The Beer Store – Dundas and Lakeview

The «workers» here disappear for minutes at a time while the line grows. The Beer Store is a prime example of the negative results of monopoly. If there isn’t a case study, there should be. Horrible. If I could give no stars, I surely would! Unfortunately, this is my local, so I guess I have to give it one star for being within easy walking distance.

The beer store, and this one in particular is kind of like a leftover of the soviet era in Canada. It’s the only only place to get a full selection of beer, both the franchise in Canada, and near me also.
The staff here are generally nice people but very slow. They seem like they try and be cheery and friendly, but really aren’t in any hurry to get people in and out of the place. I mean, why would they? they get paid well, and it’s not like I’m going to head to the competition.

I didn’t realize that you could have a favourite beer store, but I guess I do, and this one isn’t it. It does what it needs to do, but I’ll admit there are better in the city. It should be pretty simple, you return empties, you select beer, you pay for beer, you leave. And you’re able to do that here, no question. It’s probably the little things that are missing.
There are two queues that appear as soon as you enter the place, one for returns and the other for purchase, fair enough. When I got there, both lines were being dealt with adequately. They were sold out of the beer that I was looking for (does that even happen these days?) and I think that’s part of the problem I have with this particular beer store franchise. The selection seems to be much more limited here than at other beer stores I’ve been to. Their keeping of beer boxes in a cooler shelf also seems to wreak havoc on the box strength. The storage of the beer in a half-​cool-​half-​warm area seemed to weaken my box and ripped the handle at the side, causing the box to fall to the sidewalk and bust bottles inside. Ah, well. No use crying over spilt beer.