We have the same painful system here in Pennsylvania with wine and spirits. Everything is through state stores, and we can't even avail ourselves of direct ship

We have the same painful system here in Pennsylvania with wine and spirits. Everything is through state stores, and we can't even avail ourselves of direct shipping (unless it's direct to the state store :O). It makes finding less common items so very difficult and time-consuming. One might conclude that beer would be easier to purchase. No go. If you want to buy a bottle of beer or a six-pack, you have to go to a bar or restaurant where they can sell you up to 192 ounces of beer. Anything over that, and you have to go to a beer distributor instead where you can only buy beer by the case or by the keg (still no wine or liquor). Some grocery stores have gotten smart, and have setup little cafes that are separated from the main stores. Adding a table or two, and some gas station microwave sandwiches is apparently enough to do squeak by and sell beer as a restaurant. Naturally, no one particularly likes our system. But everyone has a vested interest. Gas stations want to sell beer (a regional chain, Sheetz, has been lobbying for changes for a few years now), but can't. Restaurants and bars don't want to lose their current monopoly on low-volume sales. Distributors fear a future where six-packs are more convenient, lest customers buy six-packs rather than a case with more beer than they want at a given time. And state store employees have been going deathly insane for years over the possibility of liquor store privatization, a separate reform that's often brought up alongside the others. Together, these groups are amongst the most influential in the state and they're not afraid to use that influence to fight reform efforts. Simply put, it's a mess. Until I read your comments about the Beer Store's rather interesting ownership, I honestly couldn't imagine how much more fucked up things could be. Ridiculous.