Last summer, Wal-Mart released knock-off Tagalongs & Thin Mints that are a) cheaper than the Girl Scouts and b) available year-round. In the case of the Tagalongs, they are better than the Girl Scout versions. For Thin Mints, they are definitely close.

I read earlier that there’s now a Keebler knock-off of Samoas, and I spotted some on the shelves marked down last night. (I also saw some Thin Mint knock-offs, but we didn’t want two boxes of cookies sitting around the house.) I’ve now had a few, and I’m ready to dispense with the comparisons for all of those who are like me – happily willing to buy cheaper cookies than anything the Girl Scouts can sell.

The Samoa knock-offs are not nearly as good as the original Girl Scout cookies. I hate saying that, but it’s true. I like the price point, and I like the availability all year on any grocery shelf. The grocery store is more reliable than the Girl Scouts.

The caramel is more like just caramel flavoring with no real texture. With the real Samoas, there’s actually caramel that pulls away from the cookie just a little bit when you take a bite. There’s not much of a coconut flavor to them. They disappoint. I guess if you have a desperate need for a fix and don’t want to make your own, they can work in a pinch.

I definitely look forward to trying the Keebler version of Thin Mints sometime. I’d be curious to know how they stack up to the Wal-Mart version. Being able to choose from a selection of deliciousness on things like price and quantity is so very nice.

The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board is desperate to avoid being privatized – a trend that may start in Virginia if Gov. Bob McDonnell gets his way – so they contracted out for $100,000 “self-serve” kiosks that eat up a massive footprint in select grocery stores favored by the bureaucrats.

After going through the process of being “inspected” by a state employee via remote camera and breathing onto a breathalyzer that can’t possibly be sanitary, two customers interviewed by NPR said they will not be repeat customers after using the system.

After buying her bottle of white wine, Yochum decides she won’t be a repeat customer.

“I’ve never gone through so much trouble for a bottle of wine before. I don’t know. I don’t know if this is going to go over or not,” she says. “It’s kind of a hassle.”

Paul Boyer agrees. He cautiously eyes the kiosk while Yochum pries open the door and reaches up to the top shelf to retrieve her bottle.

“Why don’t you just put it out on the shelves like all the other states? We always have to do something a little bizarre,” Boyer says.

Liquor Control Board officials say the kiosks are a way to modernize the state’s wine sales without getting rid of state-owned liquor stores.

If by modernize, you mean add such draconian restrictions that you can’t even use mouthwash before buying wine anymore, then I guess these kiosks meet the definition. (Forget about swinging by to pick up a bottle to have at the BYOB for your next hot date – unless you’re willing to risk forgoing the mouthwash.)

Link stolen from @PoliticsPA.

Sebastian and I booked a trip to Hawaii this week. He’s in desperate need of an extended vacation, and I’m eager for him to meet my grandmother who lives out there. We found a reasonable fare, and bit the bullet. We’ll be splitting our time on Oahu and the Big Island. I’m trying to find the best bargains available for activities, hotels (for the Big Island, we have use of a vacant condo my grandmother rents on Oahu), and food. It’s not about the absolute bottom line, but the best bargain to do the things we want to do.

With that in mind, I went to bookmark the Long’s advertisement page on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s site so I would know when it’s worth dropping by to get souvenir & “buy there instead of packing” stuff during our time there. I was stunned to see their sale prices on wine & spirits.

I’ll ‘fess up that I don’t recall Long’s selling alcohol the last time I visited. Then again, I was a young teen, so I would have had no reason to check out the selection.

But, man. Those prices. They beat the PLCB any day of the week. From the Oahu circular this week:

Hawaii vs. Pennsylvania - Liquor

Now, the Hawaii drinks are on sale, but notice that even when put side-by-side with Pennsylvania sales (*), they are cheaper.

None of those are wines I’d write home about, but several are perfectly suitable for a simple dinner at home. (We’ll probably be eating in most of the time we’re on Oahu.) Not that we would buy that much liquor, or that combination of items, but the total savings for all of those is about $77. That will pay for an evening at a bed & breakfast that I’m eyeing out on the Big Island.

