‘It’s going quite well’: Millions of American booze still on sale at N.B. depot

NB Liquor hopes to sell off millions of dollars worth of American alcohol.

It was a busy afternoon at the NB Liquor depot in Salisbury, N.B., on Friday.

Shoppers can purchase American alcohol here months after it was pulled from shelves.

NB Liquor yanked U.S. products after threats of annexation and tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump.

NB Liquor Senior Vice President of Marketing, Category and Communications Sara Wood said close to $5 million in inventory was sent to the depot in March.

At the end of summer there was around $3.4 million left and there’s currently $3.1 million worth still to be sold.

“It’s going quite well,” said Wood. “We had about close to $700,000 in sales, top line sales, over the last few weeks.”

American products are still being sold to bars, restaurants and agency stores around the province, but American booze is no longer on the shelves at corporate stores.

“To be really honest a lot of customers, when we were pulling products it was a coordinated effort with other jurisdictions, but also we saw a sentiment change with our customers,” said Wood. “They were looking for alternate products. So when we pulled the American products we started filling those spaces in our stores with local, Canadian and other international products to meet that customer interest.”

The American alcohol hasn’t been marked down, it’s just being made available for those in search of a personal favourite.

Donna MacDonald and Phyllis Doucet travelled from Prince Edward Island to Salisbury in search of a specific whiskey.

But other than that, they’re both avoiding American products.

“Because of tariffs and Trump and I’d sooner buy Canadian. Anything Canadian I’d sooner buy,” said MacDonald.

Glenn Blowe was visiting friends in the area and came to the store because he was looking for a particular American bourbon.

“Just that one. I don’t mind the fact that there’s no wine, American wines, but I do like bourbon and I kind of miss it,” said Blowe.

Ward said the demand for the return of U.S. spirits, wine and American-made beer really isn’t there.

“We aren’t seeing it at our corporate stores very much,” said Wood. “When we originally pulled the product back in the spring what we were hearing from stores anecdotally was more the other way. ‘It’s good that you are pulling the product.’ ‘What else can I buy?’ ‘What are the alternatives?’”

The majority of the product has a long shelf date, but NB Liquor wants to clear the inventory and sell it to customers in search of it.

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