Fine Wines & Good Spirits

They are very friendly and customer oriented at this state store. They greet you when you come in and when you leave. A little freaky that they have a private security guard there but hey we are in Philly! Didn’t exactly feel under siege here! Good selection and attentive staff. The staffing is a big plus. Most state stores have staff that could care less about their customers and this one is an exception.

I had an order shipped to this location recently — Angel and Yvette were both extremely helpful over the phone (I asked them to hold my order for a week because I was traveling). I plan to use this location over the others, even though its a bit farther away, because of how dependable and easy the team made it to pick up my items.

I wish this store was open until 9 on Mondays & Tuesdays… and I wish it was open on Sundays.
It’s conveniently located on my walk home from campus.
I can only speak for their wine selection– it’s pretty good. The sales are decent– not great. I would like to see a bigger boxed wine collection. Staff was friendly.
Overalls, convenient place to stop and get the essentials.

I see that I gave this store three stars on a previous visit, but I feel that was probably too generous. Yes, the employees are friendly. And yes, the store is close to where I live, but convenience doesn’t make a solid wine store.
This particular branch of PA Wine & Spirits is small. There are maybe three aisles and wine accounts for about half of the store. Half of the wine is cheap crap. So in the end, you are left with about a half an aisle of drinkable vino.
It’s super rare that anyone will offer assistance in selecting a bottle, but you’re probably better off busting out an app or doing some Internet research as you walk through the aisles.

I hate the concept of state run liquor stores (especially ones that close early and on Sundays and every holiday you could think of). This is America, dammit! I should be able to load up on boxed wine on 4^th of July if I want to!
But yeah, this one isn’t bad. Not the best selection, but not the worst. Wish they had more wines in the fridge. The people here are quite nice too.
But seriously, a policy change is in order for this state. It’s borderline treason, in my opinion.

Overall, this store is pretty good for a state store. We live in the neighborhood, so I often walk here to get what we need.
The store selection is pretty good, for its size. It has a decent selection of wines and quite a bit of alcohol. It doesn’t compare to a wine specialty store, but they have everything you would generally need. There is a small refrigerator in the back with a few chilled white options, but there are not too selections… If you really need a nice bottle of chilled white, I would either plan ahead or choose a larger store.
The prices are reasonable for a state store, but they always have a few specials. Some of their specials are pretty good… last week we bough a bottle of Chardonnay that is usually $ 19 for $ 9! That is a great deal! They are not always this good, but usually their specials are at least a few dollars off the normal price.
The staff is pretty friendly, and helpful, if you ask for assistance. My experience has been that they don’t go out of their way to assist you, but if you ask, they’re more than happy to help! I was looking for a buttery Chardonnay, and one of the guys there picked out a $ 10 bottle that I really love!
The store is generally clean and well kept. It defiantly is great to have in neighborhood!

The overall selection of wine is fine but the service here is awful. I don’t expect to have world class service but I was struggling to carry my grocery bags and two bottles of wine and the man behind the register just stared at me like a deer in headlights. Then when I asked for an opinion on a bottle of wine and he said «I don’t drink wine» (He also did the same for a bottle of vodka). Really? You work in a wine and spirits store but you don’t know anything about the products?! Makes no sense.

I like drinks. So, it should mean a lot to you when I say that I wasn’t super sad when I noticed that this store was closed down a few months ago. It used to be the saddest of all state stores that I’d been in since moving to Philly; it had a terrible, disorganized selection and it was overall dark and dingy. I kind of assumed that it’s closing was forever.
Buuuut, surprise! This state store got a pretty nice facelift last month! Now, it’s the best one on this side of town! Great selection! Big! Clean! Easy to find bottles! Fast moving lines!
Sure, the state may control all the booze, but not all stores are the same. And this one is really really nice!

