The number of B.C. grocery stores that end up selling booze will be determined by the marketplace, Justice Minister Suzanne Anton said Tuesday.
Anton was responding to reports that just two Vancouver grocery stores are eligible to carry alcohol under a rule banning new liquor stores from opening within a kilometer of existing ones.
“Licences can be moved and people will make their determination, their own business decision as to where they put the licences,” Anton said.
“The marketplace will figure those things out over the next few years.”
Anton added the government is still nailing down the details of its store-within-a-store model, which it plans to launch in 2015, but will not remove the one-kilometre rule.
She said they haven’t even settled on a definition for what constitutes a grocery store yet, though the province has previously confirmed convenience stores will not be allowed to sell booze.
A Vancouver Sun survey published this week found only two Choices Markets operate at least one kilometre from the nearest liquor store in the City of Vancouver.
More than half of the other stores have three or more liquor stores within their one-kilometre radius, according to the Sun’s calculations.
Those stores would have the option of buying out an existing liquor store, but NDP critic Shane Simpson said that could cost more than $1 million.
Anton said about 20 liquor store licences relocate every year under the current, more restrictive rules.