Your favorite wine or spirit could be costing you more in Pennsylvania, but you won't know until you get to the store.
The Keystone State’s system of state-owned liquor stores upped prices at least $1 on 421 items Monday. About seven percent (around 40 items) saw an increase of $2 or more per bottle.
A 2016 state law gave the agency authority to raise prices for 150 of the top-selling brands of wine and the 150 most popular brands of liquor.
The agency has not increased prices since the early 1990s. The changes won't affect sales pricing and discounts the stores regularly offer.
The PLCB refused to reveal an exact list of Monday’s price increases because they didn’t do so with other past price changes. Instead, the agency focused on how the price increases could have been more extensive.
"The 421 price increases effective today under flexible pricing represent less than 5 percent of the more than 10,000 products we offer at any given time in our stores and online, and less than 10 percent of the items carried in a Premium Selection Store," PLCB communications director Elizabeth Brassell said.
"In fact, 421 items is only 18 percent of the nearly 2,300 items subject to flexible pricing for which we have the authority to adjust retail prices."
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The announcement of the higher prices earlier in August drew criticism from a lobbyist for the Distilled Spirits Council, a national trade association of producers and marketers. David Wojnar, the council's vice president for government relations, said consumers would prefer adding more retail outlets to increading prices.
"The legislature and the PLCB should work together to better serve Pennsylvania consumers instead of trying to pick their pockets," Wojnar said.
The higher prices followed a review of costs in neighboring states, a comparison with prices of competing products and analysis of what the market will bear. The PLCB can raise prices monthly, Brassell said.
Brassell said the agency considered raising prices on 496 items but narrowed the list after negotiating "cost concessions and considerations" with suppliers.
Before the 2016 law was enacted more than a year ago, the liquor board used a standard 31 percent markup.
The Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association predicted higher prices will lead more customers to buy wine and liquor from stores in neighboring states. The association said lawmakers should "rein the state monopoly in" or privatize the system.
"They've kind of cemented our philosophy that they can't operate an effective cost structure," said the association's president, John Longstreet. "In business, when you have excessive costs, you look for a way to reduce your costs, you can't always pass along your cost to consumers."
The price increases could change how consumers shop.
"I am not going to drink any more or less. I'm just going to shop differently," Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania resident Mel Brodsky said.
