The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has just recently made the decision to privitize state stores. Shopping with my mother as a child, I remember our local state store looking something like a cross between a prison and a government office which just happened to have a lot of booze. I remember bottles of odd-colored things on row after row of boring white shelves. The bland store was a real letdown after picking up beer with my dad at the local Soda 'N' Suds. Whereas the beer distributor's place of business exuded themes of manliness and blue-collar mass-consumption of alcohol, the state liquor store seemed like a place where old dweebs could buy wine to sip with their suppers. Heck, I didn't even see any old homeless people in there.

Of course, now I'm in college, and thus obtain alcohol from a different source.