Liberate beer sales in Pennsylvania please (unemployment rate, tax, live)

[The_Outsider]

Originally Posted by otters21

IMO that is highway robbery - 23 dollars for a 30 pack! . Here in Ohio you can pick up a 30 pack depending what brand it is for 14 or 15 bucks.

I agree it is robbery. I also hate having to buy it by the case. I've tried about 15 different distributors in the area and the price never changes more than a buck or two.

You can get $15 dollar 30 packs here but it's going to be Pabst or Jacob's Best

$23 for the mainstream domestics like Budweiser, Coors and Miller.

$27 and up for various imports as well as Sam Adams, Stella Artois and specialty micro brew beers.

I think Yuengling and Straub fall into the $23 category, but I'm not sure as I don’t ever buy it - luckily I have a ton family who live in the area here and are always bringing me cases of it because they still think I am new to the area and should try it

[ki0eh]

I've kinda warmed up to the state liquor stores over my now-more-than-a-decade in PA. In NY where I grew up the hard stuff wasn't in the markets anyway, there were independent liquor stores, some OK but most kind of sleazy, prices aren't any better than at the PA state stores, but state taxes sure are higher in NY.

I'm not so keen on the beer distributors/bars, although now the smoking law has cut down on the sheer unpleasantness of going into a bar to buy a 6 pack. A beer distributor near me just opened a 6 pack shop in a "deli" next door. Fine stock there but prices way out of sight.

Maybe the best virtue of the beer distributor system is its sheltering of the availability of weird sodas. I have a hankering for Diet Moxie and that sure isn't sold at the Giant or Weis. So I trek out to the aforementioned beer distributor and pay $7.50 for a 12 pack. That's cheaper than driving up to New England where the grocery stores sell it, though.

[PeeAye Native]

Originally Posted by Internet Superman

When I was 21 years old, my grandfather asked me to pick him up a bottle of Sam Thompson Rye whiskey and when I walked up to the counter, they did not card me.

I was kind of depressed, but I know of people who did walk up to the counter and the people behind the counter called the police and the people were arrested for being underage and trying to buy alcohol.

So I think that it was better that they didn't serve me before I was 21.

I bought beer from the time I was 15 years old and had no trouble buying beer, even on graduation day. Me and some friends got really drunk on some Stroh's I bought at the local restaurant and I ended up throwing up all over the place and passing out and my mom was crying - because she waited 18 years for me to graduate and on graduation day I was drunk as a monkey.

I ended up sleeping it off and sobering up in time for graduation that night and have not drank any Stroh's since.

You're describing on one the very reasons the State Store employees union uses in their argument against disbanding the state liquor store monopoly, "Look at all the under-agers that the beer distributors sell to, that never happnes on our watch in the state stores...". Personally, I think it's true, but it's made to sound much more dramatic than it is. Should a large state like PA be in the liquor wholesaling and retaliing business only to implement a zero tolerance policy for under-agers from purchasing liquor?

[pman]

Originally Posted by Internet Superman

When I was 21 years old, my grandfather asked me to pick him up a bottle of Sam Thompson Rye whiskey and when I walked up to the counter, they did not card me.

I was kind of depressed, but I know of people who did walk up to the counter and the people behind the counter called the police and the people were arrested for being underage and trying to buy alcohol.

So I think that it was better that they didn't serve me before I was 21.

I bought beer from the time I was 15 years old and had no trouble buying beer, even on graduation day. Me and some friends got really drunk on some Stroh's I bought at the local restaurant and I ended up throwing up all over the place and passing out and my mom was crying - because she waited 18 years for me to graduate and on graduation day I was drunk as a monkey.

I ended up sleeping it off and sobering up in time for graduation that night and have not drank any Stroh's since.

sounds like it was a good thing you got the beer and learned a lesson. or you could have bought some drugs that are also readily available (if they didn't want you to do drugs, they'd legalize it and let the plcb sell it, they'd be so expensive and hard to get you'd just drink beer )
peopel will drink, and they will drink underage, if they don't, they will likely do something else. having the drinking age of 21 is a huge part of the problem as well. it just creates another class of criminals out of otherwise ordinary people. MADD has really lived up to their name

[AlexisT]

I could do without the state stores. prices are high and selection is lousy. Yeah, there are a lot of bad liquor stores in NYS (where I grew up); but there IS competition and you can drive to another one. Here, nothing. Go drive to another state if you don't like it. (And I do.)

As for protecting the carryout trade, bars in most other states have to live without that perk.

BTW, no cases in Wegmans. It's a carryout license. 192 oz max per purchase.

[toobusytoday]

Originally Posted by The_Outsider

Thanks for the tip, I will check em out, I travel to Philly at least once a month
Maybe they can get me some Caffrey's Irish Ale.

Emmaus is about an hour north of Philadelphia.

[pman]

Originally Posted by AlexisT

I could do without the state stores. prices are high and selection is lousy. Yeah, there are a lot of bad liquor stores in NYS (where I grew up); but there IS competition and you can drive to another one. Here, nothing. Go drive to another state if you don't like it. (And I do.)

As for protecting the carryout trade, bars in most other states have to live without that perk.

BTW, no cases in Wegmans. It's a carryout license. 192 oz max per purchase.

how do liquor license prices in PA compare with other states? for example, do they pay more for the piece of paper because of that perk? if so, then perhaps a means to ameliorate that problem might help.

[Gil3]

Originally Posted by Huskyz

It's archaic but so are some other things in PA. Some Weis and Wegmans (super)Markets are now selling beer. What I saw looked like it was mostly 6 and 12 packs with a few brands available in cases.

Hopefully, it is a start.

We were in the Reading area this weekend and I was pleasantly surprised to see a nice selection of beer in the Weis cafe.

I work in MD and ususally just get my beer for me and wine for my fiancee at a liquor store on the way home in Hunt Valley. You can get everything all in one stop without the hassles of "Quick 6" shops, going into a bar or the state store up here. Plus, I have no need to buy a full case. When we do visit Wegman's outside of Harrisburg, I buy beer there as well.

Now I have read on a beer forum that they are opening a Pub at a Wegman's out in the Philadelphia area in addition to their carry out. I'll have to check that out.

[Gil3]

Originally Posted by Ohiogirl81

Any outrage about corrupting our innocent youth, eliminating jobs, and/or crushing competition is nothing but bull. It ain't gonna happen.

Convenience store and grocery store clerks have the capability of asking for ID just the same as bartenders and pizza store clerks.

The beer distributors will survive; grocery stores aren't going to want to mess with full cases of beer, and there still will be a market for cases.

New specialty stores will open up, creating jobs. If existing stores don't survive, they weren't doing a good job in the first place.

I just don't understand the opposition. It's asinine.

Excellent points.

I'm 45 and when I did buy beer at Wegman's in PA recently, they not only carded me, but swiped it into their system. They seem to have all of the safeguards in place. I doubt that just any teenager could walk in and buy it.

[drshang]

When I was in between the ages of 22-25 I got carded way less often at the PA liquor stores than at beer distributors, restaurants, bars or anywhere else that sold alcohol. Sure, it's anecdotal evidence, but my experience (and some others who I know) is that the actual liquor stores aren't really all that strict about carding compared to other establishments.