HARRISBURG, Pa. — Beginning today, Pennsylvanians can begin shopping online for wines and spirits -- on a limited basis, the state's Liquor Control Board said.
But based on the overwhelming demand, customers may have to wait a while before they'll even be able to access finewineandgoodspirits.com to order.
After Gov. Tom Wolf announced Wednesday during the state Department of Health's daily press briefing on the COVID-19 outbreak that he was modifying his order to close all state stores and allowing online sales, the PLCB issued a press release announcing details of the new system.
Finewineandgoodspirits.com is accepting a controlled number of orders per day, with plans to increase order capacity as fulfillment capacity increases, the PLCB said.
But thirsty customers who tried to access the site in the minutes after Wolf's announcement were redirected to a page with the following message:
"Due to overwhelming demand, the online store is not available at this time. Please try again tomorrow or in the coming days. We apologize for the inconvenience. We appreciate your understanding and patience in these unprecedented days."
Assuming that they willl eventually be able to access the website, online customers will be limited to purchasing up to six bottles per transaction from a reduced catalogue of about 1,000 top-selling wines and spirits, the PLCB said.
All orders must be shipped to home or non-store addresses, and only one order per address will be fulfilled per day.
“We understand the public wants to have access to wines and spirits during these unprecedented times, but we have a responsibility to mitigate community spread of this virus to every extent possible and make sure our employees and our customers are as safe as they can be,” said PLCB Chairman Tim Holden. “We believe that re-opening FineWineAndGoodSpirits.com in a controlled manner will allow us to provide access to consumers while also protecting our employees and consumers from unnecessary risk.”
Access to www.FineWineAndGoodSpirits.com will be randomized to avoid overwhelming the site with high traffic, prevent order abuse and prolong access throughout the day, so that order availability isn’t exhausted in seconds or minutes each day, Holden said.
“We expect consumer interest and site traffic to exceed what we’ll be able to fulfill, at least initially, so we ask that customers be patient and understand that the PLCB Is doing the best it can under extraordinary circumstances to balance consumer demand and public health,” said Holden.
The PLCB said it will be fulfilling orders from various facilities and is implementing public health best practices like facility sanitation, social distancing, and limiting the numbers of employees working in any facility at a time in an effort to protect its employees.
As order fulfillment capacity increases, the PLCB said it will consider increasing the number of orders it takes each day.
The PLCB is not considering reopening stores at this time, although the agency said it continues to monitor the situation in consultation with the Wolf Administration and public health officials.
