Monday, December 27/2010

The Christmas sales continue at the supermarkets until New Year's Eve, with the biggest discounts being on liquor - an unusual phenomenon for Canadians considering that Canadian liquor stores regard five percent as a massive discount. Obviously the attitude is quite different here, as is the tax structure Clearly one should buy a three month supply at once, but it's a bit difficult to calculate.

The attitude to alcohol is different in other respects as well. No lingering Puritanism here. Liquor as well as beer and wine are available in small corner shops as well as supermarkets. Separate stores are uncommon and would only exist for specialty products such as higher end whiskies. Age of access doesn't seem to be a critical factor either - nor does this lead to much interest in the liquor section of the supermarket on the part of teenagers. Thus J, waiting outside the Smart discount store for me, spots a boy of about nine emerging carrying a bottle of vodka out to the car where his mother is waiting with the baby, with as little concern on all parts as if he had been sent in for a loaf of bread or a bottle of milk.