Are they shipping it back, storing it, exporting it, using it personally, donating it, destroying it?
Premier Ford has previously said the products will be stored and put back on sale when the U.S. lifts all tariffs.
As @PastTense pointed out, Ontario is holding product in the warehouse and cancelling open orders. The LCBO does close to CAD$10B a year in sales, having the inventory sit on the balance sheet isn’t going to hurt much.
One province (and maybe others will follow) have stopped importing Trump state booze altogether but are continuing to import Harris state booze albeit with tariffs applied to the purchase prices.
Someone’s having one hell of a party.
From what I heard from relatives who work in the business - they have pulled the product off the shelves. It stays off for naw, because after taking it off Februrary then putting it back in a day or so, now pulling in March, they are tired of the yo-yo games.
It will sit in the back of stores, and stock in warehouses is still sitting - no more ship-to-stores. Spirits will keep for quite a while. Wine (and beer) will expire. So they can wait a month or few, decide whether Trump comes to his senses or not permanently - to either put it all back, or if tariffs don’t go away, they may have a “dump” sale or sell it onward to third countries (thus hitting the American sellers with an extra whammy).
Meanwhile, none is being ordered to be shipped across the border from the USA. Jack Daniels is a favourite target because Kentucky voted in Mitch McConnell, who is seen as one of the enablers, but it’s all US products, since most provinces either have government (“crown corporation”) liquor stores - or some just run a government central warehouse to sell to private retailers.
Meanwhile, “check the label and don’t buy USA” is becoming a national sport for all products.
Albeit one with a lot of cheating by retailers, or at least unclear and inconsistently applied rules.
FYI, Jack Daniel’s is made in Tennessee, and the words “Tennessee Whiskey” are quite prominent on every label. Canadians might also disapprove of politicians chosen by the voters of Tennessee, but Mitch McConnell has nothing to do with it.
Er, um, how do you say…some of it is being quietly acquired by high end restaurants via quiet connections. Or not. Who can say?
There’s a lake of stew,
And of whiskey too,
You can paddle all around ’em in a big canoe…
I’m sure there is still some stock in the restaurants. Plus there are rural vendors (where it’s too small for a full government store). Those are private businesses and are not required to remove the stock they have - just won’t be able to order more from the government warehoses. If someone wants to take a road trip to the sticks because JD is better than Crown Royal (or whatever, I don’t drink) then they are welcome to.
The order to remove stock from shelves AIUI only applied to government stores.
I really like the idea of a “liquor warehose”, piping whisky & rye throughout the nation.
I do recall a commercial a while ago where they wanted to distribute Clamato Juice all across the country via pipelines…
My big concern is what will happen to all the Canadian whiskey that is sent to the U.S.? Will they stop selling it here? I really dislike the orange menace, but if he’s responsible for no Canadian Club, that’s really serious. What do experts predict about this part of the tariff wars?
If you guys still want to buy it, no skin off our nose. You will have to pay the markup for the import tariff that is between 0% and a bazillion %, depending on how Trump’s bowel movement went that day.
Tariffs basically create a wall between the two countries, and then wait and see who hurts the most.
The difference is, Trump is imposing tariffs on everything. (“No, really… it starts… this month, …no, next month… hang on…”) Whereas Canada is simply imposing tariffs on a limited selective number of goods coming in from the USA, selected to hurt the USA most while hurting Canada as little as possible. We can also limit or put additional taxes on exports to the USA - again, to do the most relative damage. Adding $100 to northern states’ home electrical bills is a possibility. So is raising the price of oil to select American refineries that have no other feed. Potash - a handy thing for allowing crops to actually grow - 90% of it is supplied by Canada to the USA. How much will farmers pay to get a decent crop? Samsung also makes assorted kitchen appliances, they don’t have to come from the USA.
During Prohibition, there were several reported cases of bootleggers installing pipes underground inside City utility tunnels to move their product around.
Totally off topic, one of the fascinating things I read about D-Day was that the Allies had put together a huge collection of spools of piping (lead and rubber, IIRC). Once they had a bridgehead at Cherbourg, they laid pipe from England and piped gasoline across the channel, making it far simpler than large tankers of gasoline in the channel.
Yeah, ok, but what about my access to a new bottle of Canadian Club? It’s made in Canada, so is it just going to be more expensive now, or will it be held back? I mean, granted, national and international current politics are a mess but now they’re messing with my C.C. Now that’s serious.
What happens with Canadian Club in the USA is up to the Americans. (AIUI still made in Ontario).
The problem the other way is that most provinces have centralized liquor distribution, and one entity per province is responsible for all orders. it is trivial to stop importing American brands - the provincial entities just stop ordering, which can be (has been) accomplished by fiat from their governments. There are no private channels.
I’m not sure how Americans import alcohol but I presume there are few if any centralized authorities, so unless the US Commerce Department (or whoever) orders a ban, then shipments will come across the border. They will cost 25% more because a tariff is a sales tax for the end user (technically, the importer) - depending on when the on-again off-again on-again off-again tariffs are on again…
The border people have had experience in years past of stopping alcohol from entering the USA. maybe they’ll be as capable this time, too.