September Closures for Northbrook And Sharbot Lake Beer Stores

Jeff Green | Jul 31, 2025

Over the last two weeks, the inevitable announcements have come.
The last two beer stores in the region will be closing. The Northbrook beer store will close on September 14, it was announced last week, and this Monday (July 28) the Sharbot Lake store was on the latest list of beer store closings in Ontario. It will close on September 28.
The Sydenham Beer Store closed a couple of years ago, over facility issues, and the Westport store closed at the beginning of the year.

There are still Beer Stores in Perth, Kingston and Tweed, but aside from Napanee there will be no Beer Store outlet in either Frontenac or Lennox and Addington County before the leaves start falling this year.
The impact will be felt in the local economies with the loss of employment, but the availability of beer at the Foodland store in Northbrook and Mike Deans Local grocer, as well as in convenience stores and gas stations throughout, will mute the impact on consumers. However, certain brands may not be as easily available as they were before.

LCBO outlets in the region will begin selling 24 and 30 packs shortly, where they have not already been doing so.

The largest headache will be to the beer and alcohol recycling programs, which the Beer Store handled. What this will mean in communities like Sharbot Lake and Northbrook remains to be understood.
According to the LCBO policy manual for licensed convenience and grocery stores, stores such as Mike Dean’s Local Grocer, Sharbot Lake Petrocan and the Northbrook Foodland store, do not have to have recycling programs in place until January 1, 2026.
“Some grocery stores may be exempt until January 1, 2026. They must be located within five (5) kilometers of a TBS [The Beer Store] retail location that was in operation as of September 3, 2024” is the wording in the policy manual.
It is unclear, therefore, what will happen in Northbrook and Sharbot Lake, for the rest of 2025 after the two Beer Stores close,

Gordon Dean, the owner of Mike Dean’s Local Grocer, already operates recycling in two of his stores in other communities. He said that it is preferable for recycling to be managed in locations other than grocery stores.
“Recycled alcohol containers and fresh food do not mix,” he said.

He also said that the compensation offered to retailers who collect the containers, which is 2 cents per container, does not cover all the costs associated with operating the program. Consumers must be paid for the recycling on the spot,” in cash, cheque, or debit rebate” according to the policy manual.

“I also find it interesting that none of the large grocery chain stores have been forced to start accepting recycled alcohol containers, but a small grocer like me does,” he said.

According to reporting in the Toronto Star, very few of the grocery stores in Ontario that are located more than 5 kilometres from a Beer Store outlet, are accepting recycling even though the policy manual says they should be.
Another impact of the closure will be on consumers' ability to access all the brands that the Beer Stores carried, even if the stores were focused on popular brands that are, in the main, available at the retailers who have been allowed into the market.
The impact on craft beer drinkers is not as large, as that was never the focus of the Beer Storein rural communities.

LCBO outlets, which carry a variety of beer brands, as well as wine and spirits, remain plentiful in the region, including corporate stores in Northbrook, Sharbot Lake, Plevna, and Sydenham, and affiliate stores in Cloyne, Kaladar, Godfrey, Harrowsmith, Verona and Inverary.
The Verona LCBO store is also affiliate of The Beer Store, and it accepts empties for members of the Verona community,

The end of the Beer Store, which was set up by the Ford government's moves to open up the market to all retailers, coincides with a decrease in beer sales globally.
The number of craft breweries in Ontario seems to have crested at just under 400, but there have been a number of mergers and some closures over that last few years. The industry has been impacted by rising aluminum prices, and a change in buying patterns.
According to Statistics Canada, the dollar value of beer sold in Ontario is about the same in 2025 as it was in 2019, and given that the inflation rate over that time is well over 20%, the market has effectively shrunk.

Sales of “ciders, coolers, and other refreshment beverages” has almost doubled over that time, but the total value of alcoholic beverages sold in Ontario in 2026 as compared to 2019 is up just over 10%, also under the rate of inflation.■