Almost but not quite

In a surprise move, what can only be called a New Year's Miracle, after over 80 years the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board has almost learned how to spell Jack Daniel's across its entire inventory, and they almost know what kind of liquor Jack Daniel's is for every entry. 

I've written about the PLCB's lack of inventory skills pertaining to JD quite a few times. I even sent them an email listing every mistake they made, and over the past few years they have slowly fixed most of the mistakes. Why slowly? Who knows, it takes just as much effort to call up the database entry on one listing as it does on all listings of Jack. Then it is just a simple matter of seeing if all are spelled the same, and — just a reminder, because it is the PLCB — correctly. It's Jack Daniel's.

I'm the PLCB. I order it, warehouse it, ship it, stock it, inventory it, and sell it. You expect me to know how to spell it too?

I would think that having a correct inventory would be a fairly important thing, I know it is in my business, especially for my #1 selling item.  However, this is the PLCB we are talking about and they don't seem to think so. If I can ever get them to get all of the Jack Daniel's products spelled correctly I'll start working on getting them all classified correctly. They've had a problem with that for years too.  There is no Jack Daniel's that is a blended whiskey as somebody in the PLCB thinks there is and has thought for well over a year now - just for an example. If I get that accomplished, I've still got years to go: they have hundreds of other mistakes I can use later.

Just one of the many examples of why the PLCB will never be a business, never run like a business, and never satisfy the consumer like a business.

THEY DON'T CARE

It isn't just in inventory, it is in every facet of the organization. Inventory is just something that every citizen can see and track and laugh at their incompetence on a daily basis.

They don't care what you want. Just think about how the PLCB was (and still mostly is) before the privatization push of the past few years 

They don't care what the community wants, as seen by examples in numerous communities, Lock Haven being a prime example. Or how about the YEAR it took to put in a new store in Mountaintop in the same shopping center as the old one. Or the fact that the PLCB can and does force a store into a dry community.

They certainly don't care about convenience. Closing over 20% of the state stores proves that.

They don't care about the consumer. Not having a single highly certified person selecting product for the entire state proves that. Not only don't they have a Sommelier in the PLCB to help select wines, they never have had one unless you counted a part time consultant (and she doesn't work for them anymore).

Privatization fixes all of that, increases employment, allows entrepreneurs to come up with new and inventive products, sales and marketing. Provides what the consumer wants, because if they don't, there is always a competitor who will.  Removes the unqualified from deciding what the ENTIRE STATE is allowed to buy, and increases convenience and selection.  

The PLCB can do none of these things.  Painting a turd pastel colors, putting baskets around it and changing the name to "Excretion" does not change the way the turd got there to begin with. Such is the problem with the PLCB.

Privatization is the REAL modernization.