RED LAKE — The Beer Store in Red Lake will close at the end of the summer.
Locals have until Sept. 28 to continue shopping at, and bringing their returns to, The Beer Store in town.
The next closest location is a roughly-just over 240 kilometre drive to Kenora. There is a full LCBO outlet in Red Lake and an LCBO convenience outlet at Balmertown Food Fair, which will be the only remaining location for returns.
Andrew Novak, the Balmertown Food Fair's grocery manager, said it will be a challenge to manage, not only the anticipated increased demand for liquor, but also the capacity to deal with empties.
“We're not set up as a recycling depot, whereas The Beer Store stores are set up as retail, but also recycling depots,” he said. “They have the infrastructure to be able to take in cans, bottles and everything like that.”
“We currently do accept empties — we have to as a convenience outlet,” Novak continued. “But we send back approximately one pallet of empties every week which is manageable for us, we have the space in the back room for that.”
“Just considering how much they go through at The Beer Store would be potentially quite overwhelming.”
He said that number could be in the area of 15 times higher.
The Beer Store, which is owned by three multinational brewing companies, announced the "difficult decision" to close the Red Lake outlet and 10 others, including the Wawa store, on Monday.
Sioux Lookout also already learned it will be losing its Beer Store in September and Atikokan is loosing its store in August.
“The Beer Store is adapting to changes in the retail market in Ontario. This is an ongoing process and includes making the difficult decision to close some retail locations," The Beer Store's vice president of retail, Ozzie Ahmed, was quoted saying in a media release. "We know this is difficult for customers, employees and the communities where we operate.”
“The Beer Store recognizes the contributions our employees make to the business and in the communities where we operate. All efforts will be made to support employees through this process in alignment with commitments and agreements.”
There are also places to buy liquor in Red Lake and Ear Falls, Novak said.
-With files from Leigh Nunan.
