Image Credit: Curtis Goodrum / CFJC Today

By Dylana Kneeshaw

SUPPLY CHAIN IMPACTS

With disruption to liquor distribution carrying on, more Kamloops vendors turning to local products

Oct 16, 2025 | 4:42 PM

KAMLOOPS — The ongoing strike action of BC General Employees Union (BCGEU) members has restaurants, liquor stores and anywhere that sells liquor trying to find alternative ways to avoid empty shelves.

In Kamloops, restaurants are noticing a supply drop for certain items but have been able to avoid some menu impacts by leaning on local producers. To keep up with a rise in demand, those craft distilleries have been ramping up deliveries.

Restauranteurs are used to using the word ‘pivot’. It was how they responded to the pandemic, the U.S. tariff threat and, lately, it’s how they’re working around liquor supply disruptions during the BCGEU labour dispute.

“With the wine, we just started ordering more from Privato (Winery in Kamloops) and substitute that as our house wine, and just pivot and just make things work,” explains Karly Parkin, one of the owners of Bold Italian Eatery in Sahali.

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Much of what bars and restaurants would normally be able to buy at liquor stores is in limited supply but Parkin says Bold has put its dollars into local producers and that has limited how much of an impact it has felt.

“We’re having to reach out to our local distilleries (like) Route 1 to get us some vodka, things like that, so that we don’t have to say we’re out of those items,” she notes. “It’s inevitable, this week is looming that a lot of our spirits, we’re just going to be out of.”

Over at Route 1 Distillery, co-owner Joel Irwin says direct deliveries in and around Kamloops have nearly doubled, alongside an uptick in orders from elsewhere in B.C.

“A lot of places from four or five hours out of Kamloops, they can’t get their normal supply of vodka and gin so they came and reached out to us and other distilleries in the area and they’re stocking up for the foreseeable future anyways,” he says.

The liquor supply chain disruption and the labour-related reason behind it isn’t ideal. But for smaller craft distilleries, it has become an opportunity to get products on retail shelves and in the glasses of consumers who may not have had it before.

“People are just calling from all over the place wanting to get stocked up with their vodka and gins just because they also need to run their businesses,” notes Irwin. “They don’t have any product to sell. They’re worried about losing their business in general, so they get to fill with some craft products and everyone else gets to try those things. It’s a win-win for us, and I feel, for the private liquor stores right now, too.”

Restauranteurs who already had plenty of local options on the menu are weathering the change and say the ability to minimize supply disruptions is some added incentive to keep buying nearby.

“Thankfully, we’ve had small pivots to take into account and very few because, again, that local support that we’re doing, which is awesome,” says Parkin.