Competition – just another reason to abolish the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board & privatize the system. As one of the top two wine buyers in the world – and the largest in the United States – there’s no reason in the world that PLCB shouldn’t be able to beat the prices of a drug store in Hawaii.

The State of Pennsylvania has partnered with Foursquare to promote tourism. That sounds all snazzy and great. Except I have to wonder if there’s a revenue stream in it because the ways to earn these badges are – not terribly Pennsylvania-centric.

For example, to get the “4 Score & 7″ badge, you can visit a private tour company in Gettysburg. But you won’t earn it if you actually visit Gettysburg National Cemetery – where the infamous speech was actually delivered. (Of course, only the private tours come with the endorsement of the Paranormal Investigators & Research Association, the battlefield only comes with a better sense of history and what men have sacrificed for this country.)

On the retail front, only 21 stores in Pennsylvania qualify for the “Retail Polka” badge. If you want to talk tourist, why not offer up some themed store listings? For outdoor outreach, they should include the numerous Bass Pro, Cabela’s, and Gander Mountain stores. For general shopping, the same agency has tons of listings just a few clicks away that somehow don’t qualify for the badge. One antique center earns a badge, yet they can find dozens that won’t earn a Foursquare honor on another list.

For food, Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development staff at least didn’t pick favorites in the Pat’s vs. Geno’s debate. Visits to either joint will qualify you for the “Shooflyer” badge. However, so will a trip to a central Philadelphia sushi joint. Yeah, because that’s what we all associate with Pennsylvania culture. A Brazilian steak house in Nazareth gets the official nod, but my visits to my favorite Brazilian steakhouse here in the Philly suburbs isn’t worth jack.

I’ve been playing around with Foursquare and looking at how ranges & gun clubs could creatively use it. I check in “off the grid” many times just to get an idea of how people in this area use it. And, yes, I do sometimes enjoy earning the badges. (Like when I got one for staying out late the other day when in fact I was actually making my first stop for the day at Starbucks. I even tried to organize a bit of a swarm party at the NRA convention – we made it to 30 people. Here’s to 50 in Pittsburgh!) But this isn’t actually about the badges.

The agency’s efforts in this new social media front give a bit of a boost to those select businesses. The agency is leaving special “tips” on all of the venues to promote business, and they get this special listing. Not to mention, if visitors earn these badges, their friends & family on the service will always see these specific businesses on the user’s profiles.

I’d be curious to know if this is a revenue source for the agency. Are they asking businesses to pay up to be considered some kind of Pennsylvania icon? Pay-for-promotion is by no means the end of the world, but it should be transparent when it is being initiated by government. Every business & citizen should have equal rights to get in on the ground floor.

This is a great food-themed entry into the “I Am Free Enterprise” contest to explain the beauty of capitalism to the American people.

Go vote for this entry here.

It looks like the USDA is pushing new regulations that would put small butchers out of business.

U.S. Department of Agriculture officials said Food Safety and Inspection Service experts have proposed changes to the hazard analysis critical control point process to improve food safety across the nation.

One Centre County food safety expert has raised concerns about the proposal, saying new requirements to test for indicator pathogens of E coli, salmonella and listeria in raw meats likely won’t work.

“The whole process is flawed from a scientific standpoint to begin with,” said Penn State Food and Animal Science expert Dr. Bill Henning. “There’s been no indication from anybody at the USDA to tell us why this regulation is being put in place.”

Cooper Street Meats owner Russ Judy told WJAC-TV Wednesday his newly expanded business would likely close if the proposed validation plans are approved. …

Although federal officials proposed the requirements to improve national food safety, Henning said the initiative could be counterproductive.

“A lot of these people are considering just dropping out of the system all together, which means they would have no inspection at all,” said Henning. “If you have 15 products, that’s $150,000 in testing initially, then probably another $20,000 to $30,000 a year in ongoing testing for continuing validation.”

We don’t turn to our local butcher often because, to be frank, he doesn’t have the selection of Wegman’s and doesn’t offer anything unique. We couldn’t even get spare ribs from him the other day. For me, it’s also a big drawback that he doesn’t have any game to speak of. But, they seem like a nice enough place. The locally raised turkey I bought there for my first Thanksgiving was fantastic. I have no desire to see them go out of business, and especially not over regulations that may not even meet the intended goal.

