Apr 21, 2020 3 min read

Deemed non-life-sustaining businesses by Gov. Tom Wolf, Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board stores shut down several weeks ago in a statewide effort to mitigate spread of the novel coronavirus.

But the state reopened 176 of them Monday on a small scale for phone orders and curbside pickups. Word must have gotten around quickly. Calling the phone number at one of them – the “state store” in the vicinity of Washington Mall – resulted in a constant busy signal Monday morning.

A news release issued a few hours later asked that all inquiries be directed to its communications office, “as store staff will be busy assisting customers.”

Neighboring states were ascertaining customers’ in-state residency in conjunction with alcohol sales, which left Pennsylvanians going to West Virginia, for example, high and dry.

The PLCB is not considering opening stores to the public at this time, although the agency is monitoring the situation and consulting with the Wolf administration and public health officials, according to its news release.

Dozens of Fine Wine and Good Spirits stores are now offering curbside pickup of liquor. Participating shops are taking a limited number of orders by phone from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Saturday – or until a store hits a maximum number of orders for the day.

There is a six-bottle limit to an order, and a caller is allowed one order per day at a store. Staff can guide each through products that are available at a particular location.

Callers must pay by credit card over the phone. All pickup sales, which require arriving at a mutually appointed time, are final.

Four stores are in Washington County: 43 E. Pike St., Canonsburg; 245 W. Main St., Monongahela; Donaldson’s Crossroads Shopping Center (Peters Township); and Washington Mall (South Strabane Township).

Curbside pickup also is available at Widewater Commons, Waynesburg; Bridgeville Borough and Chartiers Valley Shopping Center, Village Square, Bethel Park; and two Uniontown locations: on Walnut Hill Road and Pittsburgh Road.

The Canonsburg liquor store on East Pike Street and Bridgeville are two of 14 locations across the state that will have a dual role, offering curbside sales not only to the public but deliveries and pickups of specialty items by entities such as bars and restaurants that hold state-issued liquor licenses.

“We’ve heard from licensees having trouble getting special-ordered product,” said Shawn Kelly, spokesman for the PLCB, explaining that the e-commerce orders for licensees is “totally different from the retail that will be available curbside.”