Last year we set up a 2nd private order of Garrison beers to follow on the heels of the successful first one.  We would offer basically everything that Garrison had to offer, and it took a while to get all the orders in.  We had about 2 pallets of beer ordered by customers - the excitement of the first order had waned a bit but we still had lots of interested beer lovers who wanted to get in on it.

The basic process for a private order is as follows: I collect orders on behalf of customers who complete a private order form for the LCBO.  I assemble all the forms and submit to the LCBO.  The LCBO then charges a deposit to the customers and a private order request goes to a brewery.  The brewery ships the beer to Ontario and is then distributed to customers as they pay the remaining price of the beer.

That’s a simple outline, but it takes a lot of time to get everything together.  As this was a larger order, we had more customers that had to complete their order forms.  Around the end of the year, I was able to track down everyone to sign and fax in their order forms to me so I could submit to the LCBO.

There was an important change that the LCBO implemented in between the first order we did in the spring of 2009 and this second order.  With the first order, the LCBO private order form had an area for customers to write in their credit card information.  This made it easy for the LCBO to charge the customer deposit.  When I submitted the forms the first time around, all the credit cards were there.  (Here’s a post about the security procedures I undertook to protect this data). But I was later informed that the LCBO would no longer have credit cards on the forms - presumably to avoid storing numbers when they kept the private orders on file.  So with the second order, I expected the LCBO would contact the customers directly to arrange their deposit payment.  I was wrong.

After I submitted the order to the LCBO, I was informed that is was still my responsibility to collect credit cards for them to charge deposits.  This was unfortunate as it meant I needed to go back to all the customers and get their credit card information - after I had just asked them to sign and fax back their forms.  And asking for credit cards is not as easy as a quick e-mail when personal data security is always important.

So, I quickly created a secure web form that would allow customers to submit their credit cards to me.  After another round of going back to the customers, I was able to collect them all and submit to the LCBO for the deposits.  And once they charged the deposits, the LCBO destroyed the numbers so as to not keep them on file.

But this step wasn’t without its controversy.  On the very day that I received the last credit card number and was ready to drop them off at the LCBO, the private ordering department directly contacted all the customers asking for their credit cards!  This was certainly a bit frustrating as I had spent a few weeks getting all this together after the LCBO told me it was my responsibility.

Further, when the LCBO contacted all the customers they CC’d everyone, exposing all the e-mail addresses of the orderers, much to the frustration of some of the individuals who participated.  And from my standpoint, this revealed all of my private order consumers which was certainly not ideal.  However, I do believe this was a case of unintended error and crossed lines of communication rather than malicious intent.  But, damage was done.

After all this, the LCBO was able to successfully process the deposits and the order is moving forward.  Time could have been saved with a clearer indication that it was still my responsibility to collect the credit card information from customers up front.  This is personal learning for future orders - customers will have to submit this at the beginning, so this added step can be saved.  However, private ordering is proving to be an incredibly time-consuming process - we will see what other unexpected surprises are around the corner.

For those that don’t know, the LCBO makes their decisions for what beers come out in stores quite a long time in advance.  It is released publicly what they are looking for - the LCBO calls them “Product Needs” (PDF) and issues to the trade what beers they would like to release basically a year in advance. It is then up to the agents and breweries to decide what they would like to submit for LCBO consideration.  If the LCBO deems the beers a match to what they are looking for, it comes out in stores.  This is the basic way the LCBO seasonal beer releases are decided, along with other products (not just beers).

This past October was the deadline for the Autumn Ales seasonal release, which will hit the store shelves in September 2010.  The release called for “Products appropriate for Autumn (i.e. Belgian & English styles, Stouts, Porters, Oak aged beers)”.  It also asked for “Single serving format preferred (500 mL)”, a “Proven track record in other markets” and even “award winning”.

Well, I thought to myself, Garrison Imperial I.P.A. (which it is now known) would make a good fit for this! So in conjunction with Brian at Garrison, we completed the LCBO’s requirements for submission - marketing plan, product samples and some pricing and packaging information - and brought everything over to the LCBO for them to mull over.

Fast forward to Christmas Eve, and I received an e-mail from the LCBO stating that Garrison Imperial IPA has been “selected to proceed”.  Evidently on November 25th it was tasted by the LCBO, and on December 24th it was accepted!  Great news indeed, as this means that more beer lovers in Ontario will be able to try this wonderful beer.  Now we enter the great unknown - dealing with the LCBO on a level that isn’t simply a private order.  There are even more detailed forms to complete.  Labelling reviews.  Product tests.  Not sure what else.  But we will certainly find out and you can count on more content on Free Our Beer in the coming months outlining how the process goes.  However, let’s raise a glass to a fine decision made by the LCBO and tasty Garrison Imperial IPA to come (albeit quite a ways off at this point!)

