Beer has a big presence in one Berks supermarket, and more grocery stores are likely to follow suit in the months to come.

And don't be surprised if the frosty brew becomes available at your neighborhood convenience store.

Weis Markets began selling beer at its Broadcasting Square store in Spring Township on Nov. 13.

And Sheetz, which has several convenience stores in Berks, has mounted a petition drive to get state laws changed so it can sell take-out beer in its stores.

Others may be follow, including the Shurfine grocery store in South Heidelberg Township, which received approval from local and state officials to sell beer and wine last spring but has yet start.

Many Berks Countians who travel to neighboring states such as New York and New Jersey are accustomed to seeing beer for sale in grocery stores.

So why is the beverage starting to make similar inroads here?

Contrary to the general belief that the laws have changed to allow for grocery store beer sales, it's actually changes to the stores themselves that have opened the door.

"This has been marketplace-driven," explained Nick Hays, press secretary for the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB). "The laws haven't changed, the regulations haven't changed and our interpretation of the laws hasn't changed - the marketplace has changed."

Hays pointed out that in recent years supermarkets introduced numerous shopper-convenience concepts in their stores, such as pharmacies, delis, even day care centers. Having beer available for sale is an extension of that convenience concept, he said.

"If they meet the requirements for the license, we have to approve it," Hays said.

Those requirements vary, depending on what type of license is sought. In the Weis case, the license to operate a café at its Broadcasting Square location was actually bought from Boscov's in Muhlenberg Township and allows for only the sale of beer, as opposed to other licenses that permit the sale of wine and other alcohol.

Weis had to meet certain state-mandated conditions to operate the café, including having a minimum of 30 seats, an entrance separate from the grocery store entrance, and cash registers dedicated solely to café transactions. The café can sell beer to be consumed on the premises or for takeout, and takeout is limited to 192 ounces of beer - two six-packs plus a four-pack.

Spring Township supervisors, whose approval was required, added two other mandates - beer can't be sold between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. and the license can't be transferred for at least five years.

Dennis Curtin, public relations director for Weis, noted that the Sunbury, Pa.-based company has gone beyond what is legally required of them to sell beer.

Weis mandates that cashiers, supervisors and managers who work in the café receive special training available through the state-certified Responsible Alcohol Management Program.

This program teaches such things as how to detect fake identifications and determine when someone is becoming intoxicated. In addition, Weis will not allow anyone under the age of 21 to be a cashier in the café, Curtin said.

Weis began selling beer at other locations in the Keystone State about 2½ years ago, and now has it in stores in Lehigh, Lackawanna, Monroe, Northumberland and Luzerne counties, Curtin said.

There are no immediate plans to offer the beverage at any other of its Berks locations, in part because a certain amount of space is needed to set up a café, he said.

He wouldn't be specific when asked how sales were going at Broadcasting Square, other than to say the venture has been successful so far.

"We view this as another convenient option for our customers," Curtin said.

But shopping for beer in a supermarket setting or a convenience store for that matter doesn't sit well with members of the Malt Beverage Distributors Association of Pennsylvania, a trade association representing more than 450 retail and wholesale beer distributors in the state.

Thomas Derr, owner of West Lawn Beverage and a regional director of the association, publicly opposed approval of the Weis operation.

"These licenses were not intended to be used the way they're being used, and the PLCB is looking the other way," said Derr, whose family has operated the distributorship along Penn Avenue in West Lawn since 1951. "If the supermarkets want to sell beer then they should have the laws changed to accommodate that, not twist the current laws around to meet their needs."

Derr said the Weis café's beer sales have not had any noticeable impact on his business.

"They are priced much higher than we are and they don't have the variety that we do," he explained.

But if all of the supermarkets and convenience stores start selling beer, "we're talking about a different ballgame."

Derr noted that the association has taken the matter to court and is awaiting a ruling by the state Supreme Court as to whether supermarkets that sell beer are doing so illegally.

Curtin counters that Weis has followed the law and other requirements associated with selling beer.

"We comply with all the rules pertaining for qualifying for a license," he said. "We certainly don't sell cases of beer. We've made a good-faith effort to sell in the café atmosphere and we've been very above-board with it."

But making beer more readily available to the masses doesn't sit particularly well with another group, Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD).

Although it doesn't want to engage in a debate over where beer and other alcoholic beverages can be sold, MADD is concerned that more availability leads to more consumption, said Rebecca Shaver, state executive director of MADD Pennsylvania.

Shaver said that even though MADD does not have a formal position on the matter, it believes supermarkets are not an appropriate setting to sell beer because the beverage is not a typical grocery item.

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