Sobr Market, which specializes in selling non-alcoholic beverages, has opened its newly-expanded Toronto flagship location.
“Sobr Market began humbly out of our home in Winnipeg with a mission to reduce barriers and make alcohol alternatives more accessible to the community,” said Shane Halliburton, Co-founder & COO, Sobr Market. “We are thrilled to open Canada’s largest non-alcoholic bottle shop in Toronto and fulfill the growing demand for options that promote social connections without sacrifice.”
The 1,600-square-foot store, at 511 Richmond St W, carries more than 500 products from the world’s top brands, making it Canada’s largest non-alcoholic retail destination. The transformed downtown store features two levels with a tasting bar on each floor for customers to sample products before they purchase.
“Education is one of Sobr Market’s fundamental pillars, which is why we designed our Toronto flagship store to be a place where customers can explore the world’s best alcohol-free drinks,” said Taycia Chaplin, CEO, Sobr Market. “Consumers expect non-alcoholic options when they go out, and we are also happy to provide tastings to local bar and restaurant owners who want to add alcohol-free drinks to their menus.”
Chaplin said the concept began first online in 2022 and opened a brick and mortar store at the beginning of last year in Winnipeg. In November of last year, a pop-up location was opened in Toronto.
“It went really well. So we’ve opened our permanent store here,” she said.
“This whole space used to be a cafe and we opened the pop-up shop in the upstairs section of the cafe. Just a small bottle shop. And then the cafe that was here was actually moving. So the space was free and we took over the whole space and renovated it to be the bottle shop.
“We sell any alcohol free products you can think of from non-alcoholic spirits to wine, beer. We have canned cocktails, sparkling teas.”
Sobr Market offers the country’s most extensive selection of alcohol-free drinks and ships nationally at TheSobrMarket.com
“The market is really growing. I think during the pandemic especially, people started thinking about their alcohol consumption and some people decided to quit drinking altogether or cut back. Dry January. These sorts of things come around every year that people do,” said Chaplin. “During that time you started to see a lot of online stores pop up for non-alcoholic bottle shops. There’s a lot of ecommerce retailers.
“So it really is a strong market for brick and mortar retail where people can come in, they can talk to someone, they can get a recommendation, we offer samples of everything so they can come in and try it before they buy it and really make it a more immersive experience.
“It’s a really strong example of where brick and mortar retail is still so important.”
Chaplin said the brand will be looking to expand to more stores in the future – as early as within this year.
“Just seeing the great response we’ve gotten in Toronto, (we’re) wanting to serve customers across the country, we do sell online as well. We have our eye on Vancouver next. There’s quite a good alcohol free market out there, lots of our online customers are over there. Calgary as well. We’re looking West next.”
Citing research, Sobr Market said 41 per cent of consumers participated in Dry January in 2024 or reduced their alcohol intake during the month (source: CGA by NIQ). The global market for no-and-low alcohol products grew from $11 billion in 2022 to $13 billion in 2023 (source: International Wine and Spirits Research). As the category’s popularity increases, 40 per cent of non-alcoholic consumers say the main reason they don’t drink more products is because they are hard to find (source: International Wine and Spirits Research)
“The technology and just the craft of non-alcoholic beverages has come so far in recent years. I think when a lot of people think of non-alcoholic wine they think of grocery store grape juice or vinegar tasting kind of stuff. But the tech has come so far. The people producing the wines, the brewers making the beer, are really serious about the craft and you see these big brands like Heineken or Guinness or Peroni, Stella, the big breweries, they wouldn’t put their name on a product if it wasn’t good,” said Chaplin.
“The fact that all of them are coming out with alcohol-free versions just goes to show how far that tech has progressed. And a lot of craft brewers in Toronto and across the country are all developing alcohol-free versions of their products too. There is some confidence when a brand that has created an alcohol containing product creates a non-alcohol one. You have that confidence because they know what it’s supposed to taste like. So they’re not going to put out something that’s not good. It’s all reassuring. They all taste a lot better than they did years ago.”
Additional Photos from Sobr Market at Waterworks
