Pa. report shows a drop in sales at state liquor stores

The pandemic period of unprecedented home booze consumption in Pennsylvania appears to be over, but that doesn’t mean overall alcohol consumption is down.

After record spirit and wine sales at state stores in the 2020-21 fiscal year, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board reported the 2021-22 fiscal year saw retail dollar sales drop 3.4% to $2.12 billion.

This represents a return to “near normal” pre-pandemic purchasing patterns, according to a PLCB press release. E-commerce sales also declined by 19.2% and totaled $13.5 million in the 2021-22 fiscal year.

However, PLCB achieved total sales of $3.02 billion, which includes liquor and sales tax. This marks a 3.8% increase over the prior year. It is also the first time in the agency’s history that gross wine and spirits sales have crossed over $3 billion.

Steve Kelly, spokesman for PLCB, said although retail sales were down, the agency saw a resurgence in overall licensing sales — from $228 million in 2020-21 fiscal year to $365 million in the 2021-22 fiscal year.

PLCB runs about 574 Fine Wine and Good Spirits locations, and issues liquor licenses to businesses throughout the state, like restaurants and bars.

Kelly said this could represent a shift showing Pennsylvanians are returning to bars instead of drinking as much at home coming out of the pandemic, and not necessarily that they are drinking less overall.

“Looking at the numbers it does seem to be a shift of where they are buying their alcohol,” said Kelly. “Less from (state stores) and more from licensed establishments.”

More than $839.3 million was distributed to the Pennsylvania General Fund in the last fiscal year thanks to liquor sales.

The most popular booze sold through PLCB in the last fiscal year was unflavored vodka, and the second most popular was American whiskey. Unflavored vodka was the top spirits category in 52 counties — including Allegheny and Westmoreland — while American whiskey was tops in the remaining 15 counties — which include Greene and Somerset.

Cabernet Sauvignon from California was the most popular wine sold at state stores, the red wine was also the most popular throughout most of Southwestern Pa.

Allegheny County easily took the top spot as the county to buy the most booze from state stores, totaling more than $348 million in the last fiscal year. The top three counties – Allegheny, Philadelphia, and Montgomery – accounted for 35% of statewide sales.

Westmoreland County was ranked ninth with more than $72 million retail sales in the 2021-22 fiscal year.