You’ll soon pay 4% more for many popular wines and spirits in Pennsylvania – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Your favorite bottle of wine or liquor may cost you more in Pennsylvania — and soon.
With 10 days’ notice, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board on Thursday announced a 4% price increase on about 3,550 popular wine and spirit items, sending restaurant owners scrambling to order additional supplies of such popular labels as Ketel One and Captain Morgan before Jan. 15.
Retail customers at the state’s Fine Wines & Good Spirits stores will also see the increase that day. The prices of special-order products, seasonal items, and clearance items will not be affected, the PLCB said.
The increase will tack 80 cents onto that 750ml bottle of Fireball that now retails for $18.99, for example. Even those shot-size bottles that retail for 99 cents will rise to $1.03, plus sales tax.
Pennsylvania’s liquor ecosystem — including sales and marketing brand representatives, distributors, and restaurant and bar owners — apparently was caught flat-footed by the news. Typically, they get more notice of price increases, which usually take effect at the beginning of a month, when it’s easier to budget.
Asked about the timing, a PLCB spokesperson said: “The items and implementation plan were just finalized in recent days.”
Nearly 400 items on sale during January will remain on sale through the end of the month, and then will be subject to the price increase, the PLCB said.