Fredericton — A phone survey by Statistics Atlantic that polled 400 New Brunswickers over the age of 19 has found pretty much all of them to be in favour of beer and wine being sold in convenience stores.
“We were astonished to learn that people really want beer and wine to be available at corner stores,” said Georgia Martin, who helped conduct the survey. “This province could stand to cut back if anything, but no — it appears they want more access to alcohol, more of the time. Very weird.”
Many survey respondents cited the availability of alcohol in neighbouring Quebec and Newfoundland as reasons New Brunswick should step up its game.
“Frenchies and Newfies get all the good shit,” said Mack Murphy of Saint John. “They can go get their smokes, 649 AND jugs of wine at any old shop at all hours of the day or night. Now how is that fair to us?”
We caught up with Brad Brewer of Chipman who was staring wistfully at an NB Liquor store in Devon for some reason.
“Oh yeah, I answered that survey. I said if I could just put my slippers on and head to the Chinese people across the street, I would buy much more beer,” said Brewer. “But nooooo, I gotta get my arse outta bed, put on shoes, and drive all the way to an NB Liquor — and god help ya if it’s already closed for the day. I know there’s lotsa other people like me who would spend more money on more beer if it was easier to get.”
Most said that given the choice of having more beer and wine, or less beer and wine, they would choose the first option hands-down.
“Oh yes,” said Martin. “We called one residence where it sounded as though a house party was underway. We were floored to learn that every single adult in the residence was extremely pro beer-in-convenience-stores. We’re not sure whether the fact that it was 10 p.m. and all NB Liquor locations would have been closed for an hour played into that collective decision or not — but yes, it was unanimous.
“In fact, most of this house party seemed to think our survey was about the fall election, and they each said they’d vote for whichever candidate would bring them some beer, right then and there.”