New Liquor Store brings Boos?

Steve Campbell

Well, it looks like another of the County’s fine institutions is under fire. The venerable LCBO is taking heat from Picton locals for its plans to expand and improve the operation at its current Lake and Main location.
First we need to understand that the LCBO holds a formidable position in the hearts of County people. Way more than the people who sell garbage bag tags and burn permits and issue parking fines. Possibly neck and neck with The Beer Store, which is also upgrading its image and renovating its interior on the other end of town.
Don’t get me wrong. LCBO Corporate has all of the earmarks of great Canadian corporations: piles of bureaucrats who like to keep information all to themselves to justify their jobs, and who come up with bonehead ideas that only other bureaucrats interested in keeping their jobs would even listen to.
Sadly, it’s our local LCBO staff who will inevitably take the heat for decisions that were not ever remotely in their hands. It won’t be safe for them to go out on the street or into a supermarket without being accosted.
Yet, it’s the staff who rakes in the money, and builds loyalty with the customers. Not that you need to build customer loyalty when you’re selling booze. People used to buy it in clear jugs from moonshine stills here in the County (no kidding!) in the middle of the night. So promoting your product requires minimal advertising effort.
Still they serve a great purpose in the County: To distract us from the many ways the government is sucking money out of our pockets.
Anyone who has visited a duty-free shop has a pretty good idea of the tax hit the province builds into the purchase price of booze. But they spend some of that cash on advertising campaigns telling us not to drink it. Even though, if you do drink it, they make even more money when they arrest you for driving with it in your system. It’s pretty much a win/win situation for the government, dollarwise.
The concept of a ‘Liquor Control Board of Ontario’ makes Americans laugh, since they can buy a gallon jug of Carlo Rossi wine at Wal-Mart for $2.95. And really, the only Control they exert is: “If you don’t have more than 20 bucks in your pocket, get lost.” Oh, and they also card people who don’t have white beards like I do.
They could probably stand an upgrade in their image, just like the ‘Brewer’s Retail’ – a name that didn’t directly tell people what they sold. ‘The Beer Store’ leaves little room for doubt.
So perhaps it’s time to consider losing the corporate LCBO image and have some fun! ‘The Liquor Store’ is what most locals call it, but perhaps ‘Booze in a Brown Bag’ might instill a more friendly, non-corporate, atmosphere. Or maybe ‘Rums R Us’ or ‘Ye Olde Grab and Guzzle Shoppe’.
But, in Picton’s case, it isn’t the name that’s a problem. Nearby residents are concerned about ‘streetscape’ and ‘proximity to sidewalks’.
So let’s take these one by one.
Streetscape: Really? Can there be an uglier building than the one that’s there right now? Sure, it’s functional, in its way, being a concrete box filled with booze bottles, with several checkout tills. Not many people linger to absorb the ambience.
The building planners claim they have gone out of their way to reflect the other buildings at the intersection. For example, mimicking the curved facade of the McFarland building on the opposite corner. They could have emulated the vacant lot on the other corner across, by levelling the building, and selling their booze out of the trunks of cars.
The designers also note that they have convinced LCBO to give them leeway in their design, so we do not get a fresh new concrete box – this time with pictures on it!
The property owner has also stepped forward to move the red brick house, which I remember as the McGillivray house, to a new location on the lot, rather than demolish it. Have to say, this seems to go above and beyond the call of duty.
Next: I really don’t see the validity of concerns about positioning in relation to sidewalks and street. Sure, we would lose the lovely 10-ft wide patch of black asphalt that is there now, but it would certainly resolve the absurdity of the current parking issue.
Why early Town Planners would allow a string of parking areas along Lake Street, at one of the town’s major intersections – nearly impossible to get in and out of – is beyond me. Thankfully, they did not put a Tim Horton’s or Wendy’s Drive-Thru on the top floor!
Any nearby resident who does not see that this place needs more parking, and accessible parking, has never looked out their window during tourist season. I do believe that noise may be a concern, but it can’t be worse than living on the most-travelled tourist route in the County.
One realtor expressed concern that visitors might choose to park in the ReMax parking lot across the road, rather than the large, new, easily accessible parking lot in the plan. I don’t think so. Other than the liquor store, this is probably the second or third hardest parking lot to get out of!
It’s important that people speak their concerns to Council. I’ve done that very thing many times. But, in this case, I only see the proposed plan as an improvement to the existing chaos, and a necessary upgrade to a building that was not originally designed for the high volume of traffic – visitors and locals alike – that we have today.
Meanwhile, the bureaucrats at LCBO Corporate have apparently chosen the old Mac’s Milk/M&M Meats location on Main Street for its interim outlet. Also, apparently, they have never visited the Picton LCBO during tourist season.
This is going to create a traffic tie-up of enormous dimensions. This will make the Timmy’s Drive-Thru look like the Daytona Speedway. Add two 5th-Wheelers with trailers and a boat into the parking lot and, I suspect, they’ll need to level the building to drive them out.
But wait! How about an LCBO Drive-Thru? That would move things along!
“Yeah, I’ll have two litre bottles of Appleton’s Special and a 4-pack of Mudslides for the Little Lady.”
“Okay. Would you like a nice County Pinot Noir with that?”
“Yeah, sure. We’re having burgers on the Hibachi tonight, and that would complement the meal nicely.”
“Thanks. Please go to Window One, and have your Photo ID ready.”