Protests are pouring in! Hundreds of bars and liquor stores across US and Canada are dumping Russian vodka in show of solidarity with Ukraine

Daily Mail UK ^ | Feburary 26, 2022 | Alastair Talbot For Dailymail.Com

[Morgana]

The protests are pouring in.

Hundreds of liquor stores and bars across the U.S. and Canada are removing Russian vodka and other Russian-made alcoholic beverages from their shelves in protest of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

After weeks of warnings from Western leaders, Russia unleashed a three-pronged assault of Ukraine from the north, east and south on Thursday, in an attack that threatened to upend Europe's post-Cold War order.

Liquor stores in the provinces of Manitoba and Newfoundland said they were removing Russian spirits, while Ontario, Canada's most populous province, also directed the Liquor Control Board Of Ontario to withdraw all Russian products. Meanwhile, in the U.S., videos circulated on social media of bars and liquor stores emptying their Russian vodka and removing bottles from their shelves in a show of solidarity with Ukraine.

'Ontario joins Canada's allies in condemning the Russian government's act of aggression against the Ukrainian people and we strongly support the federal government's efforts to sanction the Russian government,' Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy said in a statement.

'The people of Ontario will always stand against tyranny and oppression.'

More than 700 stores across the province will remove Russian-imported products, which include Stoli Vodka, Russian Standard Original Vodka, Beluga Noble Russian Vodka, Karkov Vodka and Zyr Vodka. Smirnoff, while founded in Moscow, is owned and produced by U.K. company Diageo.

Canada imported C$4.8 million (US$3.78 million) worth of alcoholic beverages from Russia in 2021, according to Statistics Canada (Statscan) data. That is down 23.8 percent from C$6.3 million in 2020. Vodka is the second most popular spirit among Canadian consumers after whiskey, Statscan said.

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[Allegra]

..stuff they’ve already bought and paid for..

Yep. That’s what makes it so stupid.

If it were canceling future auto-ship type orders directly from Russia, I could see the point. But this is all just for show. The only people it hurts are the ones who bought the Russian products for resale.

[lodi90]

Very interesting story. It gets at the visceral disgust people at the Putinist invasion. I’ve been thinking about WW2. I wasn’t alive then but I am starting to see esimilarities. The product boycotts, worldwide alliance against the Russian invaders, etc. Soon we’ll be seeing long lines of surrendering invaders like we saw at the end of WW2.

[Allegra]

Nancy probably drinks Ivanabitch since it’s named for her. Her supply is safe. It’s from The Netherlands..

https://vodkabuzz.com/vodkas/ivanabitch/

[Svartalfiar]

If they're actually doing things that way, then THEY are the ones who should be boycotted.

I would guess most bars aren't actually dumping this. Liquor is expensive, and is their main money-maker. A $10-30 bottle (at cost) is 20-40 shots, at probably $2-3 per shot. So you make ~10x revenue on these bottles. You can afford to lose a couple of them, but dumping 10, 20, 50 bottles? That's a pretty big hit to the bottom line, over something most people won't care about (or even remember) in a month or two. That many people don't care/know about now. This isn't bad/expired stock they can send back to the distributer for a credit. Many bars are already hurting from the forced shutdowns, they aren't gonna be tossing $$ out the window if they can help it. Pull it off the shelf/menu for solidarity, then put it back out and sell it later. MAAYBE stop offering Russian products after that, but it's really more of a demand thing than a anti-Russia thing. If people want it, bars will supply it.