Snapped at the new gas station Wawa at Germantown & DeKalb Pikes
What about the day when you can get marijuana, liquor, lottery and fireworks AND FOOD AT THE SAME PLACE!
In a truly free society, Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives would be the name of a convenience store, not a regulatory agency.
I don't mind explosives being a bit hard to get. You really don't want large quantities stored anywhere by people who don't know what they are doing. Stupidity is a much bigger problem than maliciousness. Should we need a law enforcement agency for it? Probably not.
I don't know about Philly, but in NJ this week you could demolish an entire Target or Walmart with a cigarette lighter in the main aisle. There's at least a kiloton's worth of fireworks on sale
That reminds me to keep an eye out for new accidental launches.
Can confirm, I was just at a south Jersey super Walmart yesterday and they had like 2 pallets of fireworks as soon as you walk in the door, and more pallets scattered around the store… Couldn’t buy a beer though.
Prior to 2002, there was no federal licensing requirements for dynamite although many states had their own requirements. In the 1950s, many hardware stores especially in rural areas carried dynamite.
This is a good example of the different needs and dangers of rural vs city life that should be considered when making laws. Anyone in NYC would think it insane to allow dynamite for sale at the local bodega while people in rural areas wonder how they're supposed to clear stumps and rock without it or a $50K backhoe.
We somehow assume that most people can self govern? I’m not so sure either…
boooooo. Let them figure it out
Come to Montana lol , there’s a casino in there too lol
My bureau has alcohol tobacco and firearms in the top drawer
J/k though cigarettes are dangerous.
I grew up about ten minutes from the Ohio boarder, there were gas stations where you could get live bait, liquor, cigs, and campfire food in one place.
I grew up in Arizona. It is absolutely not rare to see all of them in the same store.
AKA: Hell on Earth
The "ATF should be a convenience store" meme is getting closer and closer to reality. What a time to be alive.
They have gas stations like this in Detroit haha
EDIT: I can think of at least one that also has cocaine in the back
Only one?
My friend you need to visit the Seneca Nation of Indians in NY
buying weed at a WaWa, if it was legal and they did sell it, seems like a very risky move/easy waste of money. They seem like the type of org that would get the cheapest shit possible.
Food and stuff
They need to start selling guns too.
Agreed. That’s freedom, right.
Now do legal weed.
Is there still the weird thing where you have to pay for it separately?
Nope. Just bring it up to the counter like anything else.
Wow. It’s a revolution!!
RIPrince 😪
AND free ATM
I was at a store that didn’t sell cigarettes but sold fireball shots
Where I grew up you can buy liquor at the gas station 😂
“Beer”
So not all Wawa sells beer? That’s weird
Only so many liquor licenses to go around.
Oh that makes sense
Wawa at 38th & Spruce had seating so they could sell beer back in the 20th century.
I remember when if you wanted beer on Sunday, you had to buy it on Saturday.
And the beer distributor wasn't allowed to sell 6 packs. Smallest you could leave with was a twelve pack. You could only buy six packs from bars to-go and you had to leave the bar with it in a bag immediately.
Nothing worse than running short on Sunday and saying time to move on to hard liquor as we have no more beer in college during the late eagles games.
And only one at a time
Not even a 12pk. The smallest you could get was an 18 at most places.
You wanted a 12 you had to go to a deli or pizza shop
Of course you have to leave, otherwise people would just buy 6 packs and drink em there.
Did a law change? Will we expect to see this at other corner stores?
It’s the same law that lets grocery stores sell alcohol. There’s tables within a specific area and it sells food. It’s technically a take out food place - that lets the sell beer and wine.
It’s what Giant has a beer garden and those poles set up around it
Can the state just expand the law at this point? If all it takes is adding a few tables that no one will ever really use, then just let them get a license without the dumb work-around.
You expect PA To make anything easy? Im in my late 20’s and recreational MJ will probably finally be allowed once I’m retired lol
The Turkey Hills around me sell beer and they don’t have any tables. The only hot food they sell are the hot dogs and taquitos on rollers.
Are you sure there are no tables or a counter with chairs somewhere? I thought that was a requirement in order for a store to sell beer. I know all the local grocery stores have a seating area, but it looks like it's more for show, because who TF is drinking a beer inside Giant or Acme?
I am positive. I go there often.
