"This is about consumer choice," Rafferty told several hundred people - many of them convenience-store employees - who gathered at yesterday's rally. "That's what we're trying to do by opening up the market."
Rafferty is circulating a bill that would allow beer distributors, supermarkets, convenience stores, and bars and taverns to sell everything from a six-pack up to a case of beer.
As it stands now, beer drinkers can purchase cases containing four six-packs only at distributors.
And though a handful of supermarkets such as Wegmans have recently obtained licenses to sell beer at in-store "eating areas," people who want six-packs generally have to go to a bar, deli, or corner eatery to get them - usually at a steep markup.
Rafferty's legislation would also require what the senator called "100 percent carding," meaning shoppers would always have to show identification when buying beer, whether they looked 9 or 90.
And the measure would step up enforcement of underage drinking laws, and fund it through a one-time, $25,000 fee on establishments applying for a beer license, plus an annual $2,500 renewal fee.
"We support this bill because it treats adults like adults and it protects the rights of beer drinkers," said Stan Sheetz, chief executive officer of Sheetz Inc., who attended yesterday's rally and brought with him several dozen of his store's employees.
Sheetz, whose convenience-store chain recently lost a legal battle to sell six-packs, added: "Our beer laws are backward, they're counterintuitive, they're inefficient, and they're hypocritical."
Not true, countered David Shipula, president of the Malt Beverage Distributors Association of Pennsylvania, which represents more than 450 beer distributors.
The association, he said, has no problem with a bill allowing beer distributors to sell six-packs - as long as the privilege doesn't extend to convenience stores and supermarkets.
