An Opening for Private Liquor Stores in Manitoba
The Manitoba government has chosen a very costly way to handle theft.
The above is a picture I took last night of people lining up at a Manitoba government liquor store in Winnipeg. For about 2 years now, the government has had a system in place to allow people in the stores one by one. The reason is that a few years ago, there were a number of gang attacks on the liquor stores. People, typically youths, would enter all at once and steal liquor. Some employees were injured.
So now you get in line and when it’s your turn, you show your ID and the employee checks it against a data base. If you’re clear, you’re allowed in and you’ll find yourself among just a few shoppers.
I would bet that if liquor stores were private, they would choose an alternate means of security. If they didn’t, they would lose customers. The government liquor stores do lose customers. If your time is valuable, the wait could easily add 10 to 30% to your price. It would add 50% to your price if your time is worth $60 an hour, you have to wait 10 minutes, and you’re buying a $20 bottle of wine. You would cut out your marginal trips. Of course, people almost certainly have adjusted by making fewer visits to the liquor store and buying more per visit.
This could well be an opening for privatization. Alberta’s government privatized liquor stores 20 years ago and the evidence suggests that it was a success.
On the one side, we have a concentrated interest group, the government employees, most of whom would oppose such a move. On the other side, we have a dispersed group of customers, many of whom would favor such a move. That has been an equilibrium until now.
But now that the customers are bearing a substantially higher cost each, privatization is more likely.
Or, at least, this economist, raised in Manitoba, can hope.
P.S. And while we’re on the economics, it would be interesting to get data, which I’m sure the Manitoba government has, on the average amount spent per visit. I would bet dollars to doughnuts that it has risen substantially.
The NDP are firmly behind public unions, which detest competition.
Not even the lefty PCs did anything to retract some of the socialist hold over the economy.
Don't expect much to change unless one leaves Canada, as you did.
“ it would be interesting to get data, which I’m sure the Manitoba government has, on the average amount spent per visit. I would bet dollars to doughnuts that it has risen substantially.‘
But leftists would argue that this is a *good* thing, since fewer trips means helping to save the planet…