If You Love Wine in BC Then...

It has come to my attention that the BCGEU will be launching their 'Shop Public' campaign on radio stations and in newspapers around the province. It is costing approximately $200K to get you to shop at BC Liquor Stores.

Regardless of the dollars and cents or social responsibility issues, neither shopping public nor private will encourage the best selection, the best service, the best pricing and the best product knowledge. The only thing that will do this is a truly competitive market.

Let's face it. The public sector employee's fear mongering, and the private sector's insistence that the province has increased financial benefits from privatizing seem to forget the main component in any market- the consumer.

The market in BC should be re-tooled to best serve a number of interests, the first of which is the consumer.

I have been around long enough to know that consumers want the same thing from liquor stores that they want from all other stores they choose to visit. They want the best selection of their favourite products for the best price possible. In addition they want the staff at each of these stores to be courteous, knowledgeable and helpful. I know, this is a blinding glimpse of the obvious.

The second interest that needs to be served comes under the umbrella of social responsibility. Nobody in the industry wants to see anyone, directly or indirectly, harmed by the consumption of alcohol, so lets agree that irresponsible use of this product can have serious negative effects on people and our community in general. Lets also agree that current efforts to curb selling to minors, bootleggers, and those that have had a few too many already are insufficient and need to be improved.

Does the system need to have anything else? Oh yeah...the provincial government relies heavily on the income raised through liquor taxes to pay for all manner of things as tax income goes into general revenue. If there is anything that the BC government has been consistent about, it's that any changes to this system need to be revenue neutral. So the new system would have to protect government revenues.

Well, from my view, not a lot has to be changed. In fact the BCGEU will retain their membership, government can maintain revenue neutrality, social programs can receive greater funding and best of all, the consumer gets better choices, better prices, better service, and more selection than at anytime in the past. All that needs to happen is the following:

1) Government and Private stores pay the same wholesale price. At present, the government pays cost and consigns the product to their stores, whereas private stores pay an average of 60% more for the same product.

2) 2% of all revenues goes to addiction counselling, beds, and those organizations that offer services for people dealing with the effects of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. At present these programs and charities receive funds totalling less than 1/10 of 1% of total revenues.

3) Government stores and private stores that breach the rules of serving are made equally accountable for their actions. At present Private Stores receive fines, and in some cases have been closed, whereas government stores, although having a lower compliance record, have never been fined, reprimanded or closed.

There are plenty of liquor stores in the province of BC, so opening or closing some should be the function of consumer demand and not that of the BCGEU.

Sincerely

Rod Phillips