Sunday, January 4, 2015

The PLCB - Not taking care of the citizens again

The one liquor store in Waynesboro closed on September 13. On August 20th the PLCB was told by the lessor that the lease -- which ended on September 30th -- would not be renewed. It apparently takes the state store system seventeen days to move the equivalent contents of a largish 4,000 sq.ft. house; yet another thing they don't seem to be very good at.

That means there are four State Stores that remain open in Franklin County, which has a population of 152,000. This closing has the residents of Waynesboro driving 8 miles to Greencastle to the nearest State Store (or 15 miles to Chambersburg, a city of 20,000, which has two State Stores!) or having the choice of over fifteen different liquor stores in Hagerstown, MD, a town of 40,000...only 12 miles away. How big does a town have to be to have more than fifteen liquor stores in Pennsylvania? I'll give you a hint: there are only two cities in the whole state that have that many, they both start with "P," and the smaller one has about 306,000 people.

It's not just quantity that's better in Maryland, either. This is Long Meadow Liquors in Hagerstown. You can bet the Greencastle state store doesn't look like this.

So spacious! So well-organized! So friendly! So non-PLCB!
Fear not, Waynesboro! On January 2nd, it was announced that a new store would open...sometime.  No date given, no month even. Not that it matters to the PLCB; making citizens wait months, or even years for a store in their area is not uncommon at all. (Could be two years, like it was in Mountain Top.) Real businesses take less time to build stores than it takes the PLCB to lease and move into a current location. An ongoing PLCB FAIL. I mean, it isn't like they are a real business that has to take care of their customers or is worried about losing sales to the competition. They have no legal competition.

As you would suspect there are a number of grocery stores -- Giant, Foodland, Save-A-Lot, Martin's -- that would love to satisfy the wants of their customers by selling them wine and liquor, or at least wine. While they may not take the place of a full service liquor store, it would be far more convenient then relying on the one state store. Not every liquor store has to offer everything; not every grocery store does. Choice is always better for the consumer.

So there you have it. 2015 starting out like last year with more lipstick for the state store pig, and just like the 80 years prior, the citizens are left out again.

It's up to the Legislature and Governor Wolf to hear the needs of the citizens. Privatize and reap the benefits of the free market.

4 comments:

  1. If the liquor is such a big thing to you why not move to another state you sound like a huge crybaby.

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  2. I love how often "move to another state" is the cry of the anti-freedom folks. Honey, I don't have to move; there are great liquor stores in New Jersey, only 25 minutes from my front door. I'd just rather have the same service, selection, and choice in Pennsylvania. I'm trying to make the state better; what's your deal? (By the way, you sound like a grade school dropout; learn to use some punctuation.)

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  3. Liquor isn't a big thing to me, at least not PA liquor. I get all I want out of state or country sometimes.

    Liquor Privatization is a big thing to me. You know, freedom of choice, free enterprise, limited government... .those things the country was founded on. Are you against that?

    If the government doesn't sell drugs, doesn't sell cars and doesn't sell guns then there isn't really a leg to stand on saying selling alcohol is for the public good or safety especially when PA isn't leading the pack or even near the top in any alcohol related safety issue.

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  4. Hey it looks like it took them only 10.5 months to reopen in Waynesboro! Speedy!!

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