The Philadelphia Inquirer has a great editorial up on beer buying in Pennsylvania, for those of you who are unfamiliar with our arcane alcohol control laws:
It still makes little sense for the state to be in the liquor business, but the nearly $500 million in annual revenue generated by liquor sales and taxes is a powerful incentive to maintain the status quo.
Where does that leave consumers? Hoping for whatever customer-friendly upgrades to the state’s liquor-sale rules are possible, that’s where.
(Remember, it’s still against the law to zip over the bridge and bring back your favorite, reasonably priced tipple from New Jersey.)
Enter the Sheetz convenience-store chain, along with its years-long legal battle seeking the right to sell beer for take-out.
I am south of the Wawa/Sheetz line, but I wish Sheetz the best of luck with this case. Wawa is sure to take advantage of this as well, so a win for Sheetz is a win for everybody.
Yep, I bet that ban is followed as closely as New Jersey’s gun laws.
Pretty much. I may, or may not, have violated both, possibly at the same time, but I won’t talk unless under torture :)
I think Sheetz surrounds Wawa territory. It’s definitely present in VA and WV on 81.
They are present to the south and west. There is a line that isn’t crossed though. Pretty clearly Wawa got into selling as in fear that Sheetz is about to mount an invasion into their territory.
After two years in Pennsylvania, I still can’t get over Sheetz. We don’t have anything like it in the midwest — a clean convenience store. Liquor sales in Indiana are entirely private. You can buy beer in the supermarket. You can buy liquor at Sam’s Club. I’m originally from Kentucky, where hard liquor and wine sales are government owned, so I’m familiar with it, but the beer store/beer distributor thing here is sheer idiocy.