jobs in over 650 retail stores.

As British Columbians kick back with their friends and family and enjoy the Canucks' playoff run and the arrival of summer, the last thing they need to hear is that the NDP will jack up the price of beer and wine.

While people are worried about their jobs during the global economic downturn, the NDP is trying to find new ways to tax you.

As we approach Election Day, I’d ask you to contrast this news with the over 120 tax cuts made by the BC Liberal government over the last eight years.

Campaign beer brawl: NDP is desperate

By Michael Smyth
05-02-2009
Victoria's Secrets

Thursday's column on private-store beer prices has sparked a virtual bar brawl on the campaign trail:

The Liberals claim the NDP's promise to increase private-liquor-store wholesale costs would trigger beer-price increases (I agree) while the NDP says the private stores would play nice and simply absorb the $155 million in new costs and not pass them on to their customers.

I doubt the New Democrats themselves really believe the private liquor stores would do this. What you are seeing is a desperate sell-job of an ill-conceived policy that's going cost them a lot of votes.

Now the NDP is getting desperate. They issued a news release yesterday that is either grossly inaccurate at best or a blatant lie at worst.

The news release says this: "The Campbell Liberals have raised the discount on wholesale alcohol purchases given to private liquor stores to 16 per cent. That means private liquor stores pay 16 per cent less for alcohol than the government-run BC Liquor Stores."

That is absolutely wrong. Private liquor stores DO NOT pay "16 per cent less for alcohol than the government-run BC Liquor stores." In fact, the private stores pay 16-per-cent less than THE RETAIL PRICE charged to the public at government liquor stores.

The government buys its liquor at MUCH LOWER wholesale prices and adds a huge retail markup of up to 163 per cent on its products.

In other words, the government buys its liquor at much lower wholesale prices than the private stores, not the other way around as the NDP claims in its news release. I have pointed this out to the party, but I have received no response and the news release is still up on the NDP website.

Meanwhile, as many readers of both the column and blog have pointed out, the B.C. liquor business is one of the most politically mobbed-up rackets around.

I pointed out in an earlier posting that the BCGEU, the union that represents workers at government liquor stores, has donated $433,164 to the NDP since 2005 and the president of the NDP, Jeff Fox, is the former director of organizing for the union.

On the flip side: The Alliance of Beverage Licensees of B.C., which represents the private liquor stores, gave $77,947 to the Liberals since 2005 and the organization's executive director, Kim Haakstad, once worked for former Liberal cabient minister Christy Clark as her ministerial assistant.

That doesn't excuse the NDP from putting out false information. I await their correction.

UPDATE: At 2 p.m. today, I received a voice mail from the NDP acknowledging the information in the press release is in fact wrong and apologizing for the "confusion." But the original release has not been corrected and is still up on the party's website.

UPDATE # 2: At 3:24 p.m., the NDP sent out a Twitter message pointing readers to the still-uncorrected news release containing the bogus information.

UPDATE #3: It is 4:45 p.m. and the press release has now been corrected on the web site, with no explanation or acknowledgement of the original misinformation.

· In January 2007 the Campbell Liberals gave private liquor stores a $62 million subsidy. But the price of beer didn’t go down. Instead profits went up. the NDP platform would remove this subsidy, which is part of Campbell’s privatization agenda.

· When the private liquor stores received this increased subsidy, Al Arbuthnot, President of the Alliance of Beverage Licensees of BC said “I think you will see prices come closer in line with the government stores.”

· Liquor Stores Group, which operates Liquor Depot and Liquor Barn in BC and Alberta, recorded a 24 per cent increase in their operating margin between 2007 and 2008. In 2006 they issued a press release thanking the Campbell Liberals for the break saying it would make them more profitable. Not a word about a break for consumers.

· Despite the break, the price of beer and other alcohol remains higher in private liquor stores. Bruce Cran of the Consumers Association of Canada has said that no savings were passed onto consumers "Private stores have to make a profit. The profits come out of the pockets of consumers, so we're paying more because of the private system. And they do have bargains, an odd one or two, but overall, we say we would have been better off under the system that gave us the government liquor stores. “ (CKNW Friday May 1)

· The NDP platform is rolling back the additional discount to private liquor stores to the 2002 level of 10% which ensures a level playing field between the public liquor stores and the private liquor stores.

● The Campbell Liberal record shows that they raised the price of alcohol in 2009, 2008, 2006 and 2003. The gas tax is also adding to the consumer cost of beer.

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Ryland... didnt you read Micheal Smyth's article... that stupid NDP crap was proven false... (from the article that you should read):

"That is absolutely wrong. Private liquor stores DO NOT pay "16 per cent less for alcohol than the government-run BC Liquor stores." In fact, the private stores pay 16-per-cent less than THE RETAIL PRICE charged to the public at government liquor stores.

The government buys its liquor at MUCH LOWER wholesale prices and adds a huge retail markup of up to 163 per cent on its products.

In other words, the government buys its liquor at much lower wholesale prices than the private stores, not the other way around as the NDP claims in its news release. I have pointed this out to the party, but I have received no response and the news release is still up on the NDP website."

where in what I posted did I state that "private liquor stores pay 16 percent less for alcohol than the government run liquor stores"

??

I read your post.. maybe you should read mine.

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The supposed $62million subsidy is the "16% discount"... perhaps you should do some research into the issue before posting NDP propaganda.