I blame this state store for the fact that I rarely BYOB in a town that probably has the best BYOBs in the country.
The wine selection is not only terrible, it’s depressing, and in the year that I’ve been in the neighborhood, it has not changed one bit. In California terms, this would be the kind of wine selection you’d find at a sketchy corner liquor store or a CVS or 7 – 11, not a proper wine store. They barely carry any Chairman’s Selections or anything that makes other state stores tolerable.
I have to agree with the other reviewers that have remarked that for the most part the customer service is spotty at best. There are exceptions, but most of the people who work here seem pretty aloof, sometimes downright unfriendly, and not very knowledgeable about wine.
On the plus side, the spirits selection is perfectly serviceable. I have no problem getting my bourbon on here. In a stark contrast to the wine selection, they have like 100 kinds of vodka, which strikes me as kind of crazy, but whatever, it’s cool.
Furthermore, I did a special order once here, and the service was actually great, they called to let me know it was ready within minutes of UPS delivering it.
All that said, it is my closest state store, so I end up here more often than I like. There are a handful of wines I get here, but they don’t excite me, and they’re not really the types that I’d like to take to a good BYOB restaurant.
If at all possible, I recommend going to the 19^th & Chestnut store, where people say hello when you walk in the door, and where there is a bounty of Chairman’s Selections, a good variety of wine overall, and even tastings from time to time. Like a real wine store.

This is basically a convenience store to buy wine and spirits. Which is good. Selection is not bad. Prices are reasonable. Store is spacious.
The wine is comparatively well-​organized, as long as you don’t rely on the signage. They do, however, put the same kinds of wine/​varietals together. So if you’re looking for a domestic Shiraz, they’re together on the shelves so you can easily compare. The Rieslings are all together, regardless of region.
Service is just fine. I wouldn’t bother asking the staff for recommendations. Would you ask the guy at the 7-​Eleven for advice about which drink to buy? I didn’t think so. They may not know much about the product, but they can certainly cash you out.

I have never been greeted with such hostility in any environment, much less in a store. A simple transaction left me wondering when the world had become so cruel.
I swiped my card earlier than the cashier would have liked (the screen read «swipe now.») She challenged me to «do it one more time» then admonished me like I was a naughty fifth grader. And this was the manager of the store… in front of a long line of customers. I’m so sad that I can’t go back because it’s my local Wine and Spirits and because it’s an embarrassment to the neighborhood.
Wish I could do negative stars.

Don’t miss out because of the inoperable South Street bridge! Like the public pool nearby, this wine and spirits outlet goes unnoticed. However, they have a much better selection of wines than the Chestnut Street location (which is also much more crowded). And, now that it’s fall, you can admire colorful leaves on the tree-​lined walk home to distract you from the heavy bags of wine you’re carrying (instead of bumping into pedestrians on Chestnut).

This review is more in reference to the staff/​manager than the actual store but I didn’t find exactly what I was looking for in stock (a very common item) so that definitely added to the two star rating. I visited on Saturday for a liquor ingredient for my Christmas baking. I was met by an extremely rude staff member who I believe may in fact have been the manager. I am at least hoping she was a manager as she managed to scream across the entire store (and over customers) and yell at three different employees in an extremely rude manner during the barely ten minutes I was in there. Not to mention the overall disgruntled service I personally received.
Also, just a little note, but perhaps it’s not the best customer service route to take by taping an email directly to the cash register which explains their right to kick out surly customers. Given my experience there I’m going to go out on a limb and say that perhaps it isn’t the customers fault if they are surly if your staff is so rude and unhelpful to customers. Sorry, but I think I’ll make the trek to the Chestnut St. location next time.

The store on South Street isn’t too bad. It has a fairly reasonable collection of French, South American, American and Australian wines. I do feel it is a little lacking in Spanish wines though.
Interestingly enough, it always seems to stock different Chairman Selections than the bigger stores at 19^th and Chestnut and at Columbus Blvd. For instance, you never seem to be able to get the excellent Valley of the Moon Zinfandel here.
Chances are though, that you will be able to find something you like. My recommendation, Gallo Brothers of Sonoma, Pinot Noir.