Friday, June 20, 2008

More PLCB blogging

Check out these pages from a blog called tleaves, done by some engagingly clever folks from the Pittsburgh area. Like me, they (or at least one of them) are driven mad by the PLCB. The post title that first caught my eye: It'd Probably Work Better if it Were Run By Drunkards.

But it was this post that let me know I'd found a true kindred spirit, someone who really understood just how messed up the PLCB has made retail liquor in Pennsylvania. Because I, too, had tried to buy a bottle of Luxardo maraschino liqueur at a State Store, and met with the same response: "There's no such thing." Actually, the first response I got was "We don't sell grenadine." Good God.

Good to know at least one other blogger out there is as pissed off as I am.

2 comments:

Julia said...

Hi Lew,

I am a "clerk 2" or assistant manager in a Wine & Spirits store in Pennsylvania and I just wanted to let you know that after reading one of your blogs I searched for the Luxardo Maraschino cherry Liqueur and it is available through Special Liquor Order and you only have to order one bottle. I have seen many SLO's arrive just days after the order is placed, I don't think that's too long to wait. Anyway it is in our sytem, not quite sure when you posted that particular blog but you can get it now, sorry that you dealt with an employee who wasn't able to help you.

Sincerely,
Julia Devine

Lew Bryson said...

Thank you, Julia.

That was last October, and to be honest, it wasn't so much the not finding Luxardo that was aggravating as the attitude of the clerk who told me that such a thing just didn't exist. It's nice to hear from you, and your effort is appreciated.

That said...the idea that not one store in Pennsylvania would be able to sell enough Luxardo to keep some on the shelf -- as they do at the fairly pedestrian Joe Canal's where I did find it, hardly a superstore -- is something I find depressing. It may seem silly, or overwrought, but that's some of the point of the blog: why not let your customers and what they purchase, or the judgment of the store manager, direct what your store carries, instead of the decisions of someone sitting behind a desk in Harrisburg? In fact, why have a state-run monopoly system at all?

And that is the whole crux of the matter. You won't see a
"Reason" on this blog about the people who staff the stores. Maybe the union, or the work rules, or the Board, but not the staff. I've met good folks and not-so-good folks at State Stores...just like anywhere else.

Again, thanks. It's been a ray of sunshine; keep it up.