I make my living writing about beer and whiskey. I've learned enough to know I don't know as much as I'd like to, we'll put it that way.
Well, actually, the liquor and wine situation is more similar to ON. The state owns all the liquor/wine stores in PA, owns and operates. They do all the wholesaling and retailing, and bars/taverns/licensees MUST buy their booze from their local "state store." It's a set-up known in the U.S. as a "control state." There are still 11 of them (I think, might be fewer). PA has come a long way in the past five years with loosening up their system and being more responsive to customers, but it's still bullshit: they should do away with the state store system, not tinker with it.
The beer situation is an odd one. Beer is sold at retail one of two ways. In the "distributors," privately-owned off-premise stores, beer is sold only by the case and keg, nothing smaller. They can only sell beer, beer paraphernalia (glasses, books, magazines related to beer), soft drinks, and snack foods. Why this limitation is on, I don't know. This is where most of the beer for home consumption is sold in PA. There are also bar licenses that have opened as "six-pack shops," or "bottle shops." They use their bar license to sell beer by the single bottle and six-pack...but you can only buy up to three six-packs at a time there. (If you go out the door and come back in, you can buy three more. Honest.) Both bar licenses and distributor licenses are limited by county population.
Sounds crazy. But it works on some levels. Buying beer by the case, with PA's very low beer taxes, often can get you a great price on beer. The cases are closed, so there's no light-struck beer from sitting in a lit cooler. And we get very cheap draft beer. Kinda strange.
That do you?