Limited in-store sales to resume at 77 Pennsylvania liquor stores

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Limited in-store sales to resume at 77 Pennsylvania liquor stores

Brian C. Rittmeyer | Wednesday, May 6, 2020 10:01 a.m.

Louis B. Ruediger | Tribune-Review

A Fine Wine and Good Spirits employee checks a customer’s identification in Lower Burrell on Monday, April 27, 2020.

State liquor stores in Clarion, Lawrence, Mercer and Venango counties will be the closest to Pittsburgh resuming limited in-store public access on Friday, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board announced Wednesday.

The 14 stores in the four counties north of Pittsburgh are among 77 Fine Wine & Good Spirit locations in 22 counties designated in the yellow phase of covid-19 mitigation efforts.

In the four counties nearest to Pittsburgh, two will be resuming public access in Clarion County; four in Lawrence County; five in Mercer County; and three in Venango County.

Other counties in which stores are opening are Bradford, Centre, Clearfield, Clinton, Crawford, Elk, Erie, Jefferson, Lycoming, McKean, Montour, Northumberland, Potter, Snyder, Sulllivan, Tioga, Union and Warren.

A list of all stores, their addresses, phone numbers and hours is available online.

Each location has been professionally sanitized, and Plexiglas was installed at registers to provide a physical barrier between employees and customers at checkout, the Liquor Control Board said. Employees are receiving masks, gloves and frequent opportunities to wash hands.

The stores reopening to limited public access will continue to offer curbside pickup. Statewide, nearly 381,000 curbside orders valued at $29.1 million, including sales tax, were made from April 20 through May 5, according to the Liquor Control Board.

That amounted to about a third of what the state collected before the shutdown. The roughly 600 retail stores across the state brought in $6.5 million in average daily sales from January through mid March, figures show.

The board said that 11 additional Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores in yellow counties — one in Cameron County, two in Clarion County, two in Forest County, two in Jefferson County, two in McKean County, one in Potter County, and one in Warren County — are small stores with limited staffing that will continue offering curbside pickup only until more employees are hired.

The Liquor Control Board will continue accepting online orders at finewineandgoodspirits.com, fulfilling orders from more than 100 locations.

A total of 141,500 online sales worth $13.5 million, excluding sales tax, were made from April 1 through May 5, according to preliminary figures.

In the 2018-19 fiscal year, 39,000 e-commerce orders brought sales of $5 million.

Details

Mitigation efforts
The following mitigation efforts will be in place as state liquor stores resume limited in-store public access on Friday:
• Stores will allow no more than 25 people (employees and customers) in any location and further restrict numbers of customers in smaller stores.
• The first hour each store is open each day will be reserved for customers at high risk for covid-19, including those 65 years of age and older.
• Customers and employees will be required to wear masks and practice social distancing.
• Signs will direct customers to follow one-way patterns to avoid cross-traffic and encourage them to refrain from touching products unless they intend to buy them.
• Store employees will perform enhanced and frequent cleaning and disinfecting; store hours will be modified to ensure time for cleaning and restocking.
• All sales are final, and no returns will be accepted until further notice.
Source: Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board

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