I was chatting with a wine wholesaler the other day -- just talking about the booze biz -- and I thought of the blog and asked him: wine people would be natural allies for this fight, do you know any in the area who might be interested in doing some writing for the blog on wine issues? (Because, I'll be honest: I like to drink the stuff sometimes (had a real nice NZ sauvignon blanc last night), but I don't know enough about it to write about it.)
And the guy says, "The wine people in this part of the state (Philadelphia area) don’t care about the wine in the state stores. They don’t buy any wine here." And while that's probably somewhat of an exaggeration -- I'm sure they pick things up occasionally -- given the huge wine stores right across the border, and the constant ads in the Philly media for them, he's probably right.
One more budget crisis-related reason to privatize retail booze sales in Pennsylvania: bring all that money back into the state. Is it because this is all so simple that people don't get it?
What I don't understand is why the restaurants in town don't try to do something about this. Isn't part of the reason wine is so expensive in Philly and Pa because the state stores give no restaurant discount? In a competitive market you would think liquor stores would compete for the high volume dependable business that a restaurant would provide.
ReplyDeleteI think this partially true for many wine drinkers I know. They have basically written off the state store system for wine. Most buy in large amounts anyway so it is easy to just fill your trunk a couple of times a year and take advantage of the case discounts that all the jersey places provide. Part of it is cost, but among my wine friends there is a perception that the state store doesn't know how to properly store or condition their inventory. I have no idea if that is true.
ReplyDeleteFor me I live in center city without a car, so I am a slave to the state store system.
Only by your mouth and e-mail to your reps can this system be dismantle, if enough voices heard they will get rid of this system. This is a good source of money for their budget woes.. green lantern..
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