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A thread on old Brewers Retail locations in Northern Ontario.
Unlike the south, most Beer Store locations in the North still have the retro orange signs.
But there’s something more interesting about these stores…
1/
Unlike the south, most Beer Store locations in the North still have the retro orange signs.
But there’s something more interesting about these stores…
1/
We’ll start with the main North Bay store: note it’s not in the main shopping area, but outside of downtown on the old highway, behind, there’s a railway. 2/
Same with nearby Sturgeon Falls… 3/
The New Liskeard store is out of the way, but again, next to the railway. Same in Iroquois Falls. 4/
And all the way over in Kenora and Dryden too… 5/
Yep, until at least the 1970s, Brewers Retail shipped beer bottles direct by rail to their northern Ontario stores. Empties would get shipped out by rail.
As a sole distributor of beer in the province, visibility didn’t matter much. Rail access did. 6/
As a sole distributor of beer in the province, visibility didn’t matter much. Rail access did. 6/
You can still see the rail loading docks at the Nipigon Brewers Retail. 7/
Even where the rails were removed, like in Geraldton and Timmins. 8/
As Brewers Retail also supplies bars, restaurants, hotels, taverns, and the like, many northern stores doubled as local distribution centres. They’d bring a lot of bottles and kegs in weekly. Rail service to remote locations made sense… 9/
… in the south, it was easy to supply stores from centralized distribution centres.
And at the time, there were only a few breweries with a few brands each. It was a different time. /10
And at the time, there were only a few breweries with a few brands each. It was a different time. /10
The central Sudbury store is one of only modern Beer Stores in Northern Ontario. It’s built, though, on the site of an old Brewers Retail store, built next to a removed CPR yard track. 11/
At one time, Brewers Retail was a marvel. Amazing distribution network. Great record of glass bottle reuse.
But today, there’s a lot more variety and selection. With the rise of craft brewers and an increased interest in imported beers, it’s a very different market. 12/12
But today, there’s a lot more variety and selection. With the rise of craft brewers and an increased interest in imported beers, it’s a very different market. 12/12
One more: the Brewers Retail store in Cochrane still has a spur to the Ontario Northland Railway. The 2015 Streetview image (the most recent) shows a boxcar parked right behind the store. 13/12
(I wonder if the spur is used for shipping product up to Moosonee.)
