Pennsylvania Liquor Laws

  Quote

For consumption off-premises

 

Pennsylvania is an alcoholic beverage control state. Wines and spirits are to be sold only in the state owned Wine And Spirits shops, where all prices must remain the same throughout the state (county sales tax may cause the price to differ slightly). People under the age of 21 are prohibited from entering Wine and Spirits shops, unless accompanied by a guardian. The standard business hours for these stores are 9am to 10pm Monday through Saturday. Previously, all state-controlled stores were closed on Sundays, but now certain locations open for limited hours. Wineries are common throughout the commonwealth, and often sell their wines at storefronts in shopping malls.

 

Beer may only be purchased from a restaurant, bar, licensed beer store, or distributor. Beer distributors mainly sell cases and kegs of beer, not smaller volumes of beer such as six packs. Six and twelve packs, along with individual bottles such as 40 ounce or 24 ounce beers, are sold at bars, restaurants, and licensed retailers. A consumer is limited to 192 ounces of beer per purchase. For larger quantities one must go to a beverage distributor which sells beer only by the case or keg. Beverage distributors (which also sell soft drinks) may sell beer and malt liquor, but not wine or hard liquor. Unlike the Wine and Spirits shops, people under 21 may enter most beverage distributors without an adult, subject to the rules of the individual establishment.

 

Some supermarkets, including Wegmans, Giant Eagle, and Weis, have begun to sell alcohol within restaurants attached to the main supermarket building, but only under very specific conditions (the restaurant must have a defined separation from the rest of the supermarket, a separate cashier, and seating for at least 30 patrons). Supermarket chain ShopRite has begun to attach Wine and Spirits stores to its stores. For a time, Sheetz obtained a liquor license for a restaurant attached to one of its convenience stores in Altoona.[2] After several debates, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ruled that the store must sell beer to in-house customers as well as take-out.[3] The 17th Street store now again sells beer and allows limited in store consumption.[4]

[edit] Non-alcoholic beer

 

Even though beer labeled "non-alcoholic" contains less than 0.5% alcohol by volume and can be sold at supermarkets, Pennsylvania requires a person to be over the age of 21 to both purchase and consume non-alcoholic beer. A person under the age of 21 consuming non-alcoholic beer is subject to arrest for underage drinking just as if they were drinking alcohol. These laws are more restrictive than those of most other states.

Bottom line is, you want beer? Find some pizza joint and they'll sell you an overpriced six-pack, no more.

Thank god we brought a handle of whiskey. It's keeping us alive. WTF, Pennsylvania?

i blame the whiskey for this being in the wrong forum

Yeah, it's ass backwards here.

Case -> Beer distributor

6 pack/40/bomber -> Bar/food joint

Wine or Spirits -> PLCB wine & spirits stores

Also, you can only sell alcohol from 12-5 on a Sunday, but it looks like that's going to change soon.

The new governer is really trying to push privatization of the liquor industry in this state, but that's honestly going to cripple the state's economy and make everyone's real estate & income taxes go up to make up the deficit he creates by doing that.

yeah, based on my understanding, a lot of prohibition-era laws sort of contributed to the current state of liquor/alcohol sales in pennsylvania. thank fuck i got out of that state. *buys beer at duane reade*

hey! i live in PA :)

sneaks and I were just stalking about this last night. You go to the beer store. You go to the liquor store. Can't get it in gas stations or grocery stores. You can go to a vineyard for nice affordable wine. But you can buy 6 and 12 packs in many many restaurants. IN fact there's a bar behind my apt that i can get whatever beer i want. It's expensive sometimes tho. If you go to the Beer store you have to buy like a 20 pack is the minimum i think. I usually buy 24 packs. They are heavy.

are you in PA right now hat?

EDIT: Actually "Wegmans" grocery store is the first one in forever to sell beer, and there's one near my house. It is nifty.

Wegman's managed to find a loophole in the law, because they have a cafe within the store that has a liquor license, they can sell beer bottles at their store.

Florida laws are similar but somewhat more relaxed. Beer is sold all over the place, and most grocery stores sell wine, but liquor is only sold at designated liquor stores. Hours are about the same though. Besides Wal Mart and a few bars and clubs, this town is pretty much shut down by 10pm.

  On 4/22/2011 at 7:24 PM, autopilot said:

Wegman's managed to find a loophole in the law, because they have a cafe within the store that has a liquor license, they can sell beer bottles at their store.

