Vend-a-wine to expand

HARRISBURG - A pilot test of two wine-vending kiosks at suburban Harrisburg supermarkets has gone better than expected, the head of Pennsylvania's state liquor agency said yesterday, adding that 98 more machines would likely be approved in two or three weeks.

Sales at the two sites have been 20 to 30 percent higher than anticipated, a total of more than 3,300 bottles since June 21, Liquor Control Board chief executive Joe Conti said.

"The things we were most worried about, the technology, is working rather well," Conti said.

The test period has suggested that kiosks located well inside stores will produce better sales, but for practical reasons some supermarkets will have to put them at entrances, he said.

The agency is also considering suggestions about whether to change the selection of available bottles to include more Pennsylvania wines.

An earlier plan to begin installation of the 500-bottle machines in western Pennsylvania, then move east, has been changed, Conti said. Instead, they will be installed one grocery chain at a time, and all of them should be up and running in three to six months.

The machines, the first such wine kiosks in the country, require consumers to swipe their driver's license, look into a camera and blow into an alcohol-sensor device before purchasing. A board employee in Harrisburg matches the IDs with the camera images and ensures that the buyers are not intoxicated.