"If someone says, "Hey I can run out to the grocery store to buy things to prepare dinner and buy a bottle of wine,' people don't have to make two or three stops,'' said state Rep. Mike Sturla of Lancaster. "It's a convenience situation.''

"Everybody will look around and see there's a demand. People will say, "Why can't we have that here?' '' said state Rep. Katie True of East Hempfield Township. "Within a year, probably we will see it everywhere in Pennsylvania.''

The lease signed Wednesday involves a grocery store in Montgomery County. But two supermarket chains with stores here said they are watching the situation closely, and will evaluate whether their customers want the service.

"We'd have to take a look at it and say, what are all the guidelines, how does that fit within our future and the needs of our shoppers -- what do they want?'' said Paul Stauffer, president of Stauffers of Kissel Hill.

Giant supermarkets are "very interested bystanders'' and will watch what happens at supermarkets with liquor stores, said Denny Hopkins, Giant's vice president of advertising and public relations.

LCB Chairman Jonathan Newman said today that no Lancaster County stores are in the first wave of six or seven supermarkets that will have LCB stores.

Space is an issue for supermarkets, who have to give up square footage to the LCB, Newman said. The Montgomery County store, a Clemens Market in Blue Bell, is leasing 5,600 square feet to the LCB.

Some chains are interested in adding the space to new stores they are building, Newman said.

Supermarkets are just the latest frontier for the LCB, which is changing the way the state sells liquor.

In February, the LCB began Sunday sales at 16 stores across the state, including the Hawthorne Center store on the Fruitville Pike in Manheim Township. That store has generated $236,636 in Sunday sales.

Depending on the success of the program, more stores could offer Sunday sales at the end of the pilot program, in February 2005.

Also to boost sales, the LCB has opened discount stores close to state borders and has offered more products and accessories.

Supermarket sales will still be controlled by the LCB, something that pleases Sturla and True.

Customers will have to pay for their liquor at separate cash registers, staffed by LCB employees.

"Where you sell it is not what keeps kids from going in and buying liquor, it's how you sell it,'' Sturla said. "You have a state store employee who cards people at the checkout.''

True said she is not totally comfortable with the idea of selling liquor in grocery stores, but added, "I lose that battle because of the high demand for it. ... Times change and this is something that's coming.''

State Sen. Noah Wenger of Stevens said the program will be driven by that customer demand.

"If it's cost-effective, then I think you would see a continued expansion over the next few years,'' he said, adding, "It probably will be coming to Lancaster in the not-too-distant future.''

Stauffers and Giant said they want to see how the LCB stores will work in other areas and whether local customers will want to buy liquor along with their milk, bread and bananas.

Stauffers, which has chosen not to sell cigarettes at its four stores, would consult with management and its board, as well as look at consumer demand for liquor sales, Stauffer said.

"I think if you go into other states, they have wine and things like that in the food stores, and what we'd have to do at Stauffers of Kissel Hill, we'd have to take a look at it,'' he said.

Giant already has been approached by the LCB but has no immediate plans to add a liquor store in any of its approximately 100 stores in the state, including seven in Lancaster County, Hopkins said.

Finding space for the LCB would be a definite challenge, he said.

"We're somewhat nervous at giving up that kind of square footage,'' Hopkins said. "That's a sizable piece of territory.''

"We'll be very interested observers of this process as it moves forward,'' he said.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report).




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