Wine & Spirits Stores

I special ordered a case of wine from the PLCB hotline in early July — something that I wanted to drink during the summer. In civilized states you can order a case of wine with a few clicks and the UPS man brings it to your door in 2 days. Here I was told (after a long convoluted process involving phone calls and emails back and forth with cc: s to various parties and a 50% deposit) that the wine would be delivered to my nearest liquor store in a month or so and I would be called when it arrived. A month went by and I never received a call and then I got busy and went on vacation. Today I remembered about the wine so I called the «Hot Line» and they told me that the wine had been sitting at my local store (probably in a hot storeroom) for a month, but they didn’t know why the store hadn’t called. I called the store and they had my wine, but claimed that they did not have my phone number, so that’s why they never called me.
It was clear to me that none of these people really care whether you buy anything or not — they are just civil service employees and you might as well be dealing with the DMV. Privatization of the PLCB is around 70 years overdue. The Berlin Wall has fallen but the PLCB still stands.

Ardmore has a much better selection. This is a smaller W&S with limited selection. Staff is nice enough but not all that informed. This must be what it was like in Russia before the wall fell. If you have time go to Ardmore. It’s bigger with a better selection.

This W&S store is nice and big, the staff is very helpful and willing to go out of their way to help you with whatever you need. Their climate controlled room here is the largest in the state! Awesome, I’ve been to one in Wayne that felt like I was in a cold closet. But this place was HUGE! You need to check it out.
Nothing here is cheap, compared to other states we pay a lot more for wine and spirits.

This rating is against the other PLCB stores, and not against any store in any other state. The PLCB system is vastly inferior to most other premium wine stores in other states. Sometimes, however, the Chairman’s Selection wines are a real bargain.
Bryn Mawr’s wine selection is interesting, it is not as top-​of-​the-​line as Ardmore, but the temperature-​controlled room is quite large and has a very widely distributed selection. This one is one of my favorites in the PLCB system.