PA Walmart stores getting CCTV-enabled, breathalyzin' wine vending machines

[The Straight Story]

PA Walmart stores getting CCTV-enabled, breathalyzin' wine vending machines

Whenever technology is used to solve a real problem, it warms our hearts. It really does. But when technological perambulations are needed to work their way around antiquated state liquor laws (the likes of which have tormented at least one poor Engadget editor since he reached the age of majority), it just seems sad. For instance, it's illegal to sell alcohol in grocery stores in Pennsylvania, but it's not illegal to install a vending machine that dispenses wine: as long as the user is asked to take a breathalyzer test, swipe their state issued ID or Driver License, and then show their mug to a state official sitting somewhere in Harrisburg, who is keeping an eye on the proceedings via CCTV. Simple, right? Maybe not, but it does protect the state's monopoly on liquor sales. The Pronto wine vending machine is currently only available in select grocery stores in the state, but it's just been announced that the PA Liquor Control Board has given Walmart preliminary approval to put the things in some of their locations outside of Pittsburgh. We'll try one out ourselves, as soon as they start carrying Blue Nun.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/08/pa-walmart-stores-getting-cctv-enabled-breathalyzin-wine-vendi/

[hobbit709]

1. Then they should demand breathalyzer tests before buying ANY alcohol

At any bar, store, etc.

[WinkyDink]

2. 1. Untrue: Wegman's sells beer; 2. PA gets $500M/yr that otherwise would go to private hands; 3. PA

gets massive discounts for its customers, as any cursory walk through a state store would show; 4. The people agitating for private store ownership are either Republicans (like our new Governor; this is the bee in his bonnet), or they think they are being deprived of some elixir that private stores would offer them, or both.

But hey---if a DU'er wants to argue that Pennsylvania doesn't need the money*, and that Pennsylvanian employees of our state stores don't need the jobs, have at it.

*Corbett's plan would supposedly garner an influx of $2B, but one can easily do the arithmetic to see where PA would be five years down that road.

Same thing as Rendell's cockamamie desire to sell off (excuse me, LEASE for a millennium) our Turnpike to a Spanish consortium.

[tigereye]

5. I'm not a Republican - the PA state stores are the last vestige of Puritanism -

it's just ridiculous! Sure folks need the jobs, but c'mon - it's archaic. Most other states sell wine and beer in the grocery store for God's sake.

[Bunny]

8. I'm not a Republican either, and I can't stand the state store system.

It's embarrassing, archaic, and really inconvenient. And those wine kiosks are the stupidest things I've ever heard of.

Thing is, I wouldn't mind if the state maintained a monopoly on booze sales, if they were more convenient about it. What's wrong with having liquor departments in Giant Eagles, Walmarts, etc? They already have pharmacies, dry cleaners, florists, etc, why not liquor departments? They could be run by a state store employee, be open for longer hours, be open on the holidays like the stores are, and enable people to get more stuff done in one stop. All of the money generated would still go back to the state, but consumers would have more and better options.

[tigereye]

13. exactly!

:hi: How's it goin?

[tigereye]

3. our state is so embarrassing...

:cry:

[HereSince1628]

4. I would hold out for Spatlese rather than Blue Nun or

even a good Kabinett.

[T Wolf]

6. I am sure that the educated palates of Wal-Mart patrons will just love the high-quality wines

sold in MACHINES?!?!?.

Yellow Tail and Two-Buck Chuck are such fine examples of the grape...

[Earth_First]

7. I'm sure they will serve a perfectly aged NASCAR-bernet... n/t

[madinmaryland]

9. PA has some really bizarre laws. The only place in PA you can buy a six-pack

of beer is at a bar, though you have to go to a state-store to get a case of beer.

:wtf:

[JVS]

12. Beer stores are not state stores.

State stores sell liquor and wine. Beer stores are privately owned. You do have to buy cases at beer stores (although with some of the fancier beers the definition of what a case is is being scaled down.

[MgtPA]

17. In PA, there's no place where one can legally purchase 3 six-packs of beer.

Maximim of 2 six-packs in a bar, minimum of a case in a state-run beverage distributor. Just weird here...

[SoCalDem]

10. Why not just build an adjacent "bunkhouse" & rent out roooms

That way their most loyal patrons could just live there 24/7 :)

[revolution breeze]

11. I remember when Super Wal-Mart would not sell beer

in Louisiana, where you can buy alcohol at the grocery. They eventually started carrying beer, which you could buy any day but Sunday, but refused to carry liquor. Now they have the biggest liquor selection in town (except for Sam's Club).

[sarcasmo]

14. Kick.

[RamboLiberal]

15. Big super market chain in W PA has them Giant Eagle

Silly. A few feet away you can buy beer from the shelf but you have to use this stupid contraption to get wine outside a State Store or specially licensed wine store.


After nine swipes of a rejected card, five huffs into the Breathalyzer that didn't register and 20 minutes of a life too short to wait for chardonnay, Matt Dee pronounced the state's new wine vending machines cutting edge in every respect save one:

It wouldn't sell him a bottle of wine.

"This is new technology. We all know how new technology works -- it's terrible at first," said Mr. Dee, a 23-year-old nurse at UPMC Mercy. He was standing at the front of the Giant Eagle on Centre Avenue. And standing. And standing.

He tried his debit card, and the key pad wouldn't pop up.



Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10332/1106676-454.stm#ixzz17fXmw410

[mrmpa]

16. buy a gun @ walmart then

stop for a bottle of wine.

The state store system does seem puritan. However, the employees are union and well paid. The alternative of selling alcohol out of a machine or at the local market where some underpaid clerk, pressured by the boss to increase profits will sell to anyone who comes in the door, scares the be-jesus out of me.