Pennsylvania LCB Tests Wine Kiosks

The kiosks are an attempt by the LCB to "improve customer service and change its image from lumbering bureaucracy."

July 16, 2010

HARRISBURG - A state that won??t allow convenience stores to sell beer could allow customers to purchase wine from a kiosk.

"A new way to buy wine in Pennsylvania, courtesy of the state Liquor Control Board, the kiosks are elaborate vending machines, equipped with breath-test devices, that dispense wine by the bottle after a few taps on a touch screen," reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.

In June, the state LCB "uncorked" two of the wine-selling kiosks to test out in Harrisburg supermarkets. Philly residents could see the kiosks in their area come September, and if all goes well, the LCB says there could be as many as 100 kiosks in the state.

"On the whole, the program has been very successful, far beyond our expectations," LCB Chairman Patrick Stapleton told the news source.

Currently, wine is sold at the LCB??s state-run stores. The kiosks are an attempt by the LCB to "improve customer service and change its image from lumbering bureaucracy to state-of-the-art retailer," writes the news source.

Here??s how the kiosks work: The bottles are locked (obviously) behind glass doors so customers can see what??s available inside the 10-foot-high coolers, which carry more than 50 varieties of wine price from about $6.00 to $23.00 per bottle. Customers choose what they want on a touch screen, scan in their driver??s license for proof of age and swipes their credit card for payment. There is also a breathalyzer that is calibrated to reject anyone who has a BAC of 0.02 percent or higher.

The kiosk isn??t totally devoid of human interaction, fortunately, since it is dispensing a product folks have to be 21 years of age to purchase and consume. A store employee watches the entire transaction via a video camera that is also hooked into LCB headquarters. It??s up to the store employee to make sure the customer at the kiosk is the person on the driver??s license and blowing into the breathalyzer device.

No idea is a bad idea, but the wine kiosks didn??t make the cut with New Jersey-based WineCultureProject.com, which in 2009 gave the machine the honor of "Worst Wine Idea of the Year."

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