For anyone who has ever lived in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, you know just how difficult it is to bring a 6-pack home with you. But thanks to that famous gas & convenience super-store Sheetz, getting your favorite brews into your fridge may soon be a little less headache-inducing (we’ll leave that up to your more frequent hangovers). According to an editorial in the most recent edition of The Pitt News–the University of Pittsburg’s student newspaper–the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will soon decide whether a lower court was wrong in prohibiting the mega-gas station chain from selling six-packs of beer, which the flagship Sheetz, located in Altoona, Pa., is currently doing:
The legal struggle that resulted in the appeal of this case to the state Supreme Court began after Sheetz applied for, and received, a license to sell six-packs at its Altoona flagship store, which contains a large seating area and a kitchen, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. According to Liquor Control Board policy, retailers can apply for a license to sell beer for takeout in six-packs as long as they sell food and meet space, seating and other requirements.
The Malt Beverage Distributors Association of Pennsylvania, which represents the state’s beer distributors, has challenged the issuing of the license, claiming that the existing legislation requires that a takeout business must also allow drinking on the premises, which Sheetz is not doing; a lower Pennsylvania court sided with the distributors.
Currently, the state of Pennsylvania enforces one of the strictest set of liquor laws in the country but still boasts a 58% alcohol-related driving fatalities rate. This ranks Pennsylvania higher than Florida, West Virginia, New York and several other states, which all allow convenience stores and gas stations to distribute beer.
