Booze sales down during pandemic restrictions: NLC
Liquor Expresses selling twice what they normally do since COVID-19 measures put in place
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."
Meanwhile, sales at the roughly 140 Liquor Express locations have been 81 per 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."
Owners of shuttered bars and restaurants can 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 for supply
"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, is warning it may have to stop operating because of a loss 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