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WITH LOCAL BARS SELLING THEIR LIQUOR
LICENSES FOR BIG BUCKS, CONVENIENCE STORES
A N D S U P E R M A R K E T S TA K E O V E R L U C R AT I V E . . .
BOOZE BIZ
A customer buys a six-pack of Dos Equis in the Weis Market in Lititz. Since changes to the liquor laws allowed chain super-
markets and convenience stores to sell alcohol, the price to obtain liquor licenses in Pennsylvania has increased drastically.
CHAD UMBLE
CUMBLE@LNPNEWS.COM
In 2011, after more than
30 years in business, Joe
Gargano decided to start
selling beer from his small
pizza shop at the center of
East Petersburg.
Gargano bought the re-
quired restaurant liquor li-
cense from Doneckers Res-
taurant in Ephrata, which
had closed three years ear-
lier.
Gargano said he paid
the going rate for such li-
censes at the time, which
AVERAGE PRICES FOR AREA
RESTAURANT LIQUOR LICENSES
Liquor licenses can’t cross county lines, leading to regional
price differences.
DAUPHIN
$170K LEBANON $150K
to $150K to
$185K $160K
$350K CHESTER
to
YORK $450K
$400K $375K
to
$475K
INDEX
CLASSIFIEDS........... CL1
DEATHS REPORTED...A23
LIVING......................... B1
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The excitement around the college
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Walmart employees react after a gun-
man opened fire at the store Saturday
in El Paso, Texas.
MASS SHOOTING
Chaos as
gunman
kills 20
in Texas
Authorities investigating
anti-immigration screed
posted before the attack
NEW YORK TIMES
EL PASO, Texas — A gunman
armed with a powerful assault-style
rifle turned a crowded Walmart store
in this majority-Hispanic border city
FILE PHOTO
into a scene of chaos and bloodshed
Saturday, stalking shoppers in the
aisles in an attack that left at least 20
people dead and 26 others wounded,
was around $125,000 — an HOW LICENSES WORK authorities said.
amount that had changed For several minutes, the packed
3,000
Retail liquor licenses are
little in decades. governed by the state Walmart near the Cielo Vista Mall
Adding beer brought Liquor Control Board, on the city’s East Side filled with gun
some new faces who would which allows one license smoke and the echo of gunfire. Work-
often buy pizza, subs or County residents . for every 3,000 residents ers and customers, some bloodied,
of a county. Retail licenses
stromboli and then grab a per liquor license.
include restaurant, hotel
fled out the doors. Others huddled in
six-pack on their way out, and club licenses, as well the aisles or on the ground.
Gargano said. as “eating place” licenses that allow sales of beer and “Texas grieves for the people of El
But after about five years, malt beverages only. Because the quota previously had Paso today,” Gov. Gregg Abbott told
Gargano said, his beer sales applied to each municipality and has been changed reporters. “On a day that would have
began to attract a very dif- over the years, nearly every county is well over its been a normal day for someone to lei-
362
ferent kind of customer allowance. surely go shopping, turned into one
— buyers who wanted his Lancaster County has 362 retail of the most deadly days in the history
liquor license. liquor licenses, well above the of Texas.”
quota of 173 based on its 2010
“I had brokers coming at population of 519,445. The number
Authorities said the gunman was
LIQUOR LICENSES, page A8 Liquor licenses in taken into custody after he surren-
Lancaster County, of existing licenses includes 228
well over the 173 restaurant, or R-licenses, which dered to police outside the Walmart.
quota based on . are the most common type. Manuel Uruchurtu, 20, had just
the 2010 census. Because the state isn’t creating paid at the cash register and was
new restaurant liquor licenses, walking out of the store when he
anyone who wants one has to buy it in the private market heard the sound of shots. He turned
from someone who has one. The Liquor Control Board around and saw the gunman holding
regulates license transfers but doesn’t track sale prices. a long gun and wearing what looked
While a provision in Act 39 allows the state to auction off like shoulder pads. As Uruchurtu fled
BERKS a small number of expired restaurant liquor licenses, the the store, he saw two bodies on the
majority of licenses are acquired through private sales. ground outside, one surrounded by a
pool of blood.
73
“I saw people crying: children, old
WHAT IS AN . people, all in shock,” he said.
R LICENSE? EL PASO, page A6
LANCASTER The LCB oversees 73 types of
Different types . licenses, but convenience stores
of liquor licenses . and restaurants must use an RELATED COVERAGE
or permits (14). What we know about the suspect
R license, just like traditional
in the deadly mass shooting in El
restaurants. With an R license, the
Paso, Texas. Page A6
stores must set up a semblance of
a restaurant, with a dining area of at least 30 seats and A list of some of the deadliest mass
food preparation on site. Beer sales also must be rung shootings in the United States in the last
SOURCE: LIQUOR LICENSES SALES PA.-N.J. up from a dedicated register. two years. Page A6
88 65 H
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