Booze sales down during pandemic restrictions: NLC

Three weeks into the Newfoundland Liquor Corporation's limited customer access to combat COVID-19, its overall sales are down nearly 20 per cent.

Liquor Expresses selling twice what they normally do since COVID-19 measures put in place

CBC News Posted: Apr 15, 2020 5:30 AM EDT | Last Updated: April 15, 2020

The Newfoundland and Labrador Liquor Corporation says sales are down nearly 20 per cent since restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic started three weeks ago. (Rob Antle/CBC)

The Newfoundland and Labrador Liquor Corporation says overall sales are down nearly 20 per cent three weeks into restricting customer access due to COVID-19.

"All of it is working, in general terms, very, very smoothly," said Bruce Keating, president and CEO of the Crown corporation, on Tuesday.

Keating said customers appreciate the safety precautions: retail stores are closed apart from scheduled pre-ordered pickups, limited to a maximum of two customers inside at a time, with Plexiglas barriers at the cash registers and Q-tips for keypads.

"It exceeds anything that we're aware of that's in place in any other provinces."

He said 23 of NLC's 29 corporate stores are open for these limited operations, but sales over the last three weeks have been at about 50 per cent of budget projections.

Newfoundland Distillery pumping out hand sanitizer for front-line workers

Meanwhile, sales at the roughly 140 Liquor Express locations have been81per cent over budget projections for the past three weeks. They are independently owned and often located inside gas stations or corner stores across the province.

Combined, liquor sales are down nearly 20 per cent.

"The feedback we've gotten is that people have been very responsible, they're following the advice of the chief medical officer. So hopefully we haven't had too many people travelling to cabins and moving around too much."

Some NLC stores are closed while others operate on a strict pickup-only basis during the COVID-19 pandemic. (CBC)

Owners of shuttered bars and restaurantscan return purchases to get their money back "to improve cash flow," Keating said.

"If I take the bars and restaurants out of the picture,that would be the smallest sales channel for us compared to budget, it's still a part of the drop in sales," as expected.

The NLC is also responsible for selling legal cannabis, and Keating said online sales are active although the data on how that's going compared with this time last year is not yet in.

So far, so good forsupply

"We haven't seen any significant impact as of yet on our supply chain," Keating said Tuesday.

He has already said the corporation shifted local production from spirits to more than 400,000 litres of hand sanitizer to help meet that demand.

"The one thing we are monitoring right now is that a large portion of our product would come in by Oceanex into St. John's."

Oceanex, a privately run cargo provider, iswarning it may have to stop operating because of aloss of business due to COVID-19.

Marine Atlantic,which has a federal subsidy and operates between Nova Scotia and Port aux Basques on the island's west coast, has said it could step in if issues arise.

"Our preferred option would be to continue with Oceanex in the way that we have for a long time," Keating said.

With files from On The Go

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Booze sales down during pandemic restrictions: NLC

Liquor Expresses selling twice what they normally do since COVID-19 measures put in place

So far, so good forsupply

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