The Beer Store: a Canadian treasure

Being my family's official day laborer, I was dispatched today to the Beer Store to recycle some empties. So with my eco-friendly green bag full of clinking bottles, I ventured towards the Beer Store to perform this eco-friendly task.

The Beer Store is an establishment that looks like a giant box located near highways, in parking lots, malls, street intersections and probably schools, day care centers and libraries. I think the only thing that beats the frequency of the Beer Store is Tim Hortons, so my trip probably took a whole minute of walking.

The Beer Store sells beer in quantities needed for the Canadian species, aka "two-fours" or packages or 24. Rolling belts are used to transport beer with various animals pictured on the bottles, such as moose and reindeer. A sign in the store said "get your spring beer gear," and I'm assuming it was referring to the necessities they were selling such as coolers with Canadian flags.

I did my best not to show I was a Beer Store recycling virgin. I knew that this would be a task I would perform over and over in Canada and, this being the closest Beer Store, I needed to conquer the task. I followed directions I was given as if I was facing the Beer Nazi instead of some friendly Canadian dude - take empties out of green bag, put empties in bin, roll bin to end of belt, get money.

I was slightly embarrassed that, in addition to the animal-pictured beers, my bin contained several wine bottles, a Baileys bottle and some wanna-be-beers, such as Bud Light, which was clearly brought to some party by either a non-Canadian or a beer-drinking virgin.

But the Canadian Beer Store dude took all my goodies and I walked away with a loonie and 60 cents, aka $1.60.