UPDATE: Gov. Tom Wolf Thursday afternoon vetoed the bill that would privatize sales of wine and alcohol in Pa.
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You have to love Wawa's sense of timing.
Or, I guess, you might say: Gottahava sense of timing.
That is the sentiment we delivered on our front page Wednesday, with a lead headline exclaiming, ‘Gottahava Brewski,’ when our very own iconic Delco convenience store chain went in front of the folks out in Concord and made their case to sell beer in their store on Naamans Creek Road.
It is the first time Wawa has considered beer sales in the ever-changing landscape of booze sales in Pa.
While they sell beer in stores in Virginia and Florida, it marks the first such effort in Pennsylvania.
And it comes on the same day that the state Senate also for the first time in history passed legislation privatizing the sale of alcohol in Pa. Right now that bill is sitting on Gov. Tom Wolf's desk, no doubt likely to wind up part of the ongoing budget talks that have blown past the July 1 deadline.
For now, Wawa is saying this is a single-store consideration, but if you read between the lines, it's not hard to see this quickly expanding to other stores. The company says similar beer sales at other locations would depend on the success of the new facility in Concord. What does that tell you?
Make no mistake. This is still not going to be quite the experience you get in other states. Wawa is literally planning to build a completely separate part of the state to handle beer sales.
And you have to love the name. They're calling it the Wild Goose Cafe. No doubt after the company's namesake Canadian goose, which is indigenous to the section of Delaware County where it was founded, out in Chester Heights and Middletown.
Wawa is planning to construct a 400-square-foot space within the store for beer sales, as well as seating for 30. It will have its own register, separate from purchase in the rest of the store.
That's also the practice at several local supermarkets that have entered the fray in beer sales, such as Wegmans. You can't just snag a case of beer, put it in your cart with the rest of your groceries and pay for it all at the same register before exiting. Beer sales are confined to a separate section for the store, and you must pay for them at a separate register. You also are confined to buying two six-packs at a time, the same as will hold for this Wawa plan.
If you want a case, you will still have to head to your local beer distributor. Or simply make another trip back into the Wawa or supermarket and grab two more six-packs.
Under the Senate bill, beer distributors and supermarkets would be able to buy a license to sell wine and booze. I guess the problem for the mom-and-pop operators would be where they would put all this stuff. If the plan is signed by Gov. Wolf, I'll be interested to see just how many beer distributors enter the wine and spirits biz.
I'm also very interested to see if any of the huge discount liquor operations such as Total Wine just over the line in Claymont try to stick their toes in the Pa. waters.
This is about as close as Pennsylvania has ever gotten to blowing up the LCB and getting the state out of the booze business.
It's not hard to see a day when beer sales at Wawa will be commonplace, just as they are in convenience stores in most other states.
After all, isn't that part of the 'convenience?'
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