Top five things to know about Ontario’s beer revolution

December 2015 is shaping up to be a heckuva month. First, we’re getting a new Star Wars movie. And the ways things are looking, you’ll be able to stop at the supermarket on the way home for a post-movie 6-pack.

Yes, Kathleen Wynne has confirmed what we already knew: that she’s more politically savvy than anyone thought two years ago (Gas plants? What gas plants?), announcing that beer will be available in supermarkets as early as this Christmas.

“The days of the status quo are over and the days of monopoly are done,” Wynne says.

In the spirit of open markets, here’s a primer of what’s to come:

1. Eggs, cereal, and milk in one trip!

You know that panic when you’re finishing up the shopping and you realize you don’t have time to stop for beer on the way home? That ends soon. The government is selling up to 450 licenses for supermarket sales, which means there should eventually be as many private sellers as there currently are beer stores. There will be rules, such as restricted hours, but you’ll also be able to browse the beer aisle, read product descriptions and actually think about your purchase, rather than standing in the Soviet-style Beer Store line to tell the guy behind the counter what to fetch.

2. Local beer will start to get the attention it deserves.

Remember a few years ago when local was the thing? Locally-sourced! The Beer Store never got the memo. The stores (owned by the unholy trinity of Molson-Coors, Anheuser-Busch InBev, and Sapporo) are designed to pump the big brands, while the small suppliers are all but shut out by high fees. That also ends. The government is getting behind the little guy, forcing the Beer Store to allot 20 percent of shelf space and promotional material to small brewers, and reducing the costs to put it on their shelves.

So go local. Everyone knows that’s the best beer anyway.

3. Prices will be steady.

People often criticize the government pricing scheme in place in Ontario, but anyone who’s travelled out west knows that private sales don’t always mean better prices. Under the new regime, supermarkets will be held to the same pricing as the Beer Store and the LCBO. Sadly, this means no doorbuster sales on Harp. But it also means you’re not going to get nailed by picking the wrong outlet.

4. Online sales, delivery and growlers.

If all this wasn’t enough, the LCBO will be upping its game as well, selling growlers (refillable jugs), as well as introducing online sales and delivery. So if you don’t have a car and have been suffering on the bus all these years with a 12-pack freezing your lap, you’ll be able to order from the comfort of your own home.

And try this: Order your beer and pizza at the same time and see who wins.

5. No wine (yet) and 24-packs still a Beer Store thing.

It can’t all be good news, right? Supermarket wine may be in the works down the road, but not yet. And the vaunted two-four, the staple of playoff parties and cottages, will still be the domain of the Beer Store, presumably because without that, nobody would go there any more. So hold your nose if you’re in the market for bulk suds.

With all this, you have to assume the Beer Store’s days are numbered, and that at some point it will become a curious historical footnote, a story to tell our grandchildren about the antiquated days of the early 21^st-Century, when people had to file into a drab room with empty beer bottles on the wall, and give our order to a clerk who would then go into an attached warehouse and find it while the 12 people behind you stood impatiently.

“But that’s crazy!” little Timmy will say. Yes, Timmy. Yes it was.