What if the SAQ brought ITS game to OUR game?

It is now as clear as a white wine with a beautiful pale color, without turbidity: the Société des alcools du Québec operates with the commercial logic of a private company.

What interests our state company is to serve its customers well and bring dividends into the state coffers.

Play any other structuring role in Quebec society? The leaders look at you with downright perplexity if you mention the idea.

They have the advantage of being frank. But we must ask ourselves whether their vision corresponds to the wishes that Quebecers have for their state-owned company.

I look forward to hearing from you on this, dear readers. Because I am one of those who believe that a Crown corporation must go beyond its own objectives to serve the broader objectives of Quebec society.

In short, the SAQ must bring SA game in OUR game, to use the words of Martin St-Louis.

In many situations, we rather have the impression that the SAQ is trying to keep the puck for itself for the benefit of its personal statistics.

See the issue of alcohol-free products. My colleague Stéphanie Bérubé recently reported that the SAQ wants to sell more of them¹. I saw this as good news… until I read the supporting documents from the president and CEO of the state-owned company, Jacques Farcy.

Mr. Farcy never mentions the public health benefits of alcohol-free products. For him, they simply represent a growing market. A market that would partially offset the decrease in sales of alcoholic products at the SAQ (-2.8% in quantity in the last quarter compared to the same period last year).

Nor does Mr. Farcy ever ask himself what the place of the SAQ should be in this market which has largely developed without it and which is therefore already occupied by retailers.

“There is no reason why we should let the rest of the market position itself on this without us taking our share,” he told my colleague.

“We will try to be smarter, more intelligent, more efficient than anyone else,” he added.

The SAQ, which benefits from a state monopoly in several segments of alcohol sales, now wants to enter the unregulated sale of non-alcoholic products with its big boots and compete with the private sector. And too bad if its mission is to “responsibly trade in alcoholic beverages.”

The reflex is revealing. We live in an aging society, increasingly aware of the health risks of alcohol. Result: consumption is decreasing. No need to be rigorous, anti-alcohol and anti-pleasure (I am none of these, I swear!) to judge that this is rather good news.

But far from accepting this downward trend, the SAQ is fighting it. In an interview with my colleague, Mr. Farcy said he wanted to make the “largest possible contribution” to the public treasury this year.

“I think we are capable of returning to stable volumes, or even very slight growth, because 100% of the alcohol sold in Quebec is not sold at the SAQ,” he said.

In short, the SAQ thinks like a private company fighting for its market share.

I came up against this same marketing logic last year when I interviewed Lilli Prud’homme, director of real estate development at the SAQ².

I wanted to discuss urban planning. Several cities, including Victoriaville, have denounced the SAQ’s desire to install its branches on the outskirts rather than in the heart of cities. However, this contradicts Quebec’s new National Architecture and Planning Policy, which aims to limit urban sprawl and revitalize city centres.

Shouldn’t the SAQ lead by example and refrain from rowing against the collective interest?

M^me Prud’homme looked at me as if I had just landed from Mars when I conveyed these concerns to her, which were shared by a wide range of stakeholders, from the Union des municipalités du Québec to the Ordre des urbanistes du Québec and the SAQ union itself. She went on at length to praise the company’s internal software designed to determine the most efficient commercial locations.

“What you have to understand is that the SAQ’s role is not to revitalize city centres,” she finally told me.

“Our commercial mission is to serve the people of Quebec well. Does the SAQ serve the customer well? Everything is based on that,” she added.

The same commercial logic is obviously observed in sales practices. The SAQ does not simply respond to the demand for alcohol; it stimulates it.

Flyers, promotions, tastings: we’re even celebrating Black Friday! Thanks to the Inspire card, the state-owned company knows your tastes and sends you personalized offers. I myself recently took the bait in front of a Nicaraguan rum that has been on my mind for…

No one is suggesting a return to the days of bottles hidden behind counters. But the SAQ is deploying considerable resources to make us buy alcohol. From a strictly commercial point of view, it is in its interest. Is it also in the interests of Quebecers? That is less certain.

The SAQ paid $2.17 billion to the Quebec Treasury last year, including taxes and dividends. The sum is colossal, and we would rather see alcohol money end up in government coffers than elsewhere. However, let’s keep in mind that a company does not get rich by taking money from its citizens’ pockets. Seeking to maximize these payments or to maintain them to the detriment of collective objectives seems to me to be a diversion from the fundamental mission of a government corporation.

1. Read the text “The SAQ wants to sell more non-alcoholic drinks”

2. Read the column “What the SAQ learned (or not) in Victoriaville”