Starting early next year, the state agency that controls the sale of wine and spirits in Pennsylvania will begin revamping its 621 stores, hoping to erase their decades-old image as dingy, poorly run operations that are a necessary stop on the way to buying a bottle of wine.

The stores will get everything from a new name and design logo on the outside to a new layout on the inside.

The LCB is calling it a total "rebranding" and has hired an outside consultant for roughly $3 million over two years to help with the makeover.

"This all started because we asked our customers what they liked about our stores and what they didn't like," said LCB chairman Patrick J. "P.J." Stapleton III.

That survey, conducted last year, revealed the agency had an image problem. Stapleton said shoppers didn't know what to expect from one store to another. Some had a good selection of wines and an interesting look; others were small, cramped, and staffed with workers who weren't knowledgeable or particularly helpful.

A customer typically spent only eight minutes in a State Store, said Stapleton. And shoppers in urban and suburban areas, like the Philadelphia region, were the ones who were most dissatisfied.

"We realized we had to do something," said Stapleton.

Enter Landor Associates, a high-profile firm whose clients include FedEx, Verizon Wireless and Kraft Foods. The LCB will pay San Francisco-based Landor between $3 million and $3.7 million to recommend ways to revamp the stores so that customers spend more time and feel more comfortable in them.

In addition to the new name, the stores' layout will be changed to make wines and spirits easier to find. Store clerks will be schooled in the finer points of wine selection so they can recommend bottles. Ditto for spirits. And customers will be encouraged to sample new wines and spirits depending on the foods they are eating or recipes they are trying.

Beyond that, Stapleton would not give any more detail yesterday about the makeover. He wouldn't even reveal his favorite picks for names for the stores. Most now are called Wine & Spirits Stores or Wine & Spirits Shoppes.

Stapleton did say that customers should start seeing changes in some stores in the first half of next year.

Not everyone believes the LCB's makeover will translate into contented customers. Former LCB chairman Jonathan Newman called sprucing up stores "only one piece of the puzzle."

He said the LCB needed to work on making its prices more competitive, particularly because wine and spirits in Pennsylvania are heavily taxed: a 6 percent sales tax - and an 18 percent "emergency" tax - on top of the 30 percent LCB markup that customers pay.

"More cosmetic changes, like changing signs and names, are creative but don't address that more fundamental problem of competitive pricing," said Newman, who resigned from the Liquor Control Board early last year and has launched a private company supplying out-of-state wine retailers with discounted wines.

Outside a tiny liquor store in Bridgeport yesterday, customer Sharon DeJoseph said a spiffy new image probably wouldn't make much difference in her shopping experience.

The store is what DeJoseph describes as "mom-and-pop." There are three short aisles, bare walls, and not much to catch the eye apart from the bottles and signs above them.

"I run in, get a bottle, and run out," said DeJoseph, of West Conshohocken. "It's not like I hang out here."

At the wine and spirits store in Media - one of the LCB's premium-collection stores recently renovated - customer Lily Ann Hoge agreed.

"I don't care about decorations," said Hoge, 65. She said there used to be more stores closer to her Swarthmore home. Now she has to drive farther.

But Ronnie Rodgers, 68, of Media, said the store's new look made a difference in his shopping experience.

"It is just not like the State Stores when I grew up. They are very well run, well prepared," he said. "You feel good."

Inquirer staff writers Mari A. Schaefer and Kristin E. Holmes contributed to this article.