Steam Whistle Really Needs Your Empties To Save Toronto From A Shortage

You might want to start returning your empties if you’re a Steam Whistle Brewery fan. As Ontario's lockdown keeps residents at home, many beer bottles haven't been returned.  The brewery is now warning of a "rolling shortage" and slowed production of beer this year.According to Steam Whistle's vice president of marketing Tim McLaughlin, the Toronto brewery has already used up a year's worth of new bottles because of the lack of returns. In an email to Narcity, McLaughlin wrote that "The decline has been significant. Initially there was almost no returns coming back into the system.""The challenge is we are still seeing less than half of what we would normally expect in terms of returns, this results in us burning through a new bottle supply that should have lasted us all year in about 2 months."In a statement to The Canadian Press via CP24, McLaughlin also added that there could be "rolling shortages" of beer when the busy season ramps up.The brewery is still struggling to recover from the gap of no returns at The Beer Store from March 18 to April 6.

On April 1, it was announced that select Beer Store distribution centres, as well as locations, would again be accepting empties.

As of May 11, over 300 Beer Store locations have been accepting empty returns. The list of locations is shown on their website. 

The Beer Store plans to have all of their 450 locations open by June, according to a statement that their director of health and safety Jeff Wilcox gave The Canadian Press.

McLaughlin told Narcity that Steam Whistle has seen "increased demand for our Pure Pilsner which is exacerbating the issue.""Combine this with the seasonal spike in beer sales we are anticipating over the next month it could create a situation where there are significant bottle shortages. It is possible we wont be able to fulfill all of the orders we have."But the marketing vice president assures customers that there are plenty of brews, just nothing to package them in!

"The good news is we have lots of beer! We can pivot and produce more cans if necessary, although we do not have an unlimited supply of cans. Our iconic green bottle is our flagship product and the preferred vessel for many Canadian beer drinkers," McLaughlin wrote.

Meanwhile, Steamwhistle is still doing home delivery as a response to COVID-19, according to its website.