The British Columbia Government Employees Union (BCGEU) strike has caused a stir in the province's alcoholic beverage industry. The strike, which began at the start of last month, has affected pubs, bars, nightclubs, restaurants, private liquor stores, craft breweries, wineries, distilleries and import agents throughout the province. On Friday, the province imposed limits on the sale of alcohol in government-run stores. No more than three of the individual items can be purchased per day at liquor stores in British Columbia, although beer purchases are exempt.
Private pubs, bars and liquor stores are expected to start experiencing a significant shortage of alcoholic beverages in the middle of this week due to the BCGEU strike. While pubs and private liquor stores can source beer and wine supplies directly from domestic sources, international sales, including spirits such as vodka and gin, can only be purchased through warehouses in the province. This means that customers will start to see empty shelves as the week progresses due to products that are stuck in warehouses and cannot be replaced at retail outlets. At one of the province's nearly 700 private liquor stores, the Burrard Liquor Store on Vancouver's west side, staff have seen an increase in sales but don't expect shortages to be a problem until mid-week.
At the Angry Otter liquor store on Vancouver's west side, there were some empty places on the shelves on Monday but staff noted that they can buy domestic beer and wine. Spirits such as vodka and gin are a different matter; while there is a domestic distillery sector in British Columbia, it does not have the capacity to provide long-term assistance as a source of spirits due to production limits imposed by the Government of British Columbia. The province and the union have been at an impasse since the beginning of last month and none of the parties has indicated that negotiations are imminent. Tyler Dyck, CEO of Okanagan Spirits Craft Distilleries, noted that there has been an increase in interest in domestically produced spirits but that there has not yet been an avalanche of orders due to buyers waiting for a quick solution to the strike. The BCGEU labor action is forcing government liquor stores to limit their sales and private pubs, bars and liquor stores to source their supplies from domestic sources only. It is making the industry very nervous about the long-term financial consequences since it was just beginning to recover more than two years after the COVID pandemic.
