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‘In-house’ perspectives I
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By Tribune-Review
Published: Sunday, March 10, 2013, 9:00 p.m.
Updated: Sunday, March 10, 2013
Only in Harrisburg! Public employees think outside the box to create a new product to fill a market demand, satisfy tens of thousands of paying customers and generate significant revenue for taxpayers, and for that they get criticized (“Lawmakers express sour grapes over LCB in-house label,” Feb. 27 and TribLIVE.com)? Only in Harrisburg!
The privatization ideologues should lose their rhetoric and focus on the facts. The success of TableLeaf wine reflects the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board's ongoing effort to give customers what they want — more selection and better prices.
TableLeaf is the fifth most popular chardonnay sold in Pennsylvania. The brand has generated significant revenue for taxpayers, adding to the $530 million that the agency provided to the state's general fund last year.
I urge the Trib to look closely at how every retailer in the nation takes advantage of private labels. It's standard practice — right up there with coupons and Sunday sales. It would be news if the PLCB were not pursuing this opportunity.
Gov. Corbett and like-minded allies in the Legislature can ignore the facts and continue to push a reckless, philosophical scheme to dismantle Pennsylvania's Wine & Spirits stores. But they would be wise to listen to their constituents who are voting with their wallets: TableLeaf is a great product at a great price, and it came about only because of innovative public employees.
Wendell W. Young IV
The writer is chairman of the United Food and Commercial Workers Pennsylvania Wine and Spirits Council and president of UFCW Local 1776, which represents some 3,000 state store workers.
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Spoken like a true union thug! Anyone with an IQ above 100 knows that independent stores in every other state have more selection and lower prices. Keep trying to sell you BS to your union friends, but more and more people in Pennsylvania are starting to realize that union employees in every sector are not good for the economy of PA.
Submitted by: Al on Monday, March 11, 2013
If the retailers in the rest of the states were run by the government, limited the consumer selection by having the same product everywhere, made it illegal to shop anywhere else and were as incompetent at business as the PLCB you may have a point. However, the idea that there wasn't a product already on the market at that price point is ludicrous. The PLCB can't even get the story straight on how TableLeaf came about which makes me wonder why they weren't innovative enough to take notes. Or is it like the kiosk cover up - they were told to destroy them? The customers i.e. the citizens, have been saying what they want for decades. There has NEVER been a scientific poll that shows support for the PLCB. The people want it out of retail completely not clinging for dear life being a poor representation of the market. Privatization IS Modernization.
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