The other day, I stopped at the Wawa on my way home from work and grabbed a bite to eat. While I was sitting on the curb by my bike, a car came in and ran me over.
Why are tables bad again?
Hold up. You got run over. Forget the tables, we need details.
There is no place to sit, so I was sitting on the curb.
Car came in, sped into the space I was sitting at and my legs wound up under the car before it stopped.
"Run over".
But what of your legs
The car ran me over, not the tires. . . I crawled out.
Man, fuck that!
I'm cool with tables, but it makes more sense to have them if they're serving food in general. Not as a requirement to buy a six-pack, which 99% of people are just buying to take with them. But you do make a valid point, more tables is never a bad thing.
There's a Burger King where 80 and 476 don't exactly meet that sells beer.
Things are definitely changing with regard to that though. I had to stop and do a double take the other day in a grocery store because the wine was in a normal aisle, not a special "beer garden" or anything
Will we expect to see this at other corner stores?
The reason so few stores do it is because liquor licenses are expensive. If the stores that are doing it seem to make enough money with it, maybe other stores will start.
I think the sunoco/7-11 at Penrose and Pattison has beer now too
I think there’s also a limit to how many can be given out or existing at any given time.
Yes, one per 3,000 residents per county. Once the limit is reached, you have to buy one from an existing licensee, which is what makes it expensive
Been seeing Wawa pop up a few times on the PLCB liquor license sales. Guess they can afford it.
Some Wawas sell beer. They have to get their permit but they can. There’s a Wawa in Delco that will have beer once it reopens.
I hope not.
There's a wawa near me in bucks that has this as well I believe
That's a pretty good deal on miller lite too lol
$10.99 after a rebate for buying a hoagie is a pretty sweet deal.
I just filled out the rebate form even though I’ve never stepped foot in a Wawa that has beer lmao. I bought a hoagie last week and no alcohol purchase was required
I haven't had a $10 dollar case of beer since college back in the 90s
I wonder if they have to give the discount on the hoagie because of our blue laws.
I mean, "when in rome"
Moved from Philly to LA in 2012 and walking into a grocery store and buying groceries, beer, wine, and liquor all in one trip was so fucking awesome. Then cruising down the street to buy legal medical weed? My life was changed
Sounds like weed needs to be in the grocery store
Just a matter of time
It does. He was SO close to that logical conclusion.
We’ve gone from the Blue Laws to this! Ain’t progress wonderful?
This pushes up the prices of already expensive licenses so no place that isn't a large chain can afford one anymore. There are tradeoffs.
PA still has fucked up laws though.
Yesterday I bought a 10 pack of seltzers and a 6 pack of beer at Sheetz (I'm upstate in Elk County for the weekend. They don't even know what scrapple is up here but every Sheetz sells beer) and the lady behind the counter apologized and said she could only ring up one. I'd have to leave the store and then come back in and she could ring up the other one.
There shoulda been a sign on the cooler door that spells out the purchase volume limits pretty clearly, there are at all the Sheetz around me
I saw the sign that said the "beer cave" is locked at 2am but nothing about purchase limits. Could very well be there though. I'm not mad at Sheetz, just pointing out that there are still dumb alcohol laws in PA.
Technically you should have been able to buy that. The law is that you can sell a maximum of 192 oz of beer in a single purchase. Unless I'm really bad at math, or those were pounder cans, those things would add up to 192.
My interpretation of the law is that I can also consume this alcohol at Wawa, is this true?
Yep! Any grocery or convenience store in the state needs to provide a place for you to consume it in order to sell it. (Weird rule I remember working at a grocery store fighting for their license).
Which is interesting because the Giant by me takes away all of their tables & chairs in winter because they're outdoors. Nothing indoors.
Damn. That's wild. I remember seeing alcohol at the market for the first time. It was so weird. People from places without those Quaker laws have no idea how bizarre this is to those of us not used to it. LOL.
I think Washington state is the only other one like us.
edit: this isn’t right, I have no idea why I thought this. 😐
I was going to say, WA is definitely not like this at all.
In fact, inside their grocery stores they have dedicated check out counters where you can ring up your liquor/wine/beer inside the alcohol section if you don't want to have to walk all the way to a check out at the front of the store and wait with people who are buying full carts of groceries.
It's like that in Nevada too.
