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PITTSBURGH (Newsradio 1020 KDKA) - Fine Wine and Good Spirits has resumed online-only sales, while brick and mortar locations remain temporarily closed.
And while people have the ability to purchase, that doesn’t mean they can.
Many people are getting the following message when they go to buy wine or liquor:
“Thank you for being a valued customer. Due to overwhelming demand, the online store is not available at this time. Please try again tomorrow or in the coming days. We apologize for the inconvenience.
We appreciate your understanding and patience in these unprecedented times.”
The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board responded to KDKA Radio and answered some questions you may find helpful.
The PLCB’s Press Secretary Shawn Kelly, answered the following questions:
We have noticed it is difficult for some to purchase wine and spirits, why is this?
“Access to www.FineWineAndGoodSpirits.com will be randomized to avoid overwhelming the site with high traffic, prevent order abuse, and prolong access throughout the day, so that order availability isn’t exhausted in seconds or minutes each day.
We believe that re-opening FineWineAndGoodSpirits.com in a controlled manner will allow us to provide access to consumers while also protecting our employees and consumers from unnecessary risk.
In the interest of maintaining the integrity of the protections we put around the site, we’ll refrain from offering further technical explanations or detail.”
Is demand too high to keep up with orders?
“We expect consumer interest and site traffic to exceed what we’ll be able to fulfill, at least initially, so we ask that customers be patient and understand that the PLCB Is doing the best it can under extraordinary circumstances to balance consumer demand and public health.
On Wednesday, April 1, we saw nearly 278,000 active users hit the site with more than 853,000 pageviews. For context, compare those numbers to a “normal” busy day, for example the third Wednesday in February, when we released a number of limited-availability/high-demand whiskeys. That day, we saw about 32,300 active users and 317,000 pageviews.”
Also do you have any advice for those that may be frustrated?
“We ask that customers be patient and understand that the PLCB is doing the best it can under extraordinary circumstances to balance consumer demand and public health.”
Will there be a time when you will be able to expand and meet the greater demand?
“We are evaluating fulfillment capacity on a daily basis to optimize the number of orders we can accept each day, and the number of orders accepted each day will vary until we can better understand demand and fulfilment capacity.”
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