More than 300 Toronto corner stores can sell alcohol as of Thursday

For alcohol drinkers in Ontario, Thursday is the beginning of a new era — the first day that thousands of convenience stores across the province will be able to sell booze. 

The availability of beer, wine and ready-made cocktails at corner stores is happening faster than initially anticipated. Premier Doug Ford's government first released its strategy to "modernize" the alcohol market last December, but it wasn't supposed to take effect until 2026.

In May, that timeline was accelerated by more than a year — something store operators are welcoming. 

"A lot of people are excited. They're looking at this as a new chapter in the industry," said Terry Yaldo, chair of the Ontario Convenience Stores Association and the owner of a convenience store in Windsor, Ont.

"I would rather experience a shorter timeline and get this rolling and kind of work out the kinks than wait." 

As part of that acceleration, the province will have to pay The Beer Store up to $225 million.

As of Sept. 2, 4,180 convenience stores across the province have been licensed, with 307 of them in Toronto, according to the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO). Yaldo said he expects many of them to be ready to go, as stores have already been receiving their orders from the LCBO.

With thousands of new locations soon selling booze in Ontario, here's what shoppers need to know about how it'll all work.

Just because your local corner store is open all the time, that doesn't mean you can grab a case of beer after midnight. 

No matter how long a store is open, it can only sell alcohol from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., the AGCO says, which is still a longer window than at the LCBO or The Beer Store.

Staff who are selling the alcohol need to be older than 18 and must have completed a training course, the AGCO says. Of course, stores won't be able to sell their new product offerings to people who are under 19 and are required to check identification if someone appears underage. 

At Yaldo's convenience store, he says they'll likely just be asking everyone for identification.

"Because of this new privilege, we want to kind of up our standards," he said. 

Among their offerings, corner stores are required to have a certain percentage of stock made by small producers. For beer, ciders and ready-to-drink cocktails, 20 per cent of what's on the shelves has to be from small businesses, while 10 per cent of wine stocked has to be from small wineries.