Posted on 01/05/2011 10:17:20 AM PST by Kaslin
Last year, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board installed "wine kiosks" in 31 grocery stores. Last month, it shut the machines down for repairs, just in time for the holidays.
The kiosks, a bungled, half-hearted attempt to accommodate consumers who heretofore could buy wine only at government-run stores, encapsulate the dilemma faced by state alcohol monopolies, as cash-strapped legislators consider privatizing them to raise money and cut costs in this year of gaping budget deficits.
To the extent that the state systems resist privatization by becoming more customer-friendly, they undermine their reason for existing, which is to deter alcohol consumption by making it more expensive, less appealing and less convenient.
Pennsylvania is one of 18 states that control the distribution of alcoholic beverages and one of 12 that operate retail stores directly or by contract. These systems, established after the repeal of Prohibition, are expressly designed to make alcohol less accessible -- not just to minors, but to adults who might drink too much.
Joe Conti, chief executive of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB), recently told The New York Times that PLCB employees "aren't incentivized to sell." Unlike consumers facing lethargic clerks who can barely be bothered to ring up their purchases, let alone advise them about the best wine to pair with lamb, Conti considers this indifference a virtue.
Yet in the same interview, Conti bragged that the PLCB, which recently decided to raise its "handling fees" by $1.50 or so a bottle, has "modernized some of its 620 stores and expanded their hours." It now has 75 "premium" outlets that Conti claimed are "as good as you would find anywhere in the country." Not only that, but "he hopes to start a pilot project soon to give them names instead of numbers."
Despite Conti's perestroika, Paul Davies, deputy editorial page editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer, reports that "most state stores still look and feel like military commissaries," with unhelpful employees, limited selections, poor inventory management and high prices. Fear of privatization, which is supported by incoming Gov. Tom Corbett and incoming state House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, may spur the PLCB to act a little more like a real business, but consumer satisfaction will never be its top priority.
Consider the wine kiosks, which Turzai calls "a silly type of an idea that only a government bureaucracy could come up with." That's literally true, since the machines were invented specifically to satisfy the PLCB's peculiar demands.
Each kiosk holds 1,000 bottles of 53 (count 'em) different wines, which you can buy with a credit card if you swipe your driver's license to prove you are 21 or older, look into a camera monitored by a state employee in Harrisburg to prove you are the person you say you are and breathe into an alcohol sensor to prove you have not been drinking. The machines operate from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and are closed on Sundays and holidays. They charge shoppers a $1 "convenience fee" for the privilege of buying wine at the supermarket, a freedom that residents of most states take for granted.
The states where wine (and beer) can be purchased along with groceries, but nevertheless confine the sale of distilled spirits to government stores, include Virginia, North Carolina and Washington. This year, legislators in all three states are considering abolishing that monopoly, with support from the governor in the first two and possibly in the third, as well.
The opposition to these proposals comes from labor unions representing state liquor store workers, anti-alcohol groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving and businesses that profit from the lack of competition. In Washington last year, beer and wine companies were the biggest donors to the campaigns against two unsuccessful ballot initiatives that would have privatized sales of distilled spirits.
What all these special interests have in common is a disdain for consumers -- which is fitting, because that is the inescapable rationale for state alcohol monopolies.
Washington State has government run liquor stores (hard liquor, beer and wine can be sold in grocery stores). Costco was behind an initiative this past November to privatize the liquor stores, and surprisingly enough it failed. I suspect that the various unions were backing their brothers and sisters employed by the Washington State Liquor Control Board.
While I am for the free market, I voted against the initiative; my reason?
As I told a guy gathering signatures on a petition last summer:
Washington State already has enough alcoholics, we don’t need any more.
Only buy your wine from the State... sounds familiar. Recall something about a country overseas putting rules on tea purchases....
Yeah, the state should control what people drink and what they eat! Pfft.
I just travel to where I usually buy groceries and get whatever I want. Screw you, PA liquor thugs.
In the former Soviet Union the state stores were always ALWAYS stocked with vodka. Drunken citizens are less of a threat to the regime, I guess.
In the state run liquor stores in Ohio, all the bottles were behind the counter. A price list was posted and you had to ask the employee to go and bring you what you wanted to the cash register. Big Brother really was watching what it was that you drank.
How does the state run store determine who is an alcoholic?
Your reason for voting as you did is akin to voting for state sold automobiles to reduce the number of speeders.
Clearly you haven't thought through your opinion on the matter very carefully.
The only government-run liquor store I will ever frequent is the Class VI at my local military installation. No tax!
Colonel, USAFR
how does the machine know whether the purchaser is old enough to buy the gunk?
PA has some of the craziest rules for buying alcohol. It’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen.
Hehehe. Brother-in-law USAF. Know what you mean.
Your dizzying logic is on par with the gun control laws.
I used to live in Virginia and everybody would just hop in their cars and head to a liquor store in Washington, D.C. or Maryland.
Government has no business selling booze or restricting the sales of it. And I don’t even drink.
PA also has its share of alcoholics proving the effectiveness of such a system.
Contract the idiocy here to heavily Mormon Utah where you can walk into any 7-11 and walk out with a six-pack of your favorite brew as long as you are of legal age and have the money to pay for it. The locals may not approve of boozing, but they also have the good sense to realize the nanny state can't prevent it.
The article states that purchasers must swipe their driver's license first (the magnetic strip holds DOB info).
You could try reading the article.
And look into the camera where a real live person checks that you match your license photo. And blow into the built-in Breathalyzer.
Yeah, here in MA you can sometimes find a gas station that sells beer and wine. Any liquor store will sell six packs and up to cases, wind and hard stuff.
In PA to get cases you have to go to a distributor. I think six packs and such are only available at bars.
ouch! that hurts. but you never had a bootleg license with fake data? and there’s ONE guy watching all these machines remotely (if he’s even in the room at the time).
i wouldn’t want to be aroudn when the first person bypasses all these mechanical (i.e. subject to failure) safeguards don’t work and someone gets killed.
call me a luddite, i don’t mind;-)
ti just hit me. if you can’t use your driver’s licenses to vote because it discriminates against the poor, wtf?
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