Sheetz starts petition for beer sales in state

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ALTOONA - Beer is locked up in Pennsylvania and needs to be freed from archaic state liquor laws, Sheetz Inc. officials said Wednesday.

The Altoona-based company, with about 200 locations in Pennsylvania, has started the Free My Beer campaign, an online and paper petition effort to urge lawmakers to allow beer sales at grocery and convenience stores.

The company and others have tried traditional lawmaker lobbying to change the laws, but it hasn't gotten the General Assembly's attention, so it's time to take the effort to the people, 70 percent of whom want expanded beer sales, company president and CEO Stan Sheetz said.

"The sign-ups match the polls," he said. "They'll say yes. This is not rocket science. They just want to be able to buy beer in Pennsylvania where they want. Why is beer locked up like this? Nobody has a good reason for this."

In addition to the petition drive, part of a larger effort promoted by the Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association, Sheetz is continuing its effort to obtain an eating place malt beverage license for its convenience restaurant at 1900 Pleasant Valley Blvd., Chairman Steve Sheetz said.

Ohio Springs Inc., a Sheetz subsidiary, lost its license to sell beer earlier this year after the state Supreme Court ruled that the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board improperly granted an eating place malt license for the corporation's convenience restaurant at 1900 Pleasant Valley Blvd.

Sheetz has since reapplied for the license, saying it will allow on-premises beer consumption as all eating place malt licensees must do as a result of the Supreme Court's ruling.

Steve Sheetz said he and his brother, Bob, talked about selling beer in Pennsylvania convenience stores 40 years ago when the company had only three stores and was opening a fourth. The company has grown to more than 350 locations in Pennsylvania and five states, including states where store beer sales are permitted.

Beer sales expansion to grocery and convenience stores has been staunchly opposed by the Malt Beverage Distributors Association of Pennsylvania, which filed the lawsuit that stopped the sales at the Pleasant Valley Boulevard location.

"They're certainly free to do this," association Executive Secretary Mary Lou Hogan said. "We have said and still say that it takes a legislative change to allow a supermarket or convenience store to sell beer in Pennsylvania. I think it was an end run around the Legislature through the PLCB in what the state Supreme Court called a loophole. Sheetz is simply acknowledging that."

The petitions will be sent to lawmakers.

State Rep. Rick Geist, R-Altoona, and state Sen. John H. Eichelberger Jr., R-Blair, each said he has no opinion on whether beer sales should be expanded in Pennsylvania.

"I know in the past there has been a lot of push from people who don't want to do it," Geist said. "I haven't been lobbied about this for about a year."

Eichelberger said he has spoken with both Sheetz and the beer distributors association about the issue.

"I need to see all the evidence," he said. "I think there will have to be some changes made, but this is a decision -with a discussion and a lot of public hearings - that needs to be properly made by the Legislature. This is a decision that will affect too many people in Pennsylvania."

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Mark Leberfinger is a staff writer for the Altoona Mirror newspaper.