Empties promises: Ontario grocers may stop selling alcohol rather than take back bottles

With the announcement this week of the closure of 12 more Beer Store locations in Ontario — bringing the total number of closures to almost 80 this year — consumers may need to rely more on convenience stores and grocers for their alcohol purchases.

But some independent grocers say new rules requiring grocery stores that sell alcohol to also accept returns of empty bottles and cans in the new year may force them to go dry.

David LaMantia is a third-generation grocer in Lindsay, Ont., a community in the Kawartha Lakes region northeast of Toronto. His store, LaMantia’s Country Market Fresh, dates back to 1928 . He’s been selling alcohol since 2015 but is planning to get out of the market when the new laws take effect on Jan. 1.

“Are we going to take back empties?” he said to National Post. “No. I mean, the government may have the luxury of not being concerned about food safety for their customers, but we certainly are. So I can’t have contaminated products coming back into my store.”

LaMantia’s point, echoed by others in the industry, is that beer cans and wine bottles don’t generally come back clean. They may contain dregs, cigarette butts and broken glass. Some may have been collected from blue bins or even the side of the road. None of these go well in a grocery store.

“So there’s an opportunity cost,” he said. “I need really two areas. I need an area to receive it initially, when the customer returns these items, and then a place in the backroom storage area … pending it being picked up.”

Gordon Dean, another member of a long-time grocery family, owns and operates five stores in Ontario and Quebec under the name Mike Dean Local Grocer . He’s been collecting empties since November when the law kicked in for his business, but he’s been holding his nose. Sometimes literally.

“I’m not a fan,” he said. “We sell fresh food. We’ve made our careers and our livings in selling fresh groceries, and it really just does not mix with dirty empties in the same building.”

He added: “I ask people, where do you put your empties? Nobody leaves their empties in the kitchen. Everybody puts them in the basement, in the garage. It’s really the same principle in a grocery store.”

Receiving them puts them “in the same building as your croissants being baked and your romaine lettuce being put on display and your your hamburger being ground. There’s just nothing about it that’s that’s appealing or safe, right? It’s just a horrible idea.”

His solution: A separate storage area out of sight in the back. “But it’s still in the same building … I still struggle with that. I’m doing it because the government requires me to do it, (but) I’ve been saying since the start, this is just a bad idea.”

Then there are the bins used to carry the empties away.

“They don’t get washed in the Beer Store’s process of handling returns,” he said. “They don’t consider the food safety aspect at all. These come into our buildings gross and dirty and filled with residual broken glass, residual juices and beer and wine leftovers. I’m a grocer. Keeping things clean is what we start our day with and end our day with; the first thing we look at is cleanliness and sanitation.”

His friends in the business are shy about taking up sales themselves or, like LaMantia, plan to stop in the new year.

“Most of my friends own grocery stores in the province, and at least half of them have … firmly said they’re done, if this actually comes to fruition. They won’t be staying in the beer and wine business. They just aren’t comfortable doing it.”

Another issue is that, with fewer Beer Stores, grocers say they may find themselves picking up the slack on empties. According to its 2024 operational report , The Beer Store that year had 407 locations, down from 424 two years earlier. In the same period, the LCBO added eight locations for a total of 688.

Ontario has mandated The Beer Store keep at least 300 stores open the end of 2025. But the document in question added: “After January 1, 2026, TBS (The Beer Store) shall be entitled to close any retail location as determined by TBS in its sole and absolute discretion.”

Industry groups are pushing back against the requirement to take empties. Gary Sands, senior vice-president at the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers, said one idea is for LCBO stores to step in.

“The last time I checked, they don’t sell food, but they also don’t have to accept empties,” he said. “Why? Why can’t the LCBO, as a government agency, take them back? They don’t have to worry about the food safety issue. We’ve never received an explanation on that.”

Michael Zabaneh, vice-president of sustainability at the Retail Council of Canada, noted that grocery stores are also hampered by higher prices on alcohol — a 10 per cent discount, as opposed to the 15 per cent offered to bars, restaurants and convenience stores.

“Retailers are at a complete disadvantage,” he said, “because convenience stores have a lower costs of goods sold, as does the LCBO, obviously. And grocers, with the higher cost of goods sold, are the only ones required to take back containers.”

He added: “If grocers exit, shoppers will lose the convenience of picking up a sixpack at the grocery store, and face fewer places to buy alcohol. And with The Beer Store winding down, there’ll be less places to return alcohol containers.”

In a statement to National Post, Colin Blachar, director of media at Ontario’s Minister of Finance, said: “ Along with The Beer Store, over 400 grocery stores, LCOs (LCBO Convenience Outlets) and convenience stores currently participate in the ODRP (Ontario Deposit Return Program) with numbers expected to continue to grow over the coming months. This will provide more options to consumers looking to utilize the return system.”

National Post has reached out to The Beer Store for comment.

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