I Hate The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board

25 thoughts on “I Hate The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board”

1. So what you're saying is that you love the PLCB, right? ;)

   1. Yeah, I get your point… perhaps I delivered the message with a bit too much subtlety… ;-)

2. why don't you tell us how you REALLY feel…

   1. Thanks – I thought you'd never ask!

      It gets *worse*, believe it or not. Check out http://noplcb.blogspot.com/2009/03/phillymag-has-… . Put simply, the PA State and Federal Constitutions mean **nothing** to the people running PLCB. Because they make billions of dollars for the Commonwealth, they are executing liberty without any thought to the consequences on the liberties of their citizens and the businesses of those citizens – which are the very things for which the Commonwealth's elected officials have been charged to protect.

      In the case of the linked article above, the PLCB have moved from Communism to the kind of Capitalist Totalitarianism that is currently being practiced in China.

3. But Control Board has such a pleasant ring to it! :)

   1. It is the ring of their cash registers, my friend! :)

4. But… but… the Liquor Control Board is here "for the protection of the public welfare, health, peace and morals of the people of the Commonwealth and to prohibit forever the open saloon, and all of the provisions of this act shall be liberally construed for the accomplishment of this purpose." Doesn't that make all the stupid, thoughtless, arrogant, corrupt stuff they do worthwhile?

5. Yes – We must PROTECT OUR CHILDREN!!!! :-P

6. I am in total agreement! I have lived in PA for 12 years and being in the restaurant business and now specifically wine, it is so challenging and frustrating. I don't know if it will ever change. We hope to market Biodynamic wines – http://www.biodynamicwines.net – but to grow the business how we envision, we will need to move because of the restrictions. It's disheartening…

   1. OMG! Are you serious? So you need to relocate the business because of the state's archaic distribution laws… How is this good for the consumer??? Did I mention that I hate the PLCB?

7. Dude…Napa is ready and waiting for you and your lovely family…and your wine love, and your wine dollars…better access, no snow, ahhh…let me count the ways :) California or Bust Dude!

8. Shhhh!!!! Mrs. Dudette will want to move in, like, a heartbeat… and Dude here does not have the coin to roll that relocation at the moment :-P

9. Have you ever talked to any of the staff members?

   1. I have – if you mean staff in the stores. Many of them don't know anything about wine, however I don't hold it against them (despite the poor shopping experience that results from that), because they've no incentive from the PLCB HQ to increase their wine knowledge.

10. The whole fact that the PLCB exists is enough of an indicator that they do not respect the liberties of the citizens. Why control the market, except to make a profit at the people's expense?

11. Gotta admit, I'd be lying if I said that I hadn't thought about migrating West… twice an hour… ;-)

12. C'mon…. they also exist to ensure that the citizens are protected from themselves in terms of alcohol abuse by minors, which is reflected in the stats that clearly show that PA's numbers surrounding those abuses are almost exactly the same as those for states that do NOT regulate the direct distribution of alcohol…

13. I should disclose that PLCB has been a customer of ours and sold some of our wine – on the business side they very good.

    Maybe this is one of those situtations where lemons can be turned into lemonade. Perhaps, a 1Wine Dude selection or 1 Wine Dude wine club might be fun for the residents of PA?

14. Wow. Gotta admit, I'd never thought of that. Tell you what – if they let me buy wine from anywhere that I want and have it shipped to my door without having to go through them, then I'll work with the PLCB! ;-)

    1. I'm with ya – the only way to fix it, IMHO, is to let it compete fairly in the free market system.

15. Just be happy you don't live in Michigan. Our system is even more ridiculous. There's something wrong when the Beer & Wine Wholesalers Association are the biggest campaign contributors to every single officeholder in the state. Weird how the minute the court struck down our restrictive law and allowed outstate retailers to ship to Michigan, the legislature held and emergency session to pass a new, even more restrictive bill, authored by the wholesalers.

    I hate government. Ron Paul in 2012.

    1. That's pretty bad. Nice to know your tax dollars are at work… stuffing the coffers of the elected officials, that is…

16. I thought I had seen an article in the last couple of years, in which they exposed one of the former heads of that Board (who decided which wines to allow into the Soviet Republic of Penn's official stores.) as essentially knowing more about chocolate milk than about wine.

17. Sounds reasonable – why should you have to know anything about wine to run one of the largest purchasers of wine in the U.S., right? Er…. wiat a sec…

18. Walmart is open – Whole Foods is open – Even the Co-op is open, but the Pa Wine and Spirits store is closed for a second day – go figure

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