Promotion of Ontario grape products shows promise
"A new strain of salesmanship and personal intitiative is stirring within the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. Maybe it's a new generation moving up through the ranks, or the new chairman, or the need to sell more and generate revenue during the recession, or all of the above. It's called customer service and it reflects a tacit admission that it's actually okay to actively merchandise alcohol.
Don't change channels. I'm not going soft on my desire to see government withdraw from the retailing of wine in Ontario. But it's only going to happen through the realization that state control" is a mirage, and that there is nothing to fear from allowing citizens the freedom to choose what, where, when and how they wish to buy.
A recent national Gallup poll demonstrates how ineffective state control of alcohol retailing has historically been. It shows 76 per cent of Canadians drink alcohol, the same proportion as 20 years ago and 17 per cent more than 50 years ago. A similar Gallup poll in the United States revealed that only 64 per cent of Americans drink alcohol, and in most states there is no government retailing of alcohol.
It's argued that government stays in the game to keep a hammerlock on the revenues generated by the sale of alcohol. There is as much illusion in this idea as there is in the notion that state control dissuades consumption. The sale of assets and elimination of overhead would provide a dramatic one-shot revenue increase, then governments could still merrily tax as much as they see as socially and fiscally responsible to keep on-going revenues intact (as Ontario Treasurer Floyd Laughren is bound to do in tomorrow's budget).
No, the politicians, especially in still-conservative Ontario, really only fear political reactions to privatization from a portion of the populace that itself feels safer believing the illusions. It's my belief that better service and education provided by the very people who sell alcohol will be the thing that reduces that fear. The social issue isn't how alcohol is bought, it's how it's best used.
Back to some of the hopeful signs that new attitudes are afoot within the LCBO, if hardly rampant as yet. More than 100 stores are revamping to make shopping more enjoyable and merchandising more effective. Recently, the LCBO has begun to sell prime aisle-end display space to help companies promote their brands. Rotating promotions, which often include in-store product sampling, allow national trade organizations to highlight their country's products.
In-store educational programs are definitely in. The Crossroads store in Weston features weekly tastings and seminars on various product themes. Last Saturday at Crossroads, I was one of a series of wine writers invited to talk to customers about wine and help them with selection. The Hazelton Lanes Vintages store has been runnning successful upscale tastings for months now, as have other stores, if not on as regular a basis. The pamphlet racks are filling with brochures designed to explain various types of product and how they can be best enjoyed.
Paterson, with store manager Jim Sharp, has assembled one of the largest selections of ONtario wine in the province, supplementing the regular selection with Vintages items and wies ordered directly from Ontario wineries. He has given them prominent display, and gone to a great deal of work to research information and reviews on each wine presented on point-of-purchase cards. He actively engages, educates and excites his customers. He even keeps a jar of ice-wine grapes in the freezer of the staff refrigerator to help explain how icewine is made.
As a result, more than 70 per cent of the wine he sells is Ontario wine (much of it higher quality, higher-priced VQA product), compared to the province-wide average of 43 per cent. One inexpensive Ontario varietal brand in a magnum bottle outsells all imported white magnums combined, because Paterson uses it as a well-priced lever to move customers into Ontario wine. With Ontario wine as a pillar, he has increased overall store sales during a time when most other stores have seen declines.
Paterson's pro-active salesmanship, which includes some unorthodox procedures for the liquor board at large, are not only tolerated at LCBO headquarters, but praised. "He's done a spectacular job and I applaud Larry's enthusiasm," said Chris Layton, the LCBO's communications director. The accptance of Paterson's efforts may be more overt because it is a central plank of LCBO policy to promote Ontario wine. But it proves that personal initiative works for everybody."
Ed note - see picture above for reaction to this article by Executive VP Larry Gee in the LCBO Employee newspaper of June 1992. All underlining and writing is as received by me from head office. lfw
But the most hopeful sign is growing personal initiative being taken by individual store managers and wine consultants. I ran across a remakable example recently in a small store in Lakefield, just north of Peterborough. Larry Paterson, the store's assistant manager, is very keen on and knowledgeable about Ontario wine; so keen that he has founded a chapter of the Ontario Wine Society in the area, and organized an Ontario wine festival this Saturday at the nearby Viamede Resort and Conference Centre.
