A College senior, who established his own alcohol delivery service last week, is now seeking legal permission from the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board.
Penn Delivers was created by Alex Ball, a former Daily Pennsylvanian staff writer, this past Thursday. The service charges a $5 flat rate per order and an additional fee of $2 per item. Ball uses SEPTA to transport the alcohol and requires valid identification upon delivery.
Pennsylvania law stipulates that parties wishing to sell or distribute alcoholic beverages are required to be granted a liquor license by the PLCB. The owner of the license must also abide by all PLCB regulations.
Ball, who does not currently have a liquor license, is planning on contacting the PLCB this weekend to present his business model and address legal issues surrounding it.
He hopes to see what “is or isn’t possible.”
Ball will speak to the PLCB board before doing something that is “questionably legal.”
“I have no intention of pursuing anything that’s expressly forbidden,” he said.
Obtaining a license in Pennsylvania is based on a quota system. Only one retail liquor license is available for every three thousand people in a county.
“Pennsylvania only allows a set number of liquor licenses, you have to wait for someone else’s license to expire,” he said, adding that he assumes the license will not come cheaply.
“My understanding is, Pennsylvania liquor laws being what they are, it’ll be an investment to purchase a license,” Ball said.
The investment might prove too much to maintain the business. He said, “for someone in my position, I don’t really care to make too much an investment. It was a spur in the moment idea.”
Ball had his first customer this past week and has another four deliveries scheduled for the weekend.
Ball doesn’t consider working without a license to be a source of concern. “It’s a fairly minor issue, if it did become a problem I would comply fully,” he said.
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