ALCB was the same way. First you would walk in past a guy at the door who was allegedly some sort of security. Kids were allowed with their parents so I loved going in. I'd walk taller in there, haha.
Then you would go to the standup desks that had the liquor catalogs in binders. You'd have to rummage through the listings writing down everything. The bottle, brand, type size, price. Anything wrong and they made you do it over. After writing up your list and adding it manually(no calculators and you had to do it) to come to a total you would have to go in one lineup where they have the guy that goes in the back and gets your booze. They would then not hand it to you but just place it behind cashier with your order number. The whole area being railed off to protect it from morons. Places were tighter than fort Knox. Then when it was finally your turn to pay for the booze the cashier would very slowly run it through looking you over and asking if you'd already been by this week.... If your total was wrong and didn't match up with the cashier you'd be asked why and what are you trying to pull. If you added up too much they probably charged you the excess. lol.
The whole procedure would take minimally 20mins and on busy days could be an hour. There was one ALCB store in entire West end. Located at Stony Plain Road and 151st. Everybody knew where it was. Sometimes lineups to get in the place. Accordingly police station was on the same block. lol
It was kind of funny because if you didn't know your math good enough to add up a bunch of numbers you wouldn't be able to buy booze. I guess the minimum requirement of the time is you could do simple addition, be able to write legibly and spell. Haha, now there is no requirement. Just walk in and even paying is optional.
Any goon that wrote Seegrams back then was kicked out of the place. If you couldn't spell Rye they'd just punt you out. hehe Back thar there were standards and stuff.
ps they didn't sell Vodka in large plastic Water Bottles either.