Wednesday, March 26, 2014

What we don’t have….

The latest failed tactic of those who want to keep the PLCB (largely the people who work there, and the unions they belong to) is to counter the “majority of states do it this way” argument with “but only X amount have this” – pick whatever consumer feature you want that PA doesn’t have and that they don’t want us to have.

The one I like best is “only 15 states have one stop shopping for food and alcohol.” Of course, Pennsylvania isn’t one of those states and heaven forbid we try to lead the way instead of lagging behind. Truth be told is that 39 states have one stop shopping for alcohol including six of the so-called control states. Pennsylvania is a control state, and the most onerous of them all, because while only PA and Utah control wine and spirits retail, you can still buy some beer in Utah in a grocery store (by the case, if you really want!), but you can’t do that here, except in the few stores that have gone to the trouble and expense to buy a tavern license and put in a "cafe" and even then you still can't buy a case at one time.

So in in 39 states you only have to make one trip to buy a case, a six-pack, a bottle of wine and some bourbon; in 10 states you have to make 2 trips; but only in the Commonwealth...do you have to make three trips.

Perhaps if we didn’t have to waste so much time we could write our legislators and list this idiocy as yet another of the myriad of reasons to get the PLCB out of all retail and wholesale.

Privatization – the ultimate modernization.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think Maine is considered a control state-but I could buy beer, wine and liquor at a general store or grocery store when I was there. I'll take that in PA thanks.
-Michael

Albert Brooks said...

Michael - Yes Maine is one of the six control states you can buy everything in one stop