Oh wow. I didn't know that.
Minnesota was also no liquor sales on Sundays until hosting the Super Bowl, haha
This is why dive and other neighborhood bars are vanishing tho. The licenses are bought up. Liquor licenses need to be reformed and not capped.
Can’t buy a license if they’re not selling them.
You're right of course. I just wish they expanded the number of licenses. Or completely revamped the whole system.
It's insane that our liquor laws are based on religious practices that most Pennsylvanians don't even observe anymore. We're so much more restricted than the rest of the country it's embarrassing. I just want to buy wine at Target like a goddamn American.
Agreed, agreed, and agreed on the first part.
There's definitely worse places to try and cop booze in this country, though. For instance, see: the South (though not including Ol' Free & Easy Florida [the South doesn't include Florida])
Beer in the wawa. Times they are a changin’
How is this possible?????
It meets the state’s “eat-in” requirement that allows alcohol sales. If there’s like “x” number of tables/seats and prepared food is served it’s kinda like considered a restaurant so they can sell alcohol.
So you can just drink a beer in Wawa now?
Yessir, Mr. Ruby, sure can.
It’s the same way grocery stores can sell alcohol. IIRC from RAMP training, it’s technically a restaurant liquor license which is why whenever a grocery store starts selling alcohol, they add a seating area as well.
And why our Trader Joe’s will never have alcohol :(
Lived all over the country and when I moved back here (originally born and raised), I went to Trader Joe’s and was like, where is the two buck chucks? I’m on a budget. They laughed at me in CC.
Happened to me when I moved to Philly. They laughed at me at Trader's when I asked where their wine aisle is :(
It hurt 😭. Couldn’t bulk buy booze from Costco either. OR GOPUFF BOOZE. I’m very concerned about the state of my life right now. I…need to be…responsible? What if want a beer from 7-11 to figure out my life? I’m so lost.
The Wawa in Glen Mills on Concord Pike has sold beer for almost 10 years. I guess they’ve finally started expanding to other stores in the state
Beer is the same price of soda now
It'll be a real life saver in the coming water crisis!
99¢ for 2l?
I worked for Wawa down south a while back. We sold beer there. I was in the throws of alcoholism. I'd always volunteer to stock the cooler. I hit it too hard one night and blacked out and walked off the job with a pregnant wife at home. It was a real dick move. That brought us back up north, where I continued my debauchery.
Finally, I went away and got serious about getting sober. I've been sober for 5 years now, and my wife and I welcomed our 2nd child last year.
To make a long story short, it is kinda weird seeing, hahahahaha
Congratulations on all of it! That's a great story.
Much appreciated
Edit: Weed helps
In Dayton, Ohio you can literally walk into the Shell Gas Station and order a flight of beers to try or even get a half gallon glass Growler of your favorite beer ALL while you’re filling up your gas. This isn’t a lie. There’s even a song about it called “Drunk at shell”.
I was more struck by seeing hard liquor being sold at a Walgreens or Rite Aid in the Midwest. I can’t believe how sheltered we are.
Id hate to be one of the 24hr Wawa workers who have to serve some drunk Philadelphian a 6-pack at 3 A.M while making milkshakes
You can’t buy a 6-pack at 3am
Here is Tucson, you can’t get alcohol between the hours of 2am - 6am.
Politicians need fatter envelopes
One of the wildest culture shocks I ever had was moving from Pennsylvania to Louisiana for college. Drive through daiquiris, hard liquor for sale at CVS, legal drinking age of 18 with a parent at participating venues…the state is bonkers. Glad to see PA is finally catching up.
Coming from Maine, PA is way behind the times lol. Go to a gas station to buy a 30 rack at 2am? No problem!
Sheetz has been selling beer for a few years pretty sure all the establishment needs to do is have a seating area for their customers to eat prepared food and it’s technically allowed. Some Giant Eagles also get away like this
fucking finally
Wawa has had beer for a while. The one in South Philly by the Navy Yard has had beer for a couple years.
I went up to NEPA to see my mom a while back and walked into the corner turkey hill and they had a beer section and it blew my god damned mind.
Seeing beer wine and liquor outside of a state shop or beer distributor will never not make my PA brain drop the clutch
Enact the Benjamin Franklin Law legalizing the sale of beer in all forms, anytime, everywhere.