Yeah. Wegman's is the jam. Their food is so good. Plus I usually buy organic only stuff so it's crucial.

  On 4/22/2011 at 7:14 PM, Brandi_B said:

are you in PA right now hat?

yeah... exton

  On 4/22/2011 at 7:24 PM, patternoverlap said:

Florida laws are similar but somewhat more relaxed. Beer is sold all over the place, and most grocery stores sell wine, but liquor is only sold at designated liquor stores. Hours are about the same though. Besides Wal Mart and a few bars and clubs, this town is pretty much shut down by 10pm.

which sort of amuses me, because wegman's is the only place that ever gave me crap about IDs when buying booze in college (i get the impression there's some christian morality in the company).

once i called it "Weggers" and people yelled at me. i guess they thought it was unmanly or something. i was more going for an english/harry potter vibe

holy carp! dude, you understand that you are now required to come hang out with sneaksta and I (he's in town visiting). You're only an hour south of me! do it do it do it do it. Or come to NYC this weekend, that's where we are headed right now. BUS WIFI FTW.

edit: how long u here?

fo reals mang, we should all kick it, throw together a jam or someshin. i leave on wednesday.

You guys all from NEPA?

I'm gonna be DJ'ing an outdoor music festival in the park in Wilkes-Barre on May 29th. You guys should come. :)

Ireland has fairly retarded licensing laws too.

holy fuck. i was born in wilkes barre. small fucking world.

  On 4/23/2011 at 9:47 PM, autopilot said:

You guys all from NEPA?

 

I'm gonna be DJ'ing an outdoor music festival in the park in Wilkes-Barre on May 29th. You guys should come. :)

I'm in Allentown. Sneaks is just visiting from the midwest right now. I may come check it out though :)

  On 4/23/2011 at 9:53 PM, chassis said:

Ireland has fairly retarded licensing laws too.

If by retarded you mean taxed to all fuck then I'm with you completely. A bottle of irish whiskey costs about twice as much in ireland as it does in the U.S. The wife and I would occasionally splurge on a 10 euro bottle of wine at the Dun Laoghaire Tesco; one summer we took a holiday to Barcelona and saw the same bottle for 3 euro.

Most new england states are pretty fucked up with their liquor "blue" laws too, though things are getting a little better - liquor stores are allowed to be open Sundays now. Still can't buy beer/wine at convenience stores & supermarkets, but it isn't such a big deal as liquor stores are everywhere. There's no alcohol tax in new hampshire too which is nice, they have these huge stores right on the highway (pretty sure they're state owned/run) that are more or less compulsory to hit up whenever we go north. Even better is the duty free at the Canadian border :sup:

  On 4/25/2011 at 2:07 PM, Brandi_B said:

I'm in Allentown. Sneaks is just visiting from the midwest right now. I may come check it out though :)

Nice one. I'm in lower Bucks County. I'll send you the details closer to the date. Gonna be a big (free) festival in the park with stages for dubstep, drum & bass, techno, & live bands.

Allentown's nice. I try to go eat at the Bethlehem Brew Works whenever I have the chance. Best food & beer in the region, imo.

I've been to Allentown brew works, which is the same company, and I agree. Fantastic eats and drinks. Downtown Allentown is ghetto as hell tho. The west side of Allentown/Lehigh Valley is awesome and beautiful though. Bethlehem is also very nice. Quaint lil place.

Most of PA's cities are ghetto as hell, lol.

Go commonwealth!

Yeah a good bit of the towns I've been through are pretty rough in their downtown areas. A lot of people are unemployed too.

Best thing by far about Allentown, is it's only 40 bucks round trip, and 3 hours to NYC. And the bus takes you right into port authority and you are just right there in the middle of it all, and it's great. Plus the buses leave like every hour from there all week, headed this way, so i can leave whenever, which is an added bonus. Plus the buses have wifi and electrical outlets. Tis nice.

I Guess it's nice that I'm only an hour North of Philly but I never really have any reason or desire to go to philly.

also lol that this is still in music forum.

Philly's got some good shows...very occasionally. Just saw Goth Trad last Thursday on a proper system and it was face-meltingly good. Other than that, only good to go there if you want to be part of the epically shitty electro house/brostep/10-year-old DNB scene.