Two Sudbury area Beer Stores close their doors, more across the north to shut next month

CBC

2 days ago

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'We lost two banks and now The Beer Store.. what's next?' asks Azilda local
Image | Azilda Beer store closes
Caption: Customers enter the Azilda Beer Store on Friday. It closed its doors for the last time Sunday night, one of 50 shuttering across the province. (Kayla Guerrette/CBC)
On Sunday night, several more Beer Store locations across Ontario closed their doors for good, including the outlets in the Greater Sudbury communities of Levack and Azilda.
"It's very disappointing. I was a liquor store manager for 38 years. I knew all the former managers at the [Beer Store] in Azilda and they were providing an excellent customer service to the community," said Denis Gaudet, who has lived and worked in Azilda for 30 years.
"We keep loosing businesses in Azilda, we recently lost our local CIBC and Desjardins banks. Now The Beer Store. What's next?"
The Beer Store has announced plans to close 50 stores across the province so far. This comes close on the heels of the Ontario government's long-awaited decision to allow beer and wine to be sold in convenience stores.
The Azilda Beer Store location is in the same plaza as an LCBO store and just around the corner from the Kwik-Way conventience store
"Sales have gone up slightly. Now we expect it to go up more because there was a beer store close by now that store is closing so we hope that sales and more people will come from this town." said owner Indu Saini.
"People are always like 'OMG now we can buy beer at 11 o'clock at night, we can buy at 10 o'clock, so people are happy no one is complaining."
Saini said the strong alcohol sales have helped in the face of an overall drop in sales, she blames on consistent inflation.
More Beer Store locations are scheduled to close this summer, including Iroquois Falls on Aug. 10 and Garson, Powassan and Blind River on Aug. 24.