Sheetz Wins Beer Battle

The retailer's convenience restaurant will soon be allowed to sell beer, although a state distributor association is planning to repeal the state ruling.

April 30, 2010

ALTOONA, PA - First it could, then it couldn??t and now it can. A ruling handed down on Wednesday by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board allows Sheetz to sell beer at its convenience restaurant in Altoona for on-premise consumption and takeout.

"We're pretty happy with this. We hope this is the start of something good," Sheetz Inc. Vice President and General Counsel Michael Cortez told the Altoona Mirror, noting that sales could resume in days or weeks, depending on PLCB licensing conditions, a final inspection and approval.

Meanwhile, the Malt Beverage Distributors Association of Pennsylvania is planning to oppose ruling. "I'm not surprised by the approval," Mary Lou Hogan, executive secretary of the association told the newspaper. "We will file an appeal to Commonwealth Court."

The MBDA has been against Sheetz ?" and all convenience stores in the state of Pennsylvania ?" selling beer based on antiquated contentions as old as Prohibition itself: that beer should not be sold where consumers can purchase gasoline, and that retailers are not capable of properly verifying the age of their customers.

"The Malt Beverage Distributors Association has argued at every turn in this process. Their goal is to make it as difficult as possible for people in Pennsylvania to buy beer at convenient locations. They will continue to do that until they lose," Cortez told the newspaper.

PLCB Chairman Patrick Stapleton told the newspaper that there are no surprises in MBDA??s decision to appeal the ruling. "Our role is simply to apply the Liquor Code. Our job is not to question the philosophical or public policy issues."

For a brief time, Sheetz obtained a license to sell beer at its Altoona convenience restaurant, but last June the Supreme Court ruled that the PLCB improperly granted the license and the permit was denied. The ruling was the latest decision rendered against the chain on the matter, following the initial complaint lodged by the MBDA.

The recent ?" and accepted ?" application was virtually the same as the first license, Stapleton told the newspaper.

"While we maintain that Pennsylvania's beer laws must be reformed, this decision allows us to follow today's state law while serving our customers who wish to buy beer at Sheetz," Sheetz President and CEO Stan Sheetz said in a written statement.

Under the first license panned by the Supreme Court, Sheetz was required to erect a 4-foot high separation wall and make other changes to separate the beer sales from the gas sales. Cortez said he expects those requirements to be part of the new license.

Employees involved in the beer sales will receive company- and state-mandated training, he said. Many of the workers, who were employed at the restaurant when beer sales first started, already have the training.

Although Wednesday's ruling is good news, it??s not the end of the battle to sell beer.

"Pennsylvania remains one of a few states that continue to operate under a Prohibition-era set of laws, while millions of people across the United States enjoy the freedom and convenience of purchasing alcohol in convenience and grocery stores," Sheetz said. "Granting this same freedom to the residents of the commonwealth is long overdue, and we urge our lawmakers to see past state lines and special interest groups and modernize our beer laws."

For more on Pennsylvania??s myriad of liquor laws, see "Opportunity Brews In Pennsylvania" in the current issue of NACS Magazine.

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