Sheetz starts wine sales in Pennsylvania
“Wine to go” has come to Pennsylvania convenience stores.
Sheetz became the first convenience chain in the commonwealth to sell wine Tuesday morning, during a media event in Shippensburg in the southcentral part of the state. The Altoona-based company has beer on shelves at seven Pennsylvania locations, including the one in that small college town.
Expanded wine sales are among changes in the state Liquor Code created by Act 39, which became law in June and went into effect in early August. The act allows grocery stores, convenience stores and restaurants to sell up to four bottles to a customer.
Sheetz did not launch wine sales at any other store Tuesday, but that is coming. And a corporate official said locales in Washington and Greene counties will likely sell beer and wine at some point, though he could not provide a time frame.
Gary Zimmerman, vice president and general counsel of the Altoona-based firm, said in a telephone interview the company “plans to have beer and most likely wine in all three” locations in Greene County. Two of the three actually exist – construction hasn’t begun on the Sheetz in Franklin Township, across from the county airport.
The others are on Route 21 in Franklin Township, near Waynesburg, and on East Roy Furman Highway in Cumberland Township, outside Carmichaels. The present Franklin store eventually will be razed, replaced by a new complex nearby; the latter is being modified.
Zimmerman was less definitive about Washington County’s two Sheetz store/gasoline complexes: on Route 19 in North Strabane Township and Route 88 in Monongahela. But, he added, “We’re hoping to bring beer and wine there too.”
Those are existing stores, Zimmerman explained, that require “modifications to comply with the laws” on alcoholic beverages.
An estimated 80-plus groceries are selling wine statewide. Giant Eagle, which started selling beer in 2009, is offering bottled wine at the Robinson Market District and Cranberry stores. The Robinson location in mid-August became the first non-state store to sell wine in Pennsylvania since Prohibition.
Giant Eagle plans to eventually sell wine at other Pennsylvania stores, including South Strabane Township and Donaldson’s Crossroads and the Market District Express in Peters. Those three Washington County locations sell beer. The Express store, on Washington Road, serves wine by the glass to diners.