Liquor stores draw crowds as they prepare to close amid coronavirus outbreak

Customers descended upon the Fine Wine and Good Spirits store in Bensalem Sunday before its announced closing.
Photo credit Charlotte Reese/KYW Newsradio
BENSALEM, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board announced closures of its stores across the Philadelphia suburbs due to the coronavirus outbreak, and residents are stocking up while they can.

Select Fine Wine & Good Spirits locations in Bucks, Chester, Montgomery and Delaware counties will be open Monday, before all stores in those counties officially close on Tuesday for two weeks.

At the Bensalem store, the line wrapped around two aisles before customers could even get to the register.

"I knew it’d be a mad house like this," said Will Cook, who was waiting in line with a few bottles of liquor. He said the line looked like wrapped qaround the store three times over.

"Unbelievable. I’ve never seen anything like it," he said. "Not even on New Year’s Day, or New Year’s Eve, shall I say.”

Even though St. Patrick's Day is around the corner, Heather Wang was focused on the next couple of weeks. 

"Make sure we’re covered for two weeks instead of one," she shared.

Wang thought that location was a secret for location, since it had recently moved to Bensalem from Feasterville. "This store seemed like nobody knew about it," she said, "so no, I was not expecting this kind of crowd here at all."