Wegmans wins beer ruling

HARRISBURG - Beer sales at restaurants run by the Wegmans supermarket chain got Commonwealth Court approval yesterday in a ruling that expands where Pennsylvania consumers can buy take-out alcohol.

The court unanimously rejected arguments by the Pennsylvania Malt Beverage Distributors Association that Wegmans Food Markets Inc. had created a "legal fiction" by routing beer sales through cafes attached by an interior passageway to their grocery stores.

The association will appeal to the state Supreme Court, attorney Robert Hoffman said.

Wegmans attorney R.J. O'Hara said a limit of two six-packs on take-out purchases would ensure that grocery-linked restaurants would not devastate business at beer distributors.

"We're still not like a lot of other states where you can buy unlimited quantities of beer in a grocery store," O'Hara said.

Hoffman said the grant of licenses to Wegmans would prompt other types of businesses to look for ways to add take-out beer sales to their bottom line.

"It really has the potential to transform how Pennsylvania consumers buy beer in bulk for home consumption," he said.

The ruling upheld license approvals by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board for Wegmans stores in Bethlehem and Williamsport. It apparently also pertains to beer sales at Wegmans' restaurants attached to stores in Dickson City, Lower Nazareth, State College, and Wilkes-Barre, although the court said it would issue separate opinions for each of those license applications.

Wegmans is pursuing "restaurant" licenses for Warrington, Collegeville, Downingtown, Allentown, Mechanicsburg, and two cafes in Erie. Restaurant-category liquor licenses allow beer, wine, and hard liquor to be sold for drinking at the restaurant and the equivalent of twelve 16-ounce beers per customer for takeout.

The only Wegmans where wine and liquor will be sold, at least for now, is in Collegeville, O'Hara said.