Groups picket against alcohol in grocery stores

Eggs. Milk. Bread. Whiskey. Could you buy it all on a future visit to your local Pennsylvania… Eggs. Milk. Bread. Whiskey. Could you buy it all on a future visit to your local Pennsylvania grocery store?

Possibly, if some state officials in Harrisburg have their way. While the sale of alcohol in Pennsylvania is limited to state-owned stores for now, you soon may be able to find your Jack Daniel’s next to your Apple Jacks at supermarkets across the “Keystone State.”

But two groups have joined forces to fight this pending legislative change, claiming it will have sweeping social and economic repercussions for the residents of Pennsylvania.

The Independent State Store Union, along with Pennsylvanians Concerned About Alcohol Problems, demonstrated outside the State Office Building Downtown with an informational picket last Monday and Tuesday, Aug. 25 and 26. Passing out fliers that read, “Say no to liquor at grocery stores,” the coalition promoted its bifurcated mission to maintain job stability for liquor employees, whose jobs might be threatened if alcohol became available in places other than state stores, and to limit the expansion of alcohol availability for the general public.

The Pittsburgh picket followed a similar demonstration at the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board Northwest Office Building in Harrisburg, on Tuesday, July 1, by the Pennsylvania Alcohol Control Team, a group comprised of state-store union and PCAP members, along with members of United Methodist Witness of Pennsylvania.

PCAP, a non-profit organization with non-denominational ties to the church, maintains an abstinence-based philosophy regarding drinking, which it teaches to youngsters through its school program. The group supports the state-owned system currently in place, believing its regulatory practices help to moderate drinking and curb the social problems associated with alcohol abuse.

But that regulation would decrease if liquor were put on supermarket shelves, said Brian Smith, executive director of PCAP and spokesperson for PACT, who was in town for the two-day picket. Proponents for the decision, he said in a press release from the ISSU, are newspapers “that are eager for and currently deprived of alcohol advertising dollars.”

Efforts to expand the sale of alcohol by what the press release calls “The Out of Control Board” have coincided with a $104 million cut in drug and alcohol treatment services, according to the statement. The sale of alcohol, he said, should not be rooted in profits, but responsibilities.

While Smith admits that the state-store system, with its limited locations and hours, affords an inconvenience to adults, he says it is an inconvenience that responsible adults should be willing to accept for the greater good of Pennsylvania.

Bill Epstein, director of communications for the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, disagrees.

“Why don’t we just close all the [liquor] stores in Pennsylvania and make people drive to New Jersey or Delaware?” he said. “Would that be a better idea?”

Epstein decries the assertion that the move to expand liquor sales implies a lack of social responsibility on the part of the LCB.

“We take very seriously our responsibility to make sure wines and spirits are not sold to underage or intoxicated drinkers, and, frankly, we are very proud of our store employees,” he said, adding that the LCB spends millions of dollars a year on alcohol-education programs.

“What you are seeing out there is what I would call ‘semi-prohibitionists,'” he added, referring to the picketers.

While the union of an organization rooted in alcohol abstinence with that of one rooted in alcohol consumption may seem a little peculiar, Smith is quick to acknowledge that the union’s primary concern with the grocery-store issue is rooted in economics.

I don’t think there is any doubt about that,” he said. “They have a vested interest in keeping their jobs. But the leadership has exhibited a consciousness in public policy that makes sense.”

The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board reported a 9.6 percent sales increase in the first eight weeks of the fiscal year, according to a press release, growth it attributes to opening reduced-price outlet stores, improvements in existing stores and the introduction of Sunday hours at 10 percent of its locations.