PA Wine Sale Change

A lot of us on here take the simplicity of buying wine at the grocery store for granted, but in several states in the US this isn’t the case. In these states it is illegal to sell wine inside of a grocery store and thus they get relegated to separate liquor stores, some of which must be state controlled. One such state with these laws is Pennsylvania, a state with some absolutely superb wines along with some truly corked laws (ah wine humor … kinda sad really). But now it seems the state has come up with a work around of sorts for this issue, one which is meeting a bit of resistance. This work around is putting the sale of wine in grocery stores in the hand of vending machines. So what’s all this about and more importantly how does it work, well why don’t we take a look.

On a global scale, alcohol vending machines aren’t really anything new. They have been around for quite some time over in Asia, especially in Japan. And then of course there are the ‘robotic’ bartenders that you can occasionally find in Europe and even a few places in the US. But the idea of selling any form of alcohol in public from a vending machine here in the US of A is a pretty far out concept. DVDs and soda sure, but buying wine needs ID and the assumption you aren’t already tanked when you’re buying it.

So how do they check this to make sure a wine sale is legal, well that’s a bit of an interesting process. Apparently after a patron has made their wine selection from the giant digital refrigerator they go through their first check. This of course being inserting your drivers license into the machine for verification. After that you have to look into a camera where a state employee sitting in an office somewhere then checks to see if you are indeed the face on said license. And then finally, which is a real downer for some, you have to take a breathalyzer. And it is quite sensitive too and will refuse your purchase if over 0.02 BAC (which is ¼ the legal limit to drive). This is in fact so low that if you’ve rinsed with mouthwash in the past half hour you may actually be denied your wine.

Honestly, I think all those checks are great as they really don’t do anything more then what you would have to prove in a typical liquor store (though they go by site rather than breathalyzer for the drunk part). But I do think the BAC requirement is a bit low, but then again it is for safety sake so I can go along with it. Though employing a large number of people to watch these video feeds to compare the license seems like overkill to me, and a bit of wasteful government spending. Why not use a facial recognition program or you know just let wine into stores normally and have cashier’s check (like in most states). But that would require a law change and apparently that’s too much to ask.

Now for those legal issues with these new vending machines, how are they getting them in the stores? As I said above its illegal to have wine in grocery stores in PA, so the state had to get a bit creative to get them in. Basically what they are doing for these machines is actually leasing the spot they are on from the stores, thus making them state run. This is a sticking point for some who don’t want these vending machines, as even though the state leases the spot they are still of course inside a grocery store. But for now that little loophole seems to be just fine for law makers. So score one for wine lovers.

So far the vending machine system has been a pretty nice success, earning more revenue than the state expected in the 2 trial stores. And costs are kept low even though the machines cost $100,000 each they are actually paid for by on machine advertising and a $1 surcharge per order. But again those off-site employees will cost money to check ID by camera, and of course there is the leasing of the ground they’re on. But in the end it is allowing wine lovers to buy wine in a place that they have wanted, while still maintaining the state operated stores and staying within the law. So the state sees it as a win, but what about the consumers? Only time will tell on that front, but if these 2 machines continue to perform as they have PA plans on rolling out 98 more of them throughout the state in due time. And who knows, maybe we’ll see them start to pop up in other states.

To find out more go to: Gizmodo.com or Reuters.com

Photo from Gizmodo.com