Photo credit: Ian Turton/Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
The plan would close the existing 600 or so state-run Pennsylvania Wine And Spirits Shops and auction off up to 1,200 wine and spirits retail licenses. Turzai's bill would also make available various licenses for grocery stores, convenience stores, pharmacies, and big box stores which would allow them (depending on the type of license) to sell six-packs of beer, bottles of wine or beer by the case. These licenses would cost between $10,000 and $35,000, again depending on the type of license.
Currently-licensed beer distributors could bid on 400 of the wine and spirits retail licenses and become one-stop shops for wine, spirits and beer. Beer distributors could also choose to purchase a license for $150,000 which would allow them to sell wine and to have the ability to "break the case" of beer and sell down to a minimum of 42 ounces. That license would renew at $10,000 a year.
Turzai is promoting the bill by touting both the added convenience for consumers and Governor Corbett's plan to use the money from the license auction to fund a block grant program for education.
Matt Viens, owner of Keller's Beer in Selinsgrove, calls Corbett's plan a "corporate sell-out." Viens says the plan "will put Pennsylvania's 1,200 family-owned and operated small businesses out of existence forcing us to sell out or be devoured by corporate giants."
Viens said that he thinks Corbett would rather put local, family-run beer distributors like his out of business rather than "help us give our consumers the convenience they and we have been asking for over 76 years."
State Senator Daylin Leach (D-Montgomery/Delaware) said that consumers could benefit from more convenience without selling off assets of the Commonwealth. Leach said the Republican numbers "don't add up." He supports a modernization plan over privatization and believes it is very unlikely that the Governor's plan would pass.
Leach pointed out that the Commonwealth has already taken steps to modernize the alcohol business by allowing beer and wine sales inside certain grocery stores. He said he would be open to locating State Stores inside of grocery stores.
Matt Viens said that if independent beer distributors like him are forced out of business by Corbett's privatization plan, then ultimately the consumers will lose. He predicts that sales outlets for beer will be ubiquitous, but big corporate chains will carry only popular national brands of beer instead of offering the varied selection craft brews and local favorites that he now carries at Keller's.