Picking up a few bottles of wine with dinner may get easier now that a major Victoria grocery chain is licensed to sell liquor.
A spokesman for Thrifty Foods has confirmed the chain's location at 3475 Quadra Street has been given a license to start selling liquor.
But company officials say it is too soon to comment on what that could mean for the store.
The store's address is found on the Ministry of Justice’s Liquor Control And Licensing Branch website and is the only Victoria property listed as a “proposed store location.”
If it opens to liquor sales, it will be the first major grocery store on the South Island to do so.
It is unclear whether Thrifty Foods will opt for the “store within a store” model that allows for beer, wine and liquor sales, or if it will stock only B.C. wine on its shelves.
Changes to B.C. liquor laws went into effect last April that meant grocery stores could offer up wine and beer, but it must be sold by designated cashiers who are trained in Serving It Right.
According to the LCLB, stores can qualify for a license if they’re a minimum of 10,000 square feet with at least 70 per cent of sales coming from food products.
Grocery stores can only sell booze as long as there are no other liquor outlets within a one-kilometre radius.
