Pa. liquor stores expand reopenings
As Allegheny County and a dozen other southwestern counties move into the yellow phase of Gov. Tom Wolf’s reopening plan on Friday, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board will open 155 Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores in those counties to customers, but with some safety precautions.
The PLCB has published a list of all 232 open stores on its website here.
As was the case in the first northwest and north-central counties to move into the yellow phase on May 8, the PLCB is letting customers come in to many stores, but with limits on how many at a time, requirements that they wear masks, touch only what they are buying and practice social distancing, which will be encouraged by measures such as oneway aisles and clear plastic shields at checkout, plus new signs.
Seventy-seven of 88 stores in 24 counties opened on May 8, and some customers traveled from redstatus counties to be able to shop in what turned out to be an at-times busy, but orderly reopening of those stores.
Stores opening on Friday include 71 in Allegheny County, three in
Armstrong County, nine in Butler County, seven in Fayette County, two in Greene County, four in Indiana County, 10 in Washington County and 23 in Westmoreland County.
Beaver County remains in the red phase, so no stores will reopen there yet.
Friday’s openings are to include four stores in northern counties that weren’t able to open May 8 due to staffing issues: New Bethlehem, Clarion County; Tionesta, Forest County; Smethport, McKean County; and Galeton, Potter County.
PLCB Press Secretary Shawn M. Kelly says all stores in the 13 soon-to-be-yellow counties will be open, but some have modified hours and days of operations due to staffing. “For many of these locations, their hours of operation are almost exactly the same as they were preCOVID-19, except they will close one hour earlier to allow for the store to be cleaned and restocked.”
The first hour of each day will be reserved for older customers and others at higher risk for COVID-19.
Under the Wolf administration’s plan, in-person retail is allowed if businesses follow proper safety and sanitation measures, but curbside and delivery is preferred.
As before, some Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores will continue to offer preorders by phone of up to a dozen bottles with curbside pickup, and customers can still shop online at finewineandgoodspirits.com, though that e-commerce site continues to frustrate would-be shoppers because it’s only accessible randomly and in a limited way.
In yellow-phase counties, restaurants and bars are allowed to sell food and drinks to go, as are breweries and distilleries. Beer distributors have been allowed to remain open, and many grocery stores also are selling beer and wine to go.