Spare a thought for people who forage for empty beer bottles and cash them in for a few much-needed bucks.

Before the year is over, they’ll have a lot harder time trading their empties for coin, due to the Beer Store’s plan to close 10 retail outlets in Toronto.

We’ve all seen people who rummage in recycling bins and scour the city for empties, if not on their rounds, then at the side counter for bottle returns at your local retail outlet.

Nobody does it because it’s fun or lucrative. But that little bit of money is surely a lot bigger deal to the folks cashing in the empties than their value to the people who tossed the bottles.

I’m not a Beer Store regular, so it wasn’t on my radar until I got a note from Phil Nazar, who observed that “over the past number of years, I have noticed a number of beer store closings or soon-to-be closings (in) the east end and east downtown.”

He listed several locations, including Logan Avenue and Gerrard Street, Greenwood and Danforth Avenues and Queen and Leslie Streets that have already closed, and said stores at Gerrard and Ontario Streets and River and Queen Streets are scheduled for closure.

“That leaves a huge swath east of Yonge (Street) in a beer desert. I think less about access to beer (and) more about the many people who make a big habit of recycling, by foot or by bike.

“These are usually low-income people who supplement their income with the unglamorous work of finding and returning bottles. The closing and imminent closing of these stores all in the east-of-downtown area makes the recycling effort more difficult.”

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My colleague Josh Rubin wrote last month about the Beer Store’s financial challenges since beer sales in grocery stores began. By the end of 2020, beer will be available in 450 grocery stores across the province.

Its share of the Ontario retail market shrunk in 2019 to 63 per cent, from 90 per cent before grocery store sales, prompting a $13.1 million cash shortfall. And with the Doug Ford government threatening to allow beer in corner stores, it won’t rebound.

So it’s no surprise the Beer Store is reducing its retail footprint. But in some parts of the city, it’ll make it much harder for the poor soul who fills a trash bag with bottles and cans to drag it to an outlet and cash them in.

STATUS: Beer Store spokesperson Bill Walker emailed to confirm that 10 stores will close across the city this year, noting its leases at those locations are expiring and that no employees will be laid off. “The 2019 cash shortfall at the Beer Store is a direct result of the opening of beer sales in 450 grocery stores across Ontario and of the continued uncertainty surrounding the Beer Store’s current 10-year operating agreement with the Province, which was signed in 2015 and would be costly to terminate,” he said. I copied and pasted Nazar’s note to me into the email I sent to Walker, which raised the issue of fewer stores as it relates to bottle returns. He didn’t address it in his reply, so it doesn’t seem to be a problem for the Beer Store.

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