Pictures allegedly taken at a downtown Toronto LCBO are going absolutely viral on social media this week in light of how hilarious — and timely, given current events — they are.
A shopper perusing the offerings at the Manulife Centre location of the Crown retailer on Bloor Street claims to have spotted some peculiar product tags for one particular brand of wine: the line by Canadian hockey legend Wayne Gretzky.
And they have some very convincing photo evidence to back it up.
The viral post was removed from Reddit Tuesday, though the link still shows the hundreds of comments it racked up.
The once-unanimously beloved Gretzky, as anyone who has been reading the news will know, has fallen out of favour in some camps recently due to his affiliation with Donald Trump, who considers the world-renowned athlete a close friend and “fantastic guy,” as well as a supporter.
As some fans disown Gretzky amid Trump’s economic attack on Canada through tariffs and threats of annexation, it seems based on the images making their rounds on Reddit that someone took it upon themselves to remind consumers eyeing the former player’s wines about his allegiances.
This comes shortly after the LCBO removed U.S. brands from its shelves in a patriotic stand against the new tariffs last week.
“Sad & two-faced. This merlot is as weak as its namesake’s moral fibre,” reads what looks like the official LCBO label for one of Gretzky’s wines, shown in a photo said to have been taken at the 55 Bloor Street store.
“Weak & backstabbery. This Pinot delights with notes of elitism, and affluence. Terry Fox would not have used this swill to put out a fire,” quips another.
A close-up of a product description that a shopper states they truly saw at the 55 Bloor Street LCBO, but that the LCBO claims may be photoshopped.
Photos showing similar explanations under each of the wines from Wayne Gretzky Estates were shared in the initial post, which was cross-posted across subreddits Monday before eventually being removed by moderators due to the original poster “not providing a source for the image… to combat false information.”
And, while the images look incredibly authentic, when asked about them, a spokesperson from the LCBO noted that “these may be photoshopped” before eventually verifying to us that “at this time, we have found no evidence to suggest that any product label was altered in our stores.”
A visit to the store in question on Wednesday showed no evidence of the tags, which actually have a slightly different design than the LCBO’s current badges adorned with maple leaves to designate Canadian products, which Gretzky’s wines are categorized as.
The product tags seen in-store at the 55 Bloor location Wednesday morning are far less exciting than the ones shown in the Reddit post, bolstering the LCBO’s claim that the original images were fake. Either that, or staff quickly removed the offending labels, which could have ostensibly been created by a customer and snuck in.
A staff member on-site also said they had not heard of any tags being swapped by a rogue anti-Gretzky comedian. The store manager additionally clarified over the phone that they are unable to comment on such matters, but did not outright deny the potential stunt, nor sound confused by the question, either.
If it did, in fact, occur, number 99’s wines are back to bearing their usual names, prices and descriptions at this particular LCBO.
And if it didn’t, at least the idea entertained thousands of Redditors who upvoted, commented on and shared the images before they were taken down on Tuesday afternoon.
