Province Unveils Rules for Liquor in BC Grocery Stores

The provincial government is preparing to lift the five kilometre rule for liquor stores in the province and has announced a lottery process for businesses.

The rule will be lifted on April 1^st, 2015 and the lottery will allow liquor stores in the province to have an opportunity to enter the queue for relocations, moves to other communities or into grocery stores. From February 27^th until March 27^th, 2015, interested liquor stores will have a four week window to apply for relocation. All applications received during this period will be placed in a lottery and drawn at random.

Artist rendering of a possible two-part grocery model in B.C. (Photo Credit: Government Handout)

The lottery system has been set up to ensure fairness, especially if more than one liquor store wants to relocate its licence within the same one kilometre radius of another store.

“For example, if there are two liquor stores in Prince George and one in Vancouver who all want to relocate their licence to a new location in Kelowna - into a grocery store or otherwise - the lottery system will determine who is first in line, because the area where one chooses to relocate may affect where the others are able to move,” said the province in a release.

Relocation forms will be available online on this same day for eligible wine stores wanting to move into a grocery store, under either the "store-in-store" or the "100 per cent B.C. wine on shelves" model. Come April 1^st grocery stores will have the opportunity to co-brand with liquor or wine stores as long as they share the same ownership.

Following further consultations with industry, to be eligible to sell liquor under either grocery model, a grocery store must sell at least 70 per cent food-related products. This has been adjusted from the original estimate of 75 per cent. Once liquor store sales are added, at least 50 per cent of sales must continue to be food-related products.

Open Entrance "store-within-a-store" grocery model (Photo Credit B.C. Government)

Liquor stores within grocery stores must be physically separated from the rest of the grocery store with controlled access and separate cash tills.

The province has also released the rules for those grocery stores interested in providing the store within a store model. To be eligible for liquor sales, a grocery store must have a minimum of 10,000 square feet of space, including storage space, and must be primarily engaged in retailing a general line of foods including canned, dry and frozen food, fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh and prepared meats, fish and poultry, dairy products, baked products and snack foods, and non-liquor beverages.

The liquor store within the grocery store must be at least one kilometre away from any other LRS or BC Liquor Store. Distance is measured from the front door of the other liquor store to the front door of the store within the grocery store. Liquor stores within grocery stores must be physically separated from the rest of the grocery store with controlled access and separate cash tills within the liquor store. The same shopping cart will be permitted to move between the grocery and liquor stores.