Can you see those beer neons? Victory, Smithwick's, and a very rare Weyerbacher neon? I apologize for the quality of the iPhone shot, but it's all I had with me.
Why'd I take this picture? Because you're looking at a gas station that's selling beer in bottles, cans, and growlers...in Pennsylvania. It's the Interstate Market, just south of I-78 at Easton, and very much on the PA side of the Delaware River. And right under the big sign advertising the fuel prices was a sign that read "On tap today: Sierra Nevada."
I felt very much "out of control." How was this possible? More to the point, why does the MBDA have its panties in a terrible knot over Sheetz stores selling beer while not a word of protest accompanies this madness of selling beer right where people buy gasoline! Amazing. Cynically, I suggest it's because this one store represents no real threat to business, and the MBDA's cries over exposing children and driving dangers are simply bullshit, covering their real concern: Sheetz can offer bottleshop convenience in a lot of places. I would suggest that the MBDA would be much better off spending their time and money lobbying for a sixpack sale law for distributors.
Anyway, things were strangely peaceful. I didn't see one person sucking on a bottle of irresistably nearby and cold beer while they gassed up their car. No one peeled out of the place waving an open bottle out the window. There weren't raving crowds inside the store demanding beer, cold beer, open bottles of it right now!!!
No, what there was...was some people having lunch (sit-down tables), and some people buying sodas, and five nice taps and empty growlers waiting to be filled. Peaceful. Restrained.
Where's the threat? What's the big deal about selling beer at gas stations?
It's evil I tell you, pure evil.
ReplyDeleteDoes no one sell torches or pitchforks in Easton?
ReplyDeleteMost of the blue laws around the country governing the sale of beer tend to be ridiculous. Here in MD Supermarkets can get a license to sell beer, but they are only allowed to sell at one location statewide of the designation of the managing company. When I lived in Boston it was illegal for liquor stores to be open on Sunday (rooted in the state's Puritan roots), except during the stretch of days between Thanksgiving and New Years. Birth o Christ? Hell yeah, have a beer.
ReplyDeleteGood find...and not such a bad picture. My iPhone takes relatively, yet remarkably, good pictures...esp. in natural light.
ReplyDeleteon to your question. I'm no scientist, but is alcohol found not only in beer, but gasoline as well? Think of the harm if there was confusion between the two....
Gasoline, alcohol? No idea. I've left the vile stuff behind: we're an all-diesel family now. (Or would be, if I could find a diesel lawnmower.)
ReplyDeleteYes, ethanol is often an adjunct (that word sounds familiar) to gasoline.
ReplyDeleteOh, and it's odd, bizarre, sad ... that right around the corner from this market you have to buy a whole case at the Weyerbacher brewery.
Do they serve beer here? If so they woul probably be in the legal right as that was the technicality they got the super sheetz on.
ReplyDeleteThey do serve beer here. I would ask: if the opponents of selling beer at gas stations say there's something about the juxtaposition of gasoline and take-out beer sales that makes it inherently more dangerous than other take-out sales (and they do, I was just offered that argument by an opponent last month)...why is it that drinking beer where you buy your gasoline is somehow safer? The legal distinction is ridiculous, and one more reason why The Almighty Liquor Code is in dire need of overhaul.
ReplyDelete