Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board raises liquor, wine prices
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- When you walk into the grocery store, you can see the prices of many items in the grocery store have gone up. Now, get ready to pay more for alcohol if you live in Pennsylvania.
Johnny Brenda's tavern in Fishtown is just starting to get its footing coming out of the pandemic and inflation is making it harder.
"It's affecting everything," manager Nick Zee said. "The chef is talking about it in the kitchen and now it's hitting us in the front as well."
Now the manager says the bar will have to start trimming the budget with liquor prices going up in Pennsylvania.
"It's just going to come down to us trying to find creative solutions," Zee said. "We're going to have to be really tight about inventory."
"They're handcuffed in this case, you know, it's not only the cost of liquor that's going up," Pennsylvania licensed beverage and tavern association Chuck Moran said "It's energy, it's labor, it's food, it's their insurances, everything's going up."
Beginning Sunday, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board is raising prices by 4% not only for bars and restaurants. You'll also see the hike in state liquor stores.
For instance, a $25 bottle of wine will now cost you $26.
The LCB says the increase is due to record-high inflation and to help offset operating costs, which have increased over the last four years.
"I bought eggs this morning and they were like $5 something a dozen for regular eggs, so everything is going up," Kathy Melsky said.
"At some point, we have to get a break and start to tamper down all these price increases," Gordon Skjeie said. "Look at the price of gas and housing and things along those lines."
The LCB says this is the first time its raising prices across the board since 2019.
But bars like Johnny Brenda's say they will have to get creative to cut costs because right now it doesn't want to charge more.
"If we can find a way to make it work we don't want to have to do it," Zee said. "We'll do everything we can to avoid doing that."
But eventually, they may not have an option.