Restaurants will lose money with Happy Hour: BCRFA
Posted August 25, 2012 12:54 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Earlier this week we told you about a local group that was hoping to bring Happy Hours to local bars, which is technically not allowed in BC.
Right now weekly drink specials are okay, but you can’t have price changes during the day. That rule was put into place to avoid over consumption.
Ian Tostensen with the BC Restaurant Foodservices Association says eateries will lose money if they introduced Happy Hour because they don’t get liquor at a discount, like establishments do in the US.
“They’re buying liquor at wholesale prices — a significant discount to retailers, so they can afford to do that. But in BC right now, I think for the industry to try to do that would just be shooting themselves in the foot,” believes Tostensen.
“I think that people would appreciate, if they could, a break but restaurants and bars can’t afford to do that until the [BC] government decides whether or not they want to affect wholesale pricing.”
Tostensen adds there would be a lot of tight rules if Happy Hour ever went into effect, thanks to our tough drinking and driving laws.
A group called Campaign for Culture says drink price minimums could be put into place just to meet requirements and to help draw people in.
