The Alberta Disadvantage – Alberta Reinforces Socialist Liquor Monopoly

The Alberta Disadvantage – Alberta Reinforces Socialist Liquor Monopoly

 (For many; ok just some like me, but in actuality for all since monopoly inception.) Those who read this blog (me) know that I have reflected on wine once or twice.  I like the mild, drinkable Central European reds, as well as the fine whites that emanate from this region and that compete with just about anything anywhere, in a good year.

Now I see Alberta’s government monopoly has once again appeared to de-list yet another two of the only wines I really liked, from Croatia (and more specifically, Dalmatia).  Oh, sure, you can still get gallons of Australian motor-oil plonk for gallons to the penny (how I hope that, from Sydney to Perth, from Adelaide to Darwin, Australians are buying boxes of Manitoba wine in 4L boxes for $4.99), but choice has once again been reduced by the Alberta government monopoly, liquorconnect.com, or Connect Logistics. 

This continues an ongoing eradication of consumer choice in Alberta, going back to the alleged “privatization” of Alberta liquor stores in the Klein years of the early 90s.  (Perhaps no accident on that one, as Ralph was known to show up half-cocked at 2 a.m. at homeless shelters and throw coins at people and tell them to get jobs while his taxpayer-funded chauffeurs looked on.)   A constantly declining selection has been the hallmark of Alberta's "privatization." I feel like I'm in wine wonderland when I go to other, less corrupt jurisdictions in Canada or the U.S.

Privatization, of course, was a myth, but it is striking how enduring this myth has been.  When Alberta “privatized,” the government kept its complete monopoly by dictating that all liquor sellers had to sell from the government monopoly seller, Connect Logistics.  Connect Logistics got the exclusive monopoly; the government got all the same revenues it always did--but government property could be sold off, at a profit, normally to those with the best Progressive Conservative party connections, as so many at the time observed.  I wonder if party membership and store ownership would be considered just a “coincidence?” Hm. Anyway, in true “privatization” capitalist monopoly totalitarian actuality, this means that there is one book, and one book, alone, that any alcohol seller in Alberta can sell from.  It looks like a big book when a seller shares it with you, but what it doesn’t show is that surely virtually no seller in Alberta would use it all, its contents are incredibly restricted, compared to what other provinces, such as Ontario, can get, and obviously few sellers would even try to stock much of it, anyway, because they’re in the business of small, mom & pops, Biff n’ Jack $4.99 6-pack hole-in-the-wall outlets.  Sellers will tell you frankly that there’s no way they’re bringing in many things that *are* available, even from Connect Logistics, just because you want it, because it is much better business to sell $4.99 6-packs to beggars from behind a steel grate than it is actually to stock a wine someone might *choose.*  It’s supply and demand, and if Big Bear 10% is what sells where the hookers and the schoolkids waiting for the bus stand, that’s what gets ordered.

In provinces like Ontario, of course, you can make your own wine at private shops—you’d sure never find that in Socialist Alberta.  Independent store-owners, entrepreneurs, and businesspeople are prevented by the government from owning such operations because the government couldn’t get their monopoly revenues.  And besides, small business owners??  Pffft.  I remember talking to one guy who ran a tidy, enthusiast wine shop in Calgary (now gone), and he told me how his Progressive Conservative MLA told him, flat-out, no way are we gonna let you make wine on your premises—“your golf tournaments aren’t as good.”  A little Putinesque candor, Alberta-style.

 In Ontario, say, you get stores that are clean and well marked, with professional staff.  The selection is much larger than in Alberta, the vast, vast majority of the time.  The prices are what the prices are—there is none of the constant confusion endemic to Alberta, where much of the store might not even have prices, or price tags.  Staff in Ontario ask for ID, and are even monitored to do so, something I have never, ever, once seen in Alberta.  Not once.  Ever.  That kid who just killed your daughter on the roads tonight?  That’s what’s called “the Alberta advantage.”  Ralph Klein brought it in. The prices are all but the same.  Sometimes, in Ontario, they’re cheaper.  Yes, the provincial sales tax will usually bump prices up, but sometimes not even enough to cover the Alberta disadvantage.  It’s true that, in Alberta, store by store, particular brands will pitch to particular stores, so that you can, say, get some barrel-reject Peller consumers’ blend plonk for $4.99, or Jim-Bob’s All-American Brew for $4.99 a 6-pack, but is that what you wanted, when all your money is going back to the government, just as it always did, anyway?  Now and then, in Ontario, a boutique beer will go a bit on sale.  You’ll think it’s funny what a small sale it is, until you reflect that you will never, ever, as long as you live, see a sale like that in Alberta.

 There are 3 kinds of liquor stores in Alberta—the boutique high-end ones with limited stock for “real” housewives; the mid-range ones—all 7-11-type chains where the owners could buy up massive numbers of locations and set up oligopolies--with decent selection and predictable loss-leaders of atrocious plonk, Australian urine for $7.99, etc.; and hole-in-the-wall 6-pack sellers with bikini posters open through 2 a.m. that are blights on their neighourhoods and crime magnets.  In one of these several years ago, I surveyed the cameras and grates and so on and jokingly asked the taciturn English guy at the till if he’d really ever been robbed before, and he said deadpan: “three times this month.” 

 And the great thing about Alberta is that all *3* varieties of stores can typically be found all on just about every single city block.  Endless choice, without choice.  I think this is what it was like in Soviet Russia.  You could get a bottle of vodka just about anytime, anywhere, depending on your connections.  You maybe couldn’t get what you wanted, but you could get something.  And this is Alberta now.  Choice, without choice, at uncompetitive prices, alongside a studied effort to shut down business, initiative, and entrepreneurship to serve ruling party interests.

 zr