David Silverman
A year ago, when oil money was still flowing in torrents, the good times in Fort McMurray, Alta., took on a rich new taste. The booziest part of Canada's booziest province wasn't just drinking a lot, it was drinking well.
Gregoire Spirits, a small neighbourhood liquor store, saw a group of American engineers take up residence nearby, and they liked their liquor expensive. They made steady progress through the store's stocks of Patron tequila, Grand Marnier triple sec and Grey Goose vodka, buying a few bottles of each every week.
Then oil prices crashed, projects were cancelled and the Americans went home. Ever since, Gregoire Spirits owner Wojciech Wojtkiewicz has watched his Patron go untouched. He hasn't sold a bottle in months. The Grey Goose isn't moving well, either. Customers are sliding down market to vodka brands such as Alberta Pure.
Many aren't buying at all, largely because they've left - the recession has forced out thousands of workers. Gregoire's sales are down 20 per cent. That means Mr. Wojtkiewicz is now ringing 5,000 fewer transactions through his tills every month.
Call it the Great Western Hangover.
In Alberta and British Columbia, the economic crash hasn't created unemployment numbers as high as those in eastern provinces.
But it has pushed people to flee the West and damaged psyches among those who remain.
The hard-drinking oil, forestry and mining towns of the West have been especially hard hit, and booze sales are just the latest victim.
"The recession's hitting everywhere, but some of the resource-based communities have truly been almost decimated," said Kim Haakstad, executive director of the Alliance of Beverage Licensees of British Columbia.
In Ontario and Quebec, however, retail alcohol sales have grown this year. The Liquor Control Board of Ontario reported 2.3-per-cent growth in sales from April to July; Quebeckers drank 3.5 per cent more booze in the first quarter of 2009 than they did in 2008.
Contrast that with British Columbians, who consumed four-million fewer litres of alcohol so far this year - a 1-per-cent drop, although liquor revenues rose slightly.
Albertans drank slightly more liquor between April and June, but Liquor Stores Income Fund, the largest private retailer in the province, saw same-store sales decline 4.8 per cent in the first half of 2009 (down 1.7 per cent in the second quarter), after seeing a streak of largely uninterrupted 5-per-cent annual sales growth since the mid-1990s.
Blame can be cast on a number of factors. A chilly May long weekend, bouts of bad summer weather and, in Alberta, a hike in liquor taxes - later rescinded - all hurt.
But sales declines have been "sharpest" in places such as Fort McMurray and Port Alberni, the hard-hit Vancouver Island forestry town, said Liquor Stores president Rick Crook.
"That's mainly the result of the population shifts - the main business or businesses have reduced, and people move."
That's notable, because resource-town populations have typically been strong drinkers. In Alberta, Fort McMurray and forestry-heavy Hinton are two of the top three alcohol-consumption spots in the province, imbibing about twice as much per person as Calgary and Edmonton.
What makes the decline in sales particularly surprising is the national trend of cost-conscious drinkers leaving bars for liquor outlets. On Vancouver Island, for example, bar sales are down about 12 per cent, while store sales are up a corresponding amount.
Places that "lose sales all across the board ... are going to be most indicative of a really hard-hit town," said Kurt Pyrch, who serves on several industry associations.
Nathan VanderKlippe