Sheetz is planning to sell beer and wine at another one of its State College area stores.
College Township Council on Thursday approved a liquor license transfer to the Sheetz at 120 Southridge Plaza, along South Atherton Street. The Altoona-based convenience store chain is purchasing and transferring the license from the former Philipsburg Super Bowl in Rush Township.
Pennsylvania’s liquor code requires approval from the receiving municipality in cases of inter-municipal license transfers before gaining approval from the Liquor Control Board.
Before the Southridge Plaza store can qualify for a liquor license, Sheetz will construct a 364-square-foot addition to the existing 5,012-square-foot store and do other remodeling to provide the required in-store seating for 30 people and modify its coolers to add a ‘beer cave.’
Attorney Mark Kozar, who represented Sheetz for the public hearing on the transfer, said the company would prefer not to offer on-premises consumption but is required to by the Commonwealth.
‘PLCB has taken the position based on an old case… that we are required to at least offer beer for on-premise consumption,’ Kozar said. ‘Given that state of affairs, Sheetz limits their consumption on premise to two beers per person… They don’t encourage on-premise consumption. There are no happy hours or daily drink specials. They don’t have draft beer. They don’t have entertainment, those types of things.’
Sheetz sells beer at 148 stores in Pennsylvania, with 32 applications pending, and Kozar said that ‘very few people sit down and drink a beer on the premises,’ at any of them.
Hours for beer sales will be 7 a.m. to 1:45 a.m. Monday through Saturday and 9 a.m.-1:45 a.m. on Sunday. Wine sales are required by law to cease at 11 p.m.
Kozar said Sheetz has a ‘100 percent carding policy’ and all IDs are verified through a scanner. Alcohol sales are only made at specially designated registers. If groups of people approach the register to purchase beer, all are required to be 21. If they are not, the sale is denied, a written record is kept and security footage tagged to correspond to the incident
All employees involved in alcohol sales take required and optional training, Kozar said.
The Southridge Plaza store, which opened in December 2011, will be the sixth in Centre County to sell beer and wine, with a seventh pending.
Beer and wine sales are offered at three Sheetz stores in Patton Township — 1780 N. Atherton St., 101 Valley Vista Drive and 223 Colonnade Boulevard — as well as at 129 S. Pugh St. in State College and 106 Savannah Lane, off Route 45 in Centre Hall.
Sheetz also plans to add beer and wine after it rebuilds its other College Township location, 765 Benner Pike, at the intersection with Shiloh Road in College Township. That store is expected to reopen in August.
Last fall, the PLCB denied an application for a liquor license transfer to Sheetz’s Wingate location, after an objection by Bald Eagle Area School District on behalf of the nearby Wingate Elementary and Bald Eagle Area High schools. Sheetz appealed the denial in Centre County Court and that case is still ongoing, according to court documents.
