The exceptions are for four private retailers in urban HRM offering beer, wine, and spirits, and, in rural areas where there is not an NSLC location, 65 "agency" liquor stores operated by private retailers on NSLC's behalf.

In 1910 the Nova Scotia Temperance Act was passed which enforced prohibition of alcohol sales throughout the province except in Halifax.

[1] On October 31, 1929, a plebiscite was held on Nova Scotia's prohibition of alcohol sales.

Over 60 percent of voters authorized the repeal of the Temperance Act, making Nova Scotia the second last province in Canada to end prohibition.

The liquor commission's current head office and distribution centre was constructed in the Bayers Lake Industrial Park in 1987.