Welcome to civilized society.
This law has been around for close to a decade at this point. It’s just taken a while to make its way to Philly for Wawa’s and grocery stores to do it. When I was in college at PSU once this law was passed all the Sheetz’s and grocery stores added alcohol sales immediately. I have always been surprised with how long it’s taken Wawa to get on the bandwagon
The sell beer at the Wawa in SW Philly.
Hell yeah buy a couple packs 🍻
Wait until you visit AZ.
IDK. I grew up in Wisconsin, and it wasn't unusual to see beer, wine, and hard liquor at gas stations. It's good to see PA joining civilized parts of the country.
It’s been a long time coming
Quakers punching air
You know what this state's laws really fucks up and it's a sorta new thing; canned cocktails that aren't malt liquor based. Like tog dogs or high noons. They are impossible to find.
They’re available at any liquor store…
The ones near me do not have them.
You can search the fine wine and good spirits site to find specific products nearby and see how much stores have in inventory before you go shopping
What a time to be alive!
I am glad to be alive to see a day like this come to fruition.
What's fucking dumbassery is you have to go to 2 registers if you but anything else in the store.
I remember moving to California and being flabbergasted at liquor being sold at Target and CVS. Then I forgot it was basically Pennsylvania who was the odd state out
I once bought wine at a CVS on Christmas day. We don't have to live like this.
Miller Lites taste like house keys.
I moved here last September from Texas and still confused by the laws. My tiny corner store sells beer and single shots but you have to take the shots inside the store. The WAWA by the airport sells beer but it’s a tiny section and never seen it at another Wawa. Then there’s the rules about how much you can buy at stores? And bars sell some to go?
In texas most corner stores sold beer, there was no limit. Breweries you could get beer to go but not bars. You could only buy liquor from a liquor store but they were closed on Sundays.
First it was pizza, then came beer. Wawa has beer!
That’s wild
Are they gonna be selling that 24/7? I didn't think you could sell alcohol 24/7
Wawa won't even sell you a hamburger at 4am.
You can't, lots of places cut it off around midnight, but yeah the last call time of 2 applies
there's always gotta be something conservative with PA though. I found out when a Wawa sells alcohol, then they aren't allowed to sell tobacco products... so many restrictions in PA
They sell both at the Penrose/platt bridge one
o I was at Academy and Frankford and the cashier said they don't sell tobacco since they sell alcohol and that was the law in PA. guess she was wrong
She’s quite wrong.
The Wawa on 202 near the Delaware state line sells both.
Pennrose?
I moved back home from SC, and it’s so odd to never see booze in a gas station. I guess this is county by county?
How about hard liquor at gas stations. I first saw t ft at in Maine. Blew my mind.
Fucking Ron built that.
He always builds that circle, it's his go to.
Came here to see whether anyone has said: “ Let it be both! Miller and Miller!”
This is exactly what Philly needs… great
Smh. This is never a good idea! Beer at a place where you grab gas and can conveniently get wasted in the parking lot.
In Florida you can buy a single beer aka a roadie at the gas stations. I've seen a tub of ice with individual beers for sale by the cash register.
I can't imagine anyone has ever purchased exactly one bud lite at a gas station and not opened it until they got to their destination but I suppose anything's possible.
Straight drinking and driving. lol
The Wawa by the navy yard sells beer too!
There are gas station convenience stores with amazing beer selections in Florida. I realize PA is a little behind. I lived in Philadelphia 35 years and it would’ve made buying beer a lot easier if this was available during that time lol.
Shit, I thought because of blue laws all you sell is bulk beer at Beer Zoo
WHAT
Other than convenience, meh. Back in the late 90’s and up until 2010, we’d have to go to certain delis downtown that sold craft beer. You can buy singles or sixpacks. Mind you, this was before craft beer took off past 2010.
Wawa’s selection still sucks. How hard is it to get some staples in 20 oz cans? Sip of Sunshine, 2 Hearted, Second Fiddle etc. The ones I’ve been to carry the high ABV crap and maybe you can find a Dirt Wolf and 60/90 minute that barely cuts it.
This will make you laugh.
Couple of days ago, I went into my local Wawa to get my coffee. Bumped into the cutout...said.."My bad."
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Beer for sale in a Wawa is what the OP is getting at. And yes, it is wild.