By Gretchen McKay
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
WWR Article Summary (tl;dr) Toilet paper isn’t the only item people are stocking up on…
PITTSBURGH
Like many adults, Chris Field, of Pittsburgh, likes to unwind with the occasional glass of wine after a day of classes at the University of Pittsburgh, where in May he is set to earn a master’s degree in public policy.
Normally, he buys his reds and whites a couple of bottles at a time. Yet at lunchtime on Sunday, he pushed a shopping cart filled with more than a dozen bottles toward his car at the Fine Wine & Good Spirits store in East Liberty Shopping Center in East Liberty.
“I want to do my part to self-isolate when it gets bad,” he said, referring to the outbreak.
As of Sunday, there were four positive cases in Allegheny County, according to the the county’s Health Department.
Yet there was an element of stockpiling, too.
On Friday, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board announced that it was closing dozens of Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores and service centers in the eastern part of the state to help limit the spread and impact of the virus, which to date has tested positive in more than 3,000 Americans.
Judging from the way his fellow Pittsburghers have cleared local supermarkets of everything from frozen vegetables to bottles of hand sanitizer to disinfectant wipes and digital thermometers, Mr. Field wanted to make sure he could keep a small supply of adult beverages in reserve.
“I’m not panicking, but I want to have enough wine at home for a while,” he said.
Jeff Tobe, of Friendship, admitted that he, too, was feeling just a little bit anxious about essential supplies. Seeing so many grocery stores and even the East End Food Co-op with empty shelves, “I started thinking about alcohol,” he said as he added several bottles of Domaine Bousquet’s virgin organic red blend to his already burgeoning shopping cart.
Before panic over the virus erupted in recent weeks, a couple of bottles a week more than sufficed. Sunday’s cart held nearly a dozen bottles of red, “and I haven’t even gotten to whites yet,” Mr. Tobe joked.
Recently back in the city after a business trip to Ecuador, Mr. Tobe said all of his meetings and engagements as an international speaker have come to a screeching halt.
“So I’ll probably be holed up” for the next few weeks. “And if I self-quarantine, I’ll also need to self-medicate,” he said, laughing.
A few aisles over, Stanton Heights resident Inge Krasick attributed her sudden need for several 5-liter boxes of Franzia pinot grigio to social media.
“Facebook hype!” she exclaimed.
Even though the private nanny knew the store closings were currently limited to the Philadelphia area, “in my head they’re closing every store,” she said. Reading the sensational headlines, “I feel it’s only a matter of time.”
A store employee noted that the 17,674-square-foot East Liberty store, the biggest in the state, with more than 5,700 wine and spirits products, was unusually busy for a Sunday, with the line at the register stretching into the aisles at times. But he couldn’t comment further because PLCB staff were asked on Friday to refer all questions to the board’s communications office.
The lines weren’t quite as long at the store in the Waterworks Shopping Plaza in the Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar section of Pittsburgh. But business still appeared to be brisk for a Sunday. Andy Lasser usually shops at the PLCB store in near his home in Oakmont, but it was closed and the one in Verona was out of his favorite brand of gin.
He knew nothing of the state’s decision to shut stores until a friend told him about it Sunday morning and theorized that Pittsburgh stores would soon follow suit.
“So I’m overreacting, I guess,” he said. But we have a lot of friends, he added, “and if this goes on for a while, we want to have stuff on hand” if we get together.
According to PLCB spokesperson Elizabeth Brassell, Pennsylvania is closing all 107 of its stores in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties beginning on Tuesday until further notice. Four licensee service centers will also be closed for business indefinitely.
The state also has suspended all product tastings, bottle signings, educational seminars and other group events at all 598 stores across Pennsylvania until further notice.
Whether, or when, the 73 PLCB stores in Allegheny County will follow suit is unknown. The board is in constant contact both with the state Health Department and Gov. Tom Wolf’s office, she said, but it’s an “evolving situation.”
“We are like so many other retailers trying to figure out how to work this challenge day by day, and do right by public health,” Ms. Brassell said.
Consumers can get information on the latest closings on the store locator page of the PLCB website at finewineandgoodspirits.com.
In the meantime, she said, “our store associates are going over and beyond” in keeping customers both safe and happy.
Along with following the state Health Department’s recommended procedures for enhanced cleaning and sanitizing procedures to keep retail surfaces as clean as possible, employees are doing their best to refill shelves as quickly as possible, she said.
“We’ve also been sharing Department of Health recommendations to maintain their own health and safety” with regards to social distancing and hand washing, she said.
Ms. Brassell pointed out that consumers can still shop for their favorite wines and spirits on the PLCB’s e-commerce site, and have the purchases shipped directly to their homes. But because the site has been experiencing unusually high sales volume, officials are cautioning customers that order processing and delivery might be delayed beyond the usual one to three days.
“We have inventory,” she said.
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Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
