The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board defended its decision Wednesday to shutter nearly 600 retail stores virtually overnight in March as the coronavirus pandemic swept across the state.
PLCB Chairman Tim Holden told the Senate Law and Justice Committee that while no formal vote had been taken to close the state-run Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores, communications with Gov. Tom Wolf about the virus’s lethality and contagiousness influenced the decision.
“I think we made the right decision,” he said. “We had to protect our employees and our customers. There’s no question about it.”
Holden said the PLCB closed the stores long before any employees tested positive for COVID-19. Meanwhile, 640 grocery and food plant workers represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1776 – the same organization PLCB staff belong to – have tested positive and seven have died, so far.
Senate Republican leadership, however, questioned the PLCB’s authority to make such a sweeping decision – especially without any formal record of doing so.
“This is extremely troubling,” Sen. Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, said. “Zero board vote, means zero transparency on the path to shut down – and for that matter to reopen – the state’s system for the sale of wine and liquor. And all of that points to zero accountability.”
“By all appearances, the PLCB neglected its oversight responsibilities in shuttering the state’s Fine Wine & Spirits stores,” Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre, said. “Chairman Holden does not appear to be guiding this ship but rather it is being steered in secret and at the direction of the Wolf administration.”
In the eight weeks since the stores’ closures, the PLCB launched online ordering, home delivery and curbside service. The agency website and stores’ phone lines, however, were not prepared for the onslaught of customers, Holden said. Despite the logistical issues, sales between April 1 and May 5 have nearly tripled last year’s revenues, generating more than $13.5 million.
Some 77 locations in the western and northern regions of the state will resume “limited in store access” on Friday as 24 counties progress into the yellow phase of Wolf’s economic reopening plan. More locations will join when the southwestern corner of the state moves into the yellow phase on May 15.
