The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board is down, but not out.
Unfortunately.
The people who run the state's archaic system of selling alcohol have, as we all know, closed their doors under orders of Gov. Tom Wolf, as the state continues to try to corral the novel coronavirus pandemic that is ravaging the state and nation.
Wolf announced his decision to shut down what we now refer to as Fine Wine and Good Spirits stores - c'mon, admit it, you still call them state stores - late on a Saturday afternoon, when it became obvious most of the state was ignoring his call to avoid social gatherings and shut down non-essential business.
I will leave it to others to argue the definition of what is essential or non-essential, let alone "life-sustaining," as the governor later qualified his shutdown order.
The order of course touched off a run on the state stores, where long lines formed minutes after the governor's order was announced.
No problem, right. The state could merely switch to online sales.
Uh, not exactly. Have you tried the PLCB web site? If you've been able to get through, you're one of the lucky ones. The site has been a mess since the brick-and-mortar stores shut down.
Why was I not surprised that a state that for years mandated different trips for booze - one trip to the state store for wine and alcohol, one trip to the beer distributor for a case of beer, a third to a deli or tavern if you wanted only a six-pack. That's right, for years beer distributors could not sell anything but cases of beer. You figure out. I gave up long ago.
In recent years, as calls increase in the Legislature to get the state out of the booze business - spurred on I hope by one newspaper editor who became the foremost proponent of blowing up the state store system and privatizing the sale of alcohol in the state - a few cosmetic changes were made.
You can now buy beer and wine in the supermarket.
Of course, you have to do it in a different part of the store. And, for the most part, you have to do it there.
Visitors to Pennsylvania, or residents who have had the benefit of living in other parts of the country, are mystified at the way this state handles these sales.
They are used to simply tossing a six-pack or case of beer, or perhaps a bottle of wine for dinner, in their cart and paying for it along with the rest of their groceries at the checkout line.
Not in Pennsylvania.
Which makes something that happened this week all the more puzzling.
Several supermarket chains that now offer sales of beer and wine backed a move by PLCB Board Member Mike Negra to allow customers to pay for both at any cash register.
Their argument was a sound one: They were looking to avoid long lines, thus encouraging the kind of social distancing we are all supposed to be practicing these days.
Their request was rejected by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board.
Ironically, the PLCB largely cited the same reasons - the belief that such a move would actually have just the opposite effect. Board member Negra was pushing for the change. Two other board members opposed it.
A spokesperson for Giant supermarkets said the move would reduce social distancing and reduce the time customers spent standing in line.
Alex Baloga, president and CEO of Pennsylvania’s Food Merchants Association, concurred.
“It’s a safety issue. It’s a health issue. You are forcing people to funnel into one particular area to buy these products and it’s much more difficult to do that in a smaller space like the beer and wine section of a grocery store than it is to spread it out across the entire store,” said Baloga. “It’s a pretty common sense thing to do especially in a crisis.”
Then there is the notion of limits placed on how much you can purchase in any one visit. Customers in supermarkets are limited to buying 192 ounces of beer and three liters of wine per transaction. That means people buying a limited quantity of wine and beer, taking that to the car, then going back into the store to repeat the process, which is perfectly legal.
Only in Pennsylvania.
As you can imagine, the situation in Pennsylvania has sparked sales in nearby states, including the ever-popular liquor super stores just a stone's throw over the border in Delaware. But it turns out Delaware doesn't exactly want the extra business. With orders in place for visitors to the state to self-quarantine, state troopers have been dispatched to some roads, checking cars with out-of-state plates, and turning some motorists around.
All of this is giving way to talk that the idea of privatizing the entire system could be revisited by the Legislature.
State House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, and his GOP colleagues have been pushing to blow up the system for years, and even managed to get some legislation passed, only to have it vetoed by Gov. Wolf, a proponent of changing the system, but not doing away with it.
The problems that have been evident since Wolf shut down the state stores could give the entire movement new energy.
I'll drink to that.
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