Thus far, customers have been more forgiving. Kortney Zerphy, who swung by the Wegmans kiosk with boyfriend Jim Seibert about a week ago to investigate the contraption, gave it a B-plus.
Zerphy said the machine botched its shot at a perfect grade when she saw it fail to unlock the door guarding the wine for a previous customer - this reporter.
Not to worry, said the reassuring voice of the LCB employee: The customer would receive a refund on his credit card in three to five days.
"This is a testing phase, so we are anticipating glitches like that," Witalec said. She added that while "a few sporadic issues" had cropped up with the machines, no ongoing snafus had occurred.
For now, Simple Brands is not being paid by the LCB for the kiosks, Lesser said. The company gets its reward in the form of exposure - if word of success in Pennsylvania leads to future contracts with other states and Canada. And the LCB may soon add a $1-per-purchase fee to be paid by the customer and remitted to the company.
Even in the testing phase, the kiosks have become part of a decades-old debate over whether Pennsylvania should stick with the LCB and State Stores or privatize, like New Jersey. At a news conference last month, Gov. Rendell praised the kiosks as an example of the LCB's push to be more consumer-friendly.
Too friendly, says Rebecca Shaver, Pennsylvania executive director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. She says showcasing alcohol in grocery stores sends the wrong message to kids.
"It's just an excessive attempt to market more alcohol," Shaver said. "Alcohol isn't a product like milk, eggs, and cheese."
Two days before the kiosks were launched, State Rep. Mike Turzai (R., Allegheny) announced he would sponsor a bill aimed at privatizing the system.
Said Nathan Benefield, director of policy research for the Commonwealth Foundation, the Harrisburg think tank that hosted Turzai's announcement: "The government trying to imitate businesses is no substitute for true competition in a true marketplace."
Turzai said selling licenses for stores and distribution to private owners would bring $2 billion to the state's recession-wracked coffers. Rendell called this idea "fool's gold." Besides, said State Rep. Robert Donatucci (D., Philadelphia), chairman of the House Liquor Control Committee, State Stores brought in about $125 million in sales last year.
Donatucci said, "The system, believe it or not, is a good system."
Back in the wine-and-cheese section at Wegmans, Zerphy's boyfriend, Seibert, who works at an auto-body shop, questioned whether the complicated kiosks were really an emblem of a consumer-friendly system.
Asked Seibert: "Couldn't they just put the wine in the fridge?"
Contact staff writer Evan Trowbridge at 717-236-7402 or edtrowbridge@gmail.com.
