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Beer troubles in Pennsylvania
wrote...
>
> OK, we've now covered 4 states other than PA (Utah's still up in the
> air- drove thru it once but don't remember the beer situation). I still
> say the guy's wrong that ONLY PA and Utah don't sell beer in grocery
stores.
I stand corrected. I do remember "banquet beer" at convenience stores in
Salt Lake City, though, which is something you don't see in Pennsylvania.
> >
> >>I've said it before (and, granted, it might be an outdated reason) but I
> >>think a major reason Pennsylvania had more independent breweries left
> >>(and no majors to speak of) than any other state in the pre-micro days
> >>was your system of beer sales.
There was some reason the nationals couldn't penetrate the market or at
least didn't try. When they did come in, that meant the end for a lot of
small brewers.
>
> Here's the deal in PA- You had to buy a CASE at a time and you
> usually wound up buying it in the same store in town. The 25 or 50 cent
> different in a six pack price of Yeungling versus Bud thus looked a lot
> different when it's $2 or more a case. And the real bargain was in
> buying it in deposit bottles and since you bought your beer at the same
> place, deposits didn't seem as much a hassle and the local beers all
> came in 12 and especially 16 bottles at prices that Miller and A-B
> couldn't compete with. Yeah, things are different these days, the beer
> market, the state's breweries, etc. (I don't know, could Shangy's exist
> anywhere else, though?) but it's NOT the only state without grocery
> store sales.
>
I want to go back to the article that started the thread. It said that per
capita beer sales are declining in Pennsylvania. With all the reasons given
in the article, it was never mentioned the possible effect liquor laws had
on sales. If one assumes that the wholesalers and distributors want to
reverse that decline then they should want beer to be made more available to
consumers and that wasn't even mentioned in the article.
-Tom W
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