We stil don't know if Fortinos is going to be selling us wine come the fall.

By Pepper Parr

September 3rd, 2016

BURLINGTON, ON

If it looks too good to be true – it probably isn’t true.

Dang!

Pleasant enough assortment.

There I was getting ready try out the different supermarkets and see what their wine offerings were going to be – the Ministry of Finance did say we were going to be able to buy wine in Supermarkets on October 28th. They provided a list of the supermarkets who were going to be in the wine biz.

Loblaws was on the list. Fortinos is a part of the Loblaws operation – just a different brand name. We wanted to know if Fortinos would be selling wine and we asked this question:

“Can we assume that if a supermarket chain is part of the list of locations that can begin selling wine in October that any location in the chain can sell wine products?”

The response: “That is not correct. I am just in a meeting but let me get you some expanded info.”

Well it turns out it isn’t quite that simple. When we asked for a little more in the way of detail here is what we got back.

“Today’s announcement identified the successful respondents to the Request for Bids (RFB) held by the LCBO for the sale of wine in grocery stores, later this fall. The successful grocers will now move on to the next stage of the process, which is to apply to have their individual store locations inspected and authorized by the Alcohol Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO), and then enter in to the necessary wholesale supply agreements with the LCBO. We will provide further updates about the authorizations and individual store locations once the RFB process is complete in late October.”

I think we are going to be making trips to the LCBO for a while yet.