A Tall Order: The Stubby Bottle as a Barrier to Entry

2024 marks the 40th anniversary of the retirement of the amber-compact or "stubby" bottle as it became known as the official Canadian beer bottle. This paper focuses on the use of the “stubby” bottle as it is commonly known by Canada’s brewing oligopoly as a non-tariff barrier to trade- first in the 1960s against the larger-scale American brewers and then again in 2002 against local Waterloo brewer, Brick Brewing. The paper contains an account of the consolidation of the Canadian brewing industry beginning in 1930s leading to the creation of the brewing oligopoly we know today as, “The Big Three.” After establishing the rise of the oligopoly, the paper turns to examine how the Big Three use their joint power to create artificial barriers to trade, focusing on the development of the stubby bottle and its adoption as the official recital for Canadian beer for over 20 years. Ultimately it is argued that the stubby bottle succeeds as an informal barrier to trade against the Americans in the 1960s but fails against Ontario craft brewer, Brick Brewing in 2002 for the same reasons: the highly consolidated nature of the Canadian brewing industry and the Big Three’s exclusive control over the means of distribution in Ontario through Brewer’s Warehousing. “A Tall Order,” builds on existing scholarship to explore how Canadian brewers developed, consolidated and then used their joint power to control the Canadian market and how changes in both legal and governmental perspectives over the following four decades lead to the Big Three ultimately having their oligopolistic hold on over the Canadian brewing market loosened by 2002.