Pick up some Christmas cheer on your way out of town at The Great Bear

By Allan Bradbury
Staff Writer
abradbury@fortfrances.com

Back in September, the Ontario government made it so convenience stores could sell alcohol products one of the places that opted into alcohol sales in the Fort Frances area is The Great Bear.

The gas station east of Fort Frances is a hot spot for fishermen in the summer gassing up and picking up bait before they take to the lakes.

Katie Stus and her husband bought the gas station about eight years ago and people have asked them to stock beer since they acquired it.

“Local area people have kind of been like ‘you guys need to get beer,’” Stus said. “And we couldn’t. The only other avenue would have been competing for an LCBO agency location which we weren’t going to do because there were none opening. So we were basically waiting until they opened up something like this for people to take advantage of.”

They took the opportunity once it was available.

“It was a very easy process for us to get started,” Stus said. “It was a really easy application process, we basically just filled out all the information needed, paid the application fee which was $500. I think it was within a week we found out we’d been approved.”

After getting approved they had to make sure their staff had the appropriate Smart Serve qualifications to sell alcohol. With the change in who can sell alcohol, there was a shorter, cheaper course added for those selling in convenience stores like The Great Bear rather than serving in restaurants.

The Great Bear can now sell Beer, wine and ready to drink cocktails which makes for a great stop if you’re headed towards the east end of the District for a holiday party, it’s a great place to stop for a bottle of wine to bring to your host’s home.

While they are working through the growing pains of getting inventory in from the LCBO like their wines, ready to drink cocktails and craft beers, most of the beer products they can order right from the Beer Store in Fort Frances.

While many of the fishermen who stop at The Great Bear for bait tend to buy beer and groceries in town before making their way east, they hope that the fishing season can be a big draw for their beer sales. They’re hoping to advertise to their fishing clientele who regularly order bait ahead of their trip and let them order their beer in advance as well.

The store also has a giftware section and they have had some early sales already this season.

“Coming up in December we’ll probably have a store-wide tax free sale, (on giftware)” Stus said. “We have lots of new local items that we’re happy to be selling for other people and they’ve been going quite well.”

There are a few items that are top sellers at The Great Bear.

“Our top sellers at Christmas are Yeti cups, moccasins, and mitts,” she said. “Sweatshirts occasionally, sometimes pajamas. Every year things seem to shift a little bit. If we put rods on sale they’ll sell well but we’re limited with rods what we’re allowed to put them on sale for.”

The best place to find out about The Great Bear’s sales is on their Facebook page where they post about them when they have them.

Beer at The Great Bear is available in singles or by the case and you can pick up a nice bottle of wine if you’re headed out for Christmas dinner.

However you choose to enjoy the holidays, be sure to enjoy responsibly and don’t drink and drive.