Comments on: SLO as in "Slow"

By: daw

daw — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 21:14:38 +0000

With respect to the intent of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board stores, or at least what their employees think it is, I will just repeat the quotation I’ve posted here before, from liquor store employees who were picketing their own workplace with placards of bible verses, to protest it being open for a few hours on Sunday. “We’re supposed to be the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. Selling liquor willy nilly whenever anyone wants it, that’s not control! That’s madness!”

By: David McWherter

David McWherter — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 15:23:47 +0000

I’ve had basically the same SLO process on a couple of occasions, even when ordering nothing-out-of-the-ordinary. It’s awful.

I’ve ended up speaking with our district manager, and he seems a nice guy, with good intentions. I always feel better after talking to him, but I get the feeling that nobody has the power/time/money to fix their customer service quality problems.

WCE: I think the original intent was to keep people from getting as much alcohol as we were coming out of prohibition (To a prohibitionist, it’s probably better to force purchase from the state than from random stores) — and today the main issue is to ensure that alcohol is handled responsibly and minors can’t buy it and such (presumably, allowing private stores to enforce these laws will result in more minors buying alcohol). On the plus side, the PLCB is huge, and has some purchasing clout to get alcohol cheaper (but it’s usually never seen by the consumer, due to 18% alcohol taxes on top of that).

By: green la girl

green la girl — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 04:55:02 +0000

Hilarious — except that it cost you so much time! That said, dude, you order some v. obscure stuff

By: Benoit

Benoit — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 04:44:57 +0000

Chris: The PLCB is incentivized exactly as its founders envisioned: drunks will be drunkards, but reasonable people drink less. A lot less, in my case; I can’t be bothered to jump through all these hoops, so I go for maybe a bottle every other month, and hardly ever any beer.

Whether this is sane social policy is another question.

By: peterb

peterb — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 04:37:03 +0000

WCE, I am simply too bitter to be able to answer your question effectively. The only reasonable theory that I can come up with is that the Commonwealth and the people associated with its liquor monopoly have a deep and unremitting hatred for the planet and everyone living on it.

By: WCE

WCE — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 02:55:10 +0000

Wow. That’s amazing. Of the 373 separate tequila sku-s our local colossus has on hand, Los Abuelos isn’t one of them. Now I definitely want to try it. They say they can get it for me in a week.

Never having lived in a state with state controlled/operated liquor stores, what’s the logic to having them around? Do you get better prices, or is it just the state protecting you from yourself?

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 00:41:33 +0000

Atleast you don’t have the nutt-ball blue-laws like in Virginia? It’s too bad the PLCB hasn’t been properly incentivized to make the SLO system easier and more friendly.