OK, it’s been a few months since my last post about the Garrison private order, when I explained the letterhead issue and how that needed to be resolved to keep the process going.  But what happened after that?  As you’ve seen from the recent posts the beer did in fact make it to Ontario and into the hands of our consumers.

The truth is, I didn’t want to jeopardize anything by highlighting too much while the order was taking place.  I kept my customers in mind - they were the ones who made this order possible and I didn’t want to have any extra delays with the order.  But it’s here now so let’s talk about what happened after we got the letterhead issue sorted out.

First, here’s a funny story about what happened after I submitted the paperwork, letterhead issue aside.  As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, the order documentation I needed to submit was 104 pages.  This was a massive PDF that was about 15 megabytes.  In order to process the order, I obviously needed to get the PDF to the LCBO.

Due to the sensitive nature of the document (it contained customers’ credit card information for a deposit), I wanted to be as secure as possible with the document itself.  I password-protected the PDF and e-mailed it to the LCBO’s order request e-mail address.  Shouldn’t be a problem, I thought, except the e-mail bounced - the address could not accept an attachment that large.

OK, on to another method.  I’m generally a tech-savvy person and didn’t want to resort to printing for mailing or faxing.  Not only would that be wasteful of all the paper but time-consuming as well.  So I put the document onto a web site address where the LCBO could directly download the file from a link.  And to be extra secure, I put another password to access the link.  Again, I was doing this for the security of my customers’ personal data.  One password to access the file and another one to open the document I believed was reasonable, or so I thought.

It wasn’t.  After I submitted the file to the LCBO, I received a curious e-mail from the private ordering department asking me to in the future, submit orders via mail, fax or e-mail.  I responded by saying that I did in fact submit it via e-mail.  I received another e-mail back telling me that the way in which I submitted the order (web download) was “encumbersome [sic] and very time consuming process” and that “for efficiencies” orders should be submitted via mail, fax or e-mail.

I was quite upset about this.  Here I was trying to protect the personal data of my customers and the LCBO gives me grief?  Now this is clearly a case of a regular process being the way that the LCBO is used to and even the slightest variance raises a red flag.  But what does this say about the mentality of the LCBO when having to take an extra step to ensure the protection of customer credit card information is seen as an inconvenience?

I responded back to the LCBO explaining that I did originally attempt to e-mail the document but the mail servers wouldn’t accept the attachment and they might want to look into that.  I continued to explain that the password layers were intended for customer protection and that should be something they could understand.  I didn’t hear back from them about the issue.

I did receive an e-mail later on from the LCBO telling all agents that they would no longer be requiring credit card information on the private order documentation.  I guess I won’t need as many passwords for the next order.

Beer Importing is an ongoing series documenting the process of importing beer through the LCBO.  This particular series documents a private order of Garrison beers from Halifax, Nova Scotia.

From Troy Burtch, an interesting article by Craig Pinhey in the Telegraph-Journal about bringing in different kinds of beer through the system in New Brunswick.

It’s been a little while since the last posting but there has certainly been a lot going on.  This week our private order of Garrison beers were released to consumers.  The LCBO has been e-mailing everyone who ordered with instruction that they can now pick up their Garrison at the LCBO warehouse in downtown Toronto or have it shipped to their local store.

It’s been quite a road to actually have the Garrison in hand.  I’ve been saving some stories of the journey as I wanted to make sure the beer got here.  Stay tuned for some of the tales of getting the Garrison into Ontario.

Today Brick Brewing announced that Labatt Brewing has sued them over trademark issues between Brick’s Red Baron brand and Labatt’s Brava brand.  The announcement certainly raises an eyebrow regarding the conflict of interest that our beer retail network is owned by the major breweries (48.5% Labatt, 48.5% Molson) and their products dominate the network at the same time.

The news release says how Brick paid to participate in a Beer Store lobby display program, and also an additional fee for TBS to sort Red Baron’s bottles (since they are non-industry standard).  In effect Labatt is taking fees with one hand as TBS owner then asking for more with the other hand as a TBS competitor to Brick.

