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How is Windsor Eats preparing for a possible LCBO strike? · Kvetch & Release

• 0:00
  Well, if there's a strike that happens at the LCBO, it'll be happening
• 0:04
  at one minute after midnight tomorrow, early tomorrow morning. I suppose you could
• 0:10
  look late tonight and it would have big impacts. If a tent of a
• 0:14
  deal is not reached, about ten thousand workers at the LCBO could be walking
• 0:17
  off the job. They would be closed for fourteen days, and if the
• 0:21
  strike continues after that, they'd be opening thirty stores three days a week with
• 0:25
  limited hours across the province. It would have some big impacts for people who
• 0:29
  are looking to be buying spirits. They say though, that businesses are still
• 0:33
  going to be able to replace their orders, but they will be delays.
• 0:36
  Consumers are going to be able to order online and have it delivered for free,
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  but again expect there to be delays. It's going to be interesting if
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  it happens. As we know right now, the most recent news is that
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  we've heard from OPSU, the Ontario Public Service Employers Union, saying that the
• 0:51
  two sides remain far apart before this tentative strike that could be occur and joining
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  me right now to discuss us as a business owner who would undoubtedly be impacted
• 1:03
  in one form or another. Win's ther Eats co owner Adriano totally joins me
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  right now. Hey, Adriana, ty you Dan Jones. Hey, I'm
• 1:10
  doing well, probably better than you, I guess. I mean that can
• 1:15
  always be said though, So hey, have you have you stoked up?
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  Do you have a supply at your place? We do have a supply of
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  like our main products, so I mean, tequila is the most that we
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  go through at our display or at our place at the food hall. So
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  we definitely have several cases stocked up just in case, because you never known.
• 1:38
  Plus is always good just to have on hand. But I'm actually,
• 1:44
  as soon as this interview is done, I'm telling you to be heading out
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  and buying some more. Adriana, what do you mean you're going to be
• 1:49
  going to the LCB on now? Well, I kind of forgot it was
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  July fourth today, and so you called asking for this interview. So well,
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  if if anyone is able to get a you know, couple drinks at
• 2:00
  windsor It's you're welcome. I suppose that I'm part of the reason why that's
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  going to be some extras there? Are you nervous about heading out to place
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  an order? I mean, i'd imagine that you're going to be placing a
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  bigger order than you know, the average consumer. Are you worried about getting
• 2:13
  some like side eyes at the store there as you're pushing your cart through the
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  store. No, no, I mean, and that's probably why wasn't I
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  wasn't too worried about it. Off the bat number one. As long as
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  we have our tequila and our quantro, we're pretty good. But we place
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  our orders normally. I don't know if people many people know this, but
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  there's an LGBO depot and your Genie which is always kind of empty and never
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  a line up there, and we place our order there and pick everything up,
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  which I did earlier today, but knowing and being reminded that that they
• 2:51
  won't be available tomorrow, I'm going to be heading there again just to get
• 2:54
  some more. So, I mean, I'm fortunate that way that that you
• 3:00
  know, I was able to place my order beforehand, and that it shouldn't
• 3:05
  be too busy there. They may be busy, but it shouldn't be too
• 3:07
  busy for me to be able to pick up well, hopefully not. I'm
• 3:13
  just saying this to make myself feel better. Yeah, it really does feel
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  like that you're just you're convincing an audience of one right now. Listen,
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  if there is a strike, of course, nobody wants to see a strike.
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  It would probably mean that you're going to have more people showing up at
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  your business. That wouldn't necessarily be the worst thing. No, I mean,
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  you hate to say that, right because you never want to see people,
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  you know, being out of work and and getting you know, a
• 3:38
  drastically reduced pay while they're while they're on strike pay. But even for us,
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  with our model as well, a lot of what we do is locally
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  based. So you know, all our beer is either local or Ontario base,
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  which we get directly from the breweries. A lot of our other products,
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  whether it be you know, like a Wiser or you know, Wolfhead
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  whiskeys, or local vodkas or local gins, we try to source as much
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  of those products as possible locally. So and even I mean, we were
• 4:14
  not even going to get into wine, which we have so many great local
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  wineries, so that really helps kind of ease things for us. We know
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  not a lot of people do that or can do that, but that's been
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  our mandate since we you know, we we've started, and what we've always
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  done is promoting local and we kept it going with the products at our space,
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  so that that kind of helps ease the pain a little bit. It's
• 4:35
  interesting how your business model actually helped to mitigate the impact of this potential strike.
