Walmart In Courtroom Battle With Texas Over “Irrational” Liquor Law

You can’t buy beer or wine in grocery stores. All hard liquor is sold by the government owned “State Stores”. Beer is sold in distributorships that are frequently hard to find if you’re not familiar with the area you’re looking to purchase a case of beer in.

Don’t know about the Pittsburgh area (heck that’s practically like being in Ohio to me :), ) but here in Central PA, York County, some (a very few) grocery stores (Giant and Weis, maybe some Wegman’s?) are now allowed to sell beer and malt beverages including hard cider and they do sell on Sundays.

But according to PA law, the grocery store must have a separate door and a separate cash register for the beer café as they are called (for some reason they must have tables and chairs and must sell eat in food too, if I am correct, you may consume the beer they sell inside the café but very few people do). But you can’t take the beer to any other check out or put it in your cart while shopping for groceries – leave the café area with it except to exit out of the special café door or exit out of any other door with your purchase, and you can’t buy more than 2 six packs at a time. Although some let you make your own variety six packs which is nice. A very, very few pizza/sub shops can sell beer but their prices are outrageous. But none are allowed to sell wine. And yes, distributorships sell only beer and some are open on Sundays but only after 11 AM and have to close at 5 PM but they are only allowed to sell beer by the keg or case. But as said, all hard liquor and wine (with the exceptions of some local wineries) can only be purchased at a PA State Store and those “State” stores do not sell beer or any mixers or sodas or snack foods. And there are still some townships in PA that are completely or partially “dry”, one that went completely dry very recently.

http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/list-these-pennsylvania-towns-restrict-the-sale-of-booze/article_efe49798-e4ad-11e4-856c-1bf70bea978d.html

So this means all state holidays, no liquor sales. That includes 3 day weekends and yes, even days where the state is technically closed but every retailer in the world is open, including the banks.

Yep – on all state and federal holidays the LCB (Liquor Control Board) “Fine Wine & Spirits” stores are closed because their employees are state employees and all belong to the union to boot and get all holidays off with pay. Here and there, a few LCB stores are open on Sunday’s – I think only from Noon to 5 PM. But forget about going to one the day or two before a holiday, especially Christmas or New Years as the lines are ridiculously long as they do not staff up, often only have one or two registers open and are often sold out of many popular items. And most LBC clerks have all the charm and personality and dedication to customer service as PenDot clerks.

The legislature has been trying to get sales in grocery stores, convenience stores etc for years and to privatize or eliminate the state monopoly. Wanna guess why they can’t get it done?

Every time privatization comes up the union that represents the LBC workers runs scare ads that basically say that if convenience stores like Sheetz or Rutters are allowed to sell beer or wine or the privatization of liquor sales, they say that those stores not staffed with State and Union employees will of course sell to booze to minors (itz for the childrens doncha ya know now), even heard one ad that said that child and wife abuse and neglect would go up if liquor privatization happened and that drunk driving will go way up too, I guess because men will drink all their beers while pumping gas at the Sheetz and then drive home drunk and beat their wife and children? FWIW, the beer distributorship owners also lobbied heavily against privatization here in PA as they didn’t want the competition or the added cost of a getting a license to sell wine or liquor. But it is a completely dead issue now with Tom Wolf as governor.

How about this: You want a bottle of out-of-state wine that isn't on the LCB's current list of stocked items. The winery won't ship it to your door and the LCB won't even order it and have it delivered to the store for pickup. grrrr.

As I understand, having looked it up for a friend, you can order wine from out of state but ONLY from one of the “approved” LCB wine sellers of which there only about a dozen and a half, and only IF it is a wine not available at ANY LCB store ANYWHERE in the state; the wine seller can only ship to an LCB store, which can be any store of your choice, but the LCB then adds their own “shipping and handling” charges to the price when you go and pick it up and they are not responsible if the bottles are damaged or not what you ordered. If that is the case, you still have to pay the LCB their shipping and handling charges and then contact the wine seller for a refund or replacement and then pay the LCB again for “shipping and handling” on anything reshipped.

I grew up and spent the majority of my life in Maryland where all liquor stores are all private (except in Montgomery , Wicomico, Worcester and Somerset Counties where liquor stores are owned and run by the County but then Wicomico, Worcester allow beer and wine sales in grocery stores) but laws as to Sunday sales or sales in grocery or convenience stores vary greatly from county to county, each county has their own laws. Baltimore County and Baltimore City for instance does not allow liquor stores to be open on Sunday (except for the Sundays between Thanksgiving and Christmas or New Years day but then IIRC, during that time they have to close on another day, most typically a Monday because the law says that they can’t be open for 7 consecutive days) or the sale of wine or beer in grocery or convenience stores, although some bars are allowed to sell on Sundays if they have an attached but separate “package goods store” but only under a “grandfathered” license.

Harford County allows all liquor stores to be open on Sunday (heck there was one in Bel Air that was open from 7 AM to Midnight - 7 days a week 365 days a year and including on all holidays) but not the sale of wine or beer in grocery or convenience stores. Cecil County IIRC, however it is allowed in some grocery stores. In some Maryland counties, liquor stores that are open on Sundays, can only sell beer and wine and the liquor section has to be separate and roped off on Sunday’s and I think that there is at least one county in Maryland that only allows liquor stores to sell beer warm, not refrigerated. IIRC, in some states and at one time in Maryland, liquor stores had to be closed on election days and bars could not open until after the polls are closed – like that makes any difference – LOL!

Blue Laws are usually archaic and in some cases are outright bizarre.

http://www.academicwino.com/2011/06/wine-law-101-silly-alcohol-laws-edition.html/

I remember my dad telling the story of when he and a co-worker were working on a construction project far from home and had to stay at a hotel for several weeks, (I really don’t remember what state they were in, it might have been in some rural Western PA township or in Ohio or Indiana, or West Virginia, I can’t recall anymore and it was probably in the late 50’s or early 60’s) but he and his friend went out for dinner one night and to have a few beers. From I recall, he said that they were not allowed to drink beer unless they were standing at the bar (no beer was allowed to be served or consumed while sitting down and no food could be served or consumed at the bar) but as to hard liquor or a mixed drink or wine, that had to be served at a table and was not allowed to be served at the bar or while standing or without ordering food and all liquor and wine had to be purchased by the bottle, not as a single drink.

And the bartender was not allowed to mix the drink for them or even pour the liquor or wine into the glass, instead, a waitress had to bring the mixers and glasses to the table, separate from the alcohol and she was not even allowed to bring the liquor or wine to the table, only the glasses and mixers and food, and only afterwards could the bartender bring the bottle to their table, but he could not open it for them, but he could provide a bottle opener or cork screw if needed for an nominal charge, one that was required by the local liquor law. And if they wanted shot glasses as in to have a shot of whiskey; that was not technically allowed. In that case the waitress had to bring them one glass with ice in it and some sort of mixer even if they didn’t want one and then another empty glass like a wine glass but not a shot glass because shot glasses were illegal. Not kidding.

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