The release also points out something we’ve raised here before, that consumers generally have to ask for Brick by name.  The label wall and general lack of shopping experience creates an environment where consumers can’t browse for beers at TBS, only look at their label on the wall.  This certainly favours beers that consumers already know as they are less likely to try something new when they can’t see it.

It is troubling to think that a brewery needs to watch its back not only from competitors but also the very distribution network that it relies on for its sales.  A suit such as this could cause business hostilities between Labatt and Brick.  Unfortunately in the restricted beer marketplace that we have in Ontario Brick would have very few options to sell elsewhere, so in effect they are stuck with them.

You can discuss this issue on The Bar Towel forum here.

Since the LCBO is a Crown Agency, the salaries of employees that make over $100,000 per year are disclosed as part of Ontario’s Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act.  This act exists to make the public sector “more open and accountable to taxpayers.”

If you’re interested, you can see here how much LCBO employees make to govern our alcohol retail industry.

Here’s a funny story about what I needed to do to ensure that the Garrison private order met with the LCBO’s paperwork policies.

After I submitted the order paperwork, all 104 pages of it, I was contacted by the LCBO’s private ordering department about Garrison’s address.  For background, about three years ago Garrison moved locations in Halifax, from Lady Hammond Road to Marginal Road.  When the order was submitted, it was cross-checked with the LCBO’s internal system which had Garrison in their database already.  However, their database listed Garrison’s old address on Lady Hammond, instead of their present location.

The LCBO told me that in order to have the order processed, they required a letter stating the new address.  That didn’t seem like a big deal.  However, what was incredibly strange was that they required the letter on the letterhead of the old address, not the current address.

This didn’t make a whole lot of sense.  Garrison has been at their current location for over three years.  There wasn’t any letterhead from the old location anymore!  I explained to the LCBO that Garrison indeed is at Marginal Road instead of Lady Hammond, and provided the web site for reference.  Brian Titus, the president of Garrison, even provided a personal letter to the LCBO stating their location.  It was all unacceptable - the LCBO required the old letterhead stating the move.

I concluded that the LCBO just needed something on paper that met with their policy - no matter how legitimate it might be.  So I asked the LCBO: “Could I just PhotoShop the current letterhead to reflect the old address?”  Yes, they said.  So that’s exactly what I did - I edited the current letterhead to read the old address, replaced it on the letter and submitted it.  Accepted without question.

This is a great example of the an organizational policy getting in the way of common sense.  I assume that the intention of the policy is to prevent someone from falsely representing a brewery.  But the obvious falseness of the solution makes the policy unravel.  It’s a bit ridiculous, but just wait, there’s more to come.

Beer Importing is an ongoing series documenting the process of importing beer through the LCBO.  This particular series documents a private order of Garrison beers from Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Nova Scotia has a provincial liquor commission that operates retail stores similar to Ontario, called the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation, or NSLC.  Their stores do a fine job of providing a range of wine, spirits and beer to consumers.  For a province of about 1 million, there isn’t a huge market for specialty products, or so one might think.  But the province has been very forward-thinking to allow for specialty products regardless of the size of their market.

Over five years ago the NSLC implemented the Private Wine and Specialty Store Program, which does just what it says - allow for private stores.  The original objectives of the program was to improve service and selection to consumers and provide an opportunity for small business.  What this program gives residents of Nova Scotia is more choice.  There are still NSLC stores that service the province, but there are also private stores such as Premier Wine and Spirits and Bishop’s Cellar that have opened offering consumers greater selection.  The program has been successful, and the government renewed the program for a second five-year term in 2007.

A recent trip to Premier Wine and Spirits in downtown Halifax demonstrated that no matter how small a market size, when specialty beer selection is permitted niche stores can succeed.  Premier offers a full range of Rogue beers, both their specialty and regular offerings.  North Coast was also available, in both single bottles and six-packs.  Flying Dog was available too, as was a couple of brands of Dieu du Ciel.  With the exception of Rogue Dead Guy Ale, none of these beers are regularly available in Ontario.  I don’t think North Coast has ever seen the insides of the borders of Ontario.

Generally speaking the selection of beer in Ontario does top Nova Scotia, due to the sheer size of this market compared to the Maritimes.  But it is fabulous to see a provincial government allowing private retail along side their own - something that we at Free Our Beer completely support.  The Nova Scotia government still operates all NSLC stores and more importantly, collects taxes on liquor.  But consumers win as they have greater selection, and entrepreneurs win as it is possible to set up specialty stores to satisfy niche markets.  Take note Government of Ontario.