Sadly, this is the last picture before my camera died.

Unfortunately, my beer purchasing experience was less than stellar, but I’ll hold off on describing exactly why until then end of this post. I do think that the ability to buy beer in Giant Eagle is a big step forward for PA, so I’ll start by talking a little bit about the actual implementation.

Some notes on the selection. At least back in Ohio, Giant Eagle tends to have a pretty good beer selection. Despite what some Pennsylvanians might suspect, G’Eagle’s coolers have always offered up far more than just a few macro-brews. On that basis, I expected to find a pretty good selection at the new Market District, and the new store did let me down (at least with respect to selection).

5 standard coolers—4 of them decent. At first, I counted about 5 standard size beverage coolers. Only a little over one full cooler was filled with macro-brewed light lager. Every thing else, which was the vast majority of available space, contained beer that I would be happy to buy. Of course, the larger and well-known regional craft brewers were well represented: Boston Beer Company, Great Lakes, Stone, Magic Hat, Flying Dog, Sierra Nevada. Even so, establishments like D’s Six Packs and Three Sons shouldn’t have to worry about: the new store lacked options from smaller and less well-known “niche brewers.” When I’m seeking out something truly interesting, I’ll still head out to either of those establishments. Carrying any such small distribution options will never make sense for Giant Eagle.

An end cap of surprises. I almost didn’t notice on my first pass, but just around the corner from the primary coolers, there was a bit of an end cap with some more notable options in larger bottles. I took note of large bottles from the likes of Stone, Orval, Ommegang, Samuel Smith, Carlsberg-Tetley’s, Chimay, and Franziskaner. None of those is ground-breaking in any way, but seeing them in Giant Eagle is a notable experience. There’s actually a full beer list on the Giant Eagle site, if you want any more detail.

Walling off the beer section. Separating beer in its own part of the store is fairly standard under—even the most lax of alcohol regulations, so it wasn’t surprising to see a separate area walled off in the new Market District. On the other hand, completely separate cash registers and barriers separating the beer from the cafeteria area were slightly more surprising. If you wanted to pick up a beer to enjoy with one of the prepared foods, then you would have to pay for the food at one counter, make your way into the beer area, and make a separate purchase. The situation could be far worse, but that’s somewhat of a pain.

How I ended up frustrated and without beer. Now for that tale of woe I promised up top. After the reception and tour, I wanted to wander around the store on my own and scope it out in a little more detail. I knew I wanted to pick up beer a some point, and decided that would probably work best if I did it on the way out.

Upon finishing my shopping, I had three or four items in a small basket, so I thought I’d ask around to see if I could pay for them right in the beer area. The first employee I asked didn’t have an answer, so I walked right up to the beer area’s entrance and asked the woman standing guard (yes, guard). She said those registers were for beer only, so I walked halfway back to the other side of the store for the main cash registers to make my purchase. Once I paid for everything, I walked back into the store, through the prepared foods section, and over to the beer area.

The Automated mid-purchase shut-off. Once in the walled-off beer area, I picked up that Christmas Ale I had been targeting and grabbed an organic hard cider for a cider-loving friend. I stepped in line and waited through 2-3 transactions in front of me. That’s right about when it all fell apart. Halfway through processing the order for the guy in front of me, the cashier looked up and said, “no more beer.” Apparently, the cash registers automatically shut off right at 9:00pm, and I had just missed the window. There was no judgment call, no warning announcement, and no opportunity to at least flush out the line—just a series of powered-down registers and frustrated would-be customers.

Obviously, I was a little frustrated on the way home. In the end, I’m not really sure where I should direct my frustration: the state of PA or Giant Eagle. Whatever the cause of the backwards process, I think there are a few simple things Giant Eagle could do to vastly improve the experience for their newly available beer area.

Some Possible Improvements

1. Post signs to explain the beer purchasing process.
2. Make sure everyone on staff understands that process.
3. Announce the impending cut-off 15-30 minutes ahead of time.
4. Close off the area rather than frustrating every one in line.
5. Let the cashier use his own judgment instead of cutting power.

Really, that’s all I ask. I don’t want to sound angry, or turn prospective customers away from Giant Eagle. Rather, I want the process to work. I would like nothing more than for beer purchasing to at the new store to go off without a hitch and serve as a model for similar establishments around the state. The best thing I can do to enable that to explain the problems I ran into and hope someone cares enough to fix it.