581...Liquor On The Sly

Five finger discounts are up at the LCBO, Ontario's liquor monopoly.

Let those last two words soak in.

Liquor monopoly.

That means if you are a desperate person and you steal from the only game in town re booze you cannot go into that place and that would mean you would have to move elsewhere, like another province or state.

The Liquor Control Board of Ontario says that shrinkage, the industry term for shoplifting, is up revenue wise, close to a million. Six point five mill of booze is unaccounted for in the system. That represents about .18 per cent of the gross for the LCBO. The industry standard for shrinkage last year, outside of the booze biz, was 1 per cent.

Dean Beeby, Canadian Press, reports that 651 thieves were nabbed red handed leaving the store without paying.

WFDS

377...No Liquor Strike In Ontario

Call me cynical but I think that may be, just may be, this whole "we're going to go on strike" routine betwixt the LCBO and the union repping the employees may have been a simple ploy to clear the stores of stale merchandise without eroding profit margins.

E. g. Let's gerrymander a run on everything, including the crap we cannot give away like celery liqueur.

Yes, I am cynical.

WFDS

358...Liquor Stores In Ontario Set To Strike

I live on the border, a 30 minute round trip from the liquor store in La Belle Ville de Gatineau [secteur Hull] so this doesn't really affect me but if you live in the centre of the province and you are friendly with Prince Igor, Jack Daniels and Johnny Walker, you may want to make your way to the Liquor Control Board of Ontario today because tonight, at midnight, they are going to be struck.

The issue, amazingly, is money. More to the point the Union wants less part time, lower paid workers and more full time employees who get more money and more benefits.

If the 6 or 7 thousand workers strike 800 managers will attempt to take up the slack which won't be easy going into this triple holiday [Jean Baptiste, Canada Day, July 4th] period.

WFDS