Booze News: Vancouver Grocery Stores Can Now Sell Wine

Today, the City of Vancouver announced that grocery stores will be permitted to sell wine on shelves. That is, as long as said stores are over 10,000 square feet.

The bylaw amendment follows similar decisions in Richmond, Langley, Abbotsford, White Rock and Coquitlam (yes, the suburbs are years ahead of us when it comes to grocery store vino). But your little neighbourhood grocer won’t be shelving Sauvignon Blanc anytime soon: the bylaw only applies to stores that are over 10,000 square feet.

Here’s the complete list of provincial requirements:

• Grocers must have at least 10,000 square feet of space including storage space
• They must hold a valid provincial wine store licence that permits wine on shelf in grocery stores
• The staff conducting the sale must be least 19 years of age (duh) and possess a valid Serving it Right certificate
• They must have an approved security plan

No word yet on which stores will be the first to roll out the bottles, but our money’s on Save On (they already offer wine at 13 suburban locations). Now we can finally get oat milk, tampons and Malbec in the same place. The essentials.