In today's Indiana Gazette, there is an AP article "Ruling Ends Takeout Beer Sales at Sheetz". On Feb. 1, I linked to the article (see this post) that announced the sale of beer at Sheetz.
My, how quickly February goes. The Commonwealth Court, in a 4-3 ruling, stated that the "retail dispenser license that the PLCB issued for an Altoona Sheetz requires at least some of the beer sold there to be consumed on the premises. ... An entity that is licensed for on-premises consumption is given the additional benefit of selling beverages for off-premises consumption. ... the law makes the right to conduct sales for off-premises consumption secondary to the primary purpose of selling malt or brewed beverages for on-premise consumption at the eating place."
Wankers.
"A lawyer for the 410-member Malt Beverage Distributors Association of PA - which sued to challenge the license - said the association was concerned that Sheetz was essentially operating as a beer distributor".
What crap! If they were essentially operating as a distributor, they'd only be allowed to sell $&#! cases, not six-packs and singles - which is the whole damn point. If distributors are worried about this, then why don't they lobby to be allowed to sell six-packs in the distributor? If they kept their prices low (i.e., cost of case = cost of six-pack * 4), then they wouldn't need to fret over Giant Eagle and Sheetz and Wa-Wa and Whole Foods selling beer. Will that ever happen?
Yet again, the consumer gets reamed because of the PA sanctioned monopolistic control of alcohol sales in the state.
I'm gonna go have a homebrew.
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