Loblaws stops selling beer and wine at select Toronto locations

It appears that after getting the long-awaited green light to start selling certain alcoholic beverages in Ontario back in 2015, Loblaws is covertly removing these products from its shelves at some locations, including in Toronto.

Shoppers have started to notice that what used to be the beer and wine aisles at their local outpost of the supermarket chain are now stocked with other items, with no intoxicants to be found anywhere in-store.

After all the fuss about grocery stores selling beer & wine, it appears my local Loblaws has removed their aisle for it.

— Andrew (@g026r) June 9, 2023

In the bustling comments section of a recent social media post on the topic, people said they were able to verify with an employee that their store was no longer carrying booze, allegedly due to "too many problems with theft and incidents."

Many offered first-hand accounts of witnessing alcohol theft from specific locations, while others speculated that Loblaws also perhaps wasn't able to make enough profit on the drinks to justify selling them.

Upon a visit to the Queen and Portland Loblaws on Friday, blogTO confirmed visually and also with a cashier on-site that beer and wine were no longer being sold there, a move quietly made in February due to "nuisance" issues.

The Loblaws location near me has removed all the beer and wine from their shelves. Very interesting....

— meganfluevog (@meganfluevog) February 16, 2023

Loblaws unfortunately did not provide any details such as why this decision was made and how many stores have been impacted by the time of publication.

Based on anecdotal reports on Twitter and Reddit, multiple locations of Loblaws and other retailers owned by Loblaw Companies Ltd. that used to carry alcohol now no longer do, including a Real Canadian Superstore in Scarborough and the Loblaws at Empress Walk.