Penticton shoppers may be able to purchase wine in a local grocery store before the year is out.
Steve Moriarty, a director with the Overwaitea Food Group, told council Monday that the company has marked the Penticton Save-on-Food outlet for a wine aisle featuring about 900 B.C. wines, which they hope to implement sometime in 2016. Moriarty said they already have wine aisles operating in four of their stores: two in Surrey, one in South Delta and another in Langley.
The wine aisle, he explained, will take up about 1,200 square feet in the store, with the capability to feature up to 1,400 different wines at the height of the season. The reaction to the selection in others stores, Moriarty said, is usually "wow, I never knew this many wines existed."
Moriarty also assured council that Save-on was dedicated to introducing wines "safely, morally and ethically." They have no intention, he said, in catering to high-risk customers looking for alcohol as a replacement for food. Liquor sales will be limited to 100 B.C. produced VQA wines.
Save-On, according to Moriarty, has no intention to sell vodka along with flats of beer or to morph into a liquor store. There would be premium wine selections or unique winery offerings, but no "cheaply-priced intoxicants."
We want to sell wine as a component of a meal, said Moriarty. Moriarty also downplayed the effect on existing private liquor stores. Each of the stores where the Overwaitea Food Group has developed a wine aisle, he said, has a nearby private liquor store, at least within half a kilometre. In at least one case, he said, the private store has experienced significant growth.
"The products we sell are not what they sell in private liquor stores," said Moriarty. VQA wine sales, he continued, account for less than four per cent of sales in private stores, seven per cent in government stores, but will be 100 per cent of their liquor sales.