In this April 16, 2020 photo people line up to purchase Pennsylvania made liquor at Pennsylvania Libations in Pittsburgh's Strip District. The Pennsylvania liquor control board closed the Pennsylvania state-owned stores that retail nearly all of Pennsylvania's liquor in March, driving up demand from the state's distilleries, which have been allowed to continue production and sales, although some report stockpiles are rapidly drying up.
Gene J. Puskar / AP Photo
Gene J. Puskar / AP Photo
In this April 16, 2020 photo people line up to purchase Pennsylvania made liquor at Pennsylvania Libations in Pittsburgh's Strip District. The Pennsylvania liquor control board closed the Pennsylvania state-owned stores that retail nearly all of Pennsylvania's liquor in March, driving up demand from the state's distilleries, which have been allowed to continue production and sales, although some report stockpiles are rapidly drying up.
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(Philadelphia) — A week after launching curbside pick-up at 176 of its stores, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board is expanding the number of locations offering this service to 565, starting Monday.
The procedure for placing an order remains the same: Call ahead to your local Wine & Spirits store and queue up at the appointed time to receive your order of up to six bottles. Orders will be taken on a first call, first served basis, with phones opening at 9 a.m. Monday through Saturday.
Each location can handle between 50 to 100 orders a day.
“We hope that adding hundreds more locations for curbside pickup will help us get through this surge of demand for wine and spirits,” said PLCB Chairman Tim Holden, asking customers to “be patient.”
Matt Rourke / AP Photo
A pedestrian walks past a boarded up Wine and Spirits store in Philadelphia, Friday, March 20, 2020.
For a full list of stores offering curbside pickup by county, click here.
State-run liquor stores shut down in mid-March, but the PLCB began taking online orders on April 1. Demand for both online orders and pick-ups have overwhelmed the systems, to the frustration of thirsty consumers. In the first round of curbside pickup locations, $3.64 million in booze was sold in the first four days.
“We acknowledge that Pennsylvanians are frustrated with busy signals and want broader access to wine and spirit,” said Holden. “We’ve made improvements to process orders faster, expand the hours we take orders by phone, and be more flexible in scheduling pickups, even the same day, if pickup appointments are available.”
Alcohol is also available for sale directly from breweries, wineries and distilleries, as well as restaurants offering takeout orders, grocery stores and beer distributors.
One thing that’s not coming any time soon is in-store shopping. The board said it “is not considering reopening stores to the public at this time,” according to a recent press release.
WHYY is the leading public media station serving the Philadelphia region, including Delaware, South Jersey and Pennsylvania. This story originally appeared on WHYY.org.
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