• 4:42
  You're ready for it, no, absolutely, and that's probably why I
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  seem a little more a little more relaxed. I mean that being said,
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  if I didn't have as much tequila on him that we do to you know,
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  getting ready for this, I would probably be a little bit more panicked.
• 4:59
  And we'll see how long strike goes and how that that impacts our stock.
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  And you know what they say, they're going to be offering free deliveries
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  by by you know, purchasing online through their wholesale portal, but there may
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  be delays, so you know, there's always pickups when things are rolled out
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  for the first time. So we'll see how that goes. But as of
• 5:19
  right now, I'm not panicking too much, and I'm trying to remain complex.
• 5:24
  It's something that's out of my hands, and I mean, you adjust,
• 5:28
  I guess and and and adapt. As long as you were you know,
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  you're ready to be able to do that well. I'm glad you're not
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  panicking, even though you're you know, starting your happy hour in just what
• 5:39
  an hour or so? Yeah, about an hour and fifteen minutes. How
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  much is left a little bit of our doors and we'll see if there's a
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  mass rush of people that deplete our stocks right away, then then you know,
• 5:50
  maybe i'd be panicking. Or even if we had a larger scale event
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  happening, like if this strike was happening during Carousel of Nations, I'd definitely
• 6:01
  be a bit more panicked and worried, just because we went through probably about
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  fifty cases if not more, of tequila during the six days. So I
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  mean, if it was happening during a large scale event like that, I'd
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  be a bit worried. We had we do have one coming up later in
• 6:23
  July, near the end of July that if the strike continues, maybe I'll
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  be a bit more worried. But as of right now, I'm just you
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  know, it's out of my hands. I want to stress about it,
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  and I'm just trying to prepare as much as possible. Well, it's good,
• 6:36
  keep that up. I wanted to ask you you got your Friday night
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  Lights pub crawl coming up? Tomorrow. You teased on social media a special
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  stop for the ride. It's not a bar or a restaurant. What could
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  it be. Are you going to tell us here and break some news on
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  air or does it have to wait to be a surprise. Oh it's a
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  secret, and come on, you know the rule. Yeah, I do.
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  I just wanted to see if I pull it out here. Yeah,
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  we do keep it the secret. Just number one. People love the surprise
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  when they're rolling up to a destination, but it also helps with just the
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  safety and our staff keeping everyone safe. So no one's you know, zipping
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  up ahead to get to a space first when you have you know, one
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  hundred plus people pulling up to a stop at at the same time. Some
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  people want to get ahead so they can grab a seat or a drink as
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  quickly as possible. So by keeping it secret, we keep everyone safe that
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  way too. Well, that's that's a good thing. You don't want to
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  you don't want to be promoting things that aren't safe at all. Lastly,
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  though, again, if a strike happens, you've got your bottomless drinks on
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  Sunday, your Sunday sprits. It's like you're designed to be impacted. But
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  yet I'm sure again you're gonna tell me no, I'm not going to be
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  impacted by that one. Well, I've already I've already stopped up. We
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  have several cases of prosecco and apparel ready to go if we deplete it on
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  Sunday, because we're expecting a really busy, busy Sunday brunch with our Sunday
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  Sprits, which is a boozy brunch, but we're also adding a vintage market
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  this Sunday coinciding with brunch, and we have a DJ on hand that plays
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  some great house music to set a vibe. So if it's extremely busy this
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  Sunday, I mean, that's a great thing. And then we'll just we'll
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  figure out a way to adapt with that, hoping that the ordering system has
• 8:22
  worked out any hiccups the few days prior prior to that. But even with
• 8:31
  our we have a Margerite is a Mohitos event coming up at the end of
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  July that we're hoping, you know, things get settled for everyone's sake,
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  you know, the establishments, licensed establishments, employees at the LCBO, and
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  just the general public, that everything are sorted out by then but that hopefully
• 8:48
  by July twenty seventh, it's all sorted. If not, we'll be figuring
• 8:52
  out ways to be able to serve those margarite as the mohitos. I have
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  no doubt that you'll figure out a way to make it happen. And you
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  know, here's to hope, and nobody wants to see a strike. Nobody
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  wants people to be impacted like that. I hope that it doesn't end up
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  impacting your operations. Thank you for joining me to chat today, Adriana,
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  No, thank you very much for the opportunity. John, always a pleasure,
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  have a great one you too. Adriano Tootally is the co owner of
• 9:13
  windsor Eat, talking about how they're preparing for a potential LCBO strike.