Growing up in North Philly, the state liquor store was a fixture in our community. I can still see it in my memory to this very day (located right on Broad street not too far from the old Deliverance church (which used to be a theater). Both of my parents used to drink which is probably why I remember it so well. Since that time, my family moved out of Philly and moved to New Jersey. My parents also kicked drinking so the liquor store became nothing more than another one of those stores I have never shopped or care to (except to get some Bon Ton potato chips–barbecue of course).
Being out of the ‘drinking’ loop and away from Philly, I was surprised to find out that State stores were still very alive and well in Pennsylvania and in other states. As expected, government seems to not be doing a good job in this venture.
(thepittsburghchannel.com) A Team 4 investigation found that despite what many people believe, dozens of state liquor stores are losing millions of dollars a year, which is costing taxpayers money.
The number of money-losing stores is increasing every year. The head of the Liquor Control Board said he’s trying to close unprofitable stores, but sometimes politics prevents that from happening, which lends ammunition to critics who say the government should not be in the business of selling booze.
[...]
The store at 959 Liberty Avenue was the third-biggest money-loser in the state last year with $61,000 in red ink.
But that’s not the only example where the state LCB competes with itself.
The Stowe Township store lost $52,000 last year. There’s another store less than half a mile away in Kennedy Township. A mile in the other direction, in McKees Rocks, is another state store.
But does it make sense to have three stores within a two-mile radius of each other?
“The simple answer would be probably not, but if I were to look at those stores, I would look at the demographics,” said P.J. Stapleton of the LCB.
Team 4 found 75 state stores lost money last year, a 53 percent increase from just two years earlier when 49 stores ran in the red.
[...]
“The fundamental core question is should the government be in a business that’s providing a consumer good?” said Stalder. “This is not normal business.”
So, how unusual is this business?
The LCB spends millions of dollars a year promoting the sale of alcohol, and it also spends millions trying to prevent the sale of alcohol to minors.
While there’s plenty of talk in Harrisburg about privatizing the turnpike, there is little effort to privatize the state stores. That’s because of an unusual alliance between Democrats, who want to keep union jobs in the stores and Republicans, who want to keep tight control on liquor sales. (source)
I also came across a search that yielded roughly 75 state liquor stores located in mostly Black communities throughout Philly.
Your tax dollars at work!