I had to drive Sebastian to work this morning because his car is in the shop.  On our way out to the main highway, we passed a giant McDonald’s billboard featuring their steak bagel sandwich.  Sebastian noted that the billboard looked appetizing and made him want a breakfast bagel from McDonald’s, even though he’s not much of a breakfast person.  The problem is that there is no McDonald’s remotely close to the highway heading in that direction.

There is, however, a Chick-fil-a.  It’s not just that Chick-fil-a doesn’t advertise in the direction of their store, it’s the fact that even if they did have a billboard, it wouldn’t make most people get hungry.  Sebastian pointed out that their billboards still introduce the brand instead of promote specific products that will inspire a craving at a moment’s notice.

I’m surprised that more restaurants don’t advertise their food directly. P.F. Chang’s does it very well. They know their specialty – those damn lettuce wraps that are just so delicious. Our local P.F. Chang’s advertises with a billboard that simply has a giant photo of the lettuce wraps with a message: “Embrace the Craving.” I plan on it.

Seriously, you might be able to buy one – with its stock in tact to get your started! Well, you would be able to if a law introduced yesterday actually makes it out of the House and Senate and then past Fast Eddie’s pen. Okay, so that last part makes it seemingly unlikely. (I don’t actually know how Fast Eddie feels about privatization, but since he’s from Philly, it’s probably safe to assume he’s against it.)

According to the Commonwealth Foundation, one-time revenue estimates of nearly $2 billion were presented by the authors.

Can you imagine the freedom of a wine selection not picked by a bureaucrat? Can you imagine the gas savings from not having to drive to Jersey just to get a decent Bordeaux? Can you imagine being able to buy bourbon for cooking in sizes other than extra large or extra small? That would be so wonderful.

A survey of the top brewers in the country has been released by the Brewers Association. This area is represented on the list, and doing surprisingly well. From the overall top brewers list – not just craft brewers:

4 D. G. Yuengling and Son Inc. Pottsville PA
24 Dogfish Head Craft Brewery Milton DE
25 Iron City Brewing Co. Pittsburgh PA
41 Victory Brewing Co. Downingtown PA
46 Straub Brewery Saint Marys PA

Yuengling beat out a certain brewer up in Boston this year.

It’s also kind of amazing that Dogfish Head is in the top 25. The founder went to start his brewery and then figured out that brewpubs were illegal in Delaware. He didn’t bother doing any research. Fortunately, he was able to get the law changed just before opening day.

I watched Beer Wars recently on Netflix, which is narrated by an oddly anti-capitalist former beer CEO who doesn’t drink. It was mildly entertaining and informative, in spite of the very weird producer.

There are multiple fronts in the war on free beer in Pennsylvania – free beer in the liberty sense, not in the free sample sense.

First, the issue of grocery stores selling beer was heard in the Supreme Court yesterday. See, grocery stores are banned from selling beer in Pennsylvania. We’re only allowed to buy beer in bars/cafes no more than 2 six-packs at a time or from distributers who can only sell massive freakin’ boxes of the stuff. It’s for the children – and to prevent alcoholism. I’m not sure how forcing people to walk into a bar or buying in bulk reduces alcoholism rates, but it’s a case that has been made by proponents of the current system. But then Glorious Wegmans got all uppity on the distributers. They realized that each of their grocery stores has a cafe. Food and beverages are sold for on-site consumption in one corner of their store, and Wegmans decided they would be happy to allow beer to be consumed as well. No reason you can’t enjoy a good beer with your pizza, right? In order to comply with state bureaucrats, Wegmans put up fences and gates around the new beer sections, and all purchases must be made at special registers, separately from the rest of your groceries.

The Wegmans system is by no means convenient for beer lovers, it’s just one less trip in the car. If you don’t visit the store in the right order, you still have to make multiple trips into the store through special doors. It is stupid, but at least it reduces our carbon footprint or something. But the beer distributers demand higher carbon footprints and mandatory bulk sales or skeezy bar visits for all! And so the Supreme Court will decide we lowly taxpayers can be trusted to buy our beer in a building with unprepared food. John Micek reports that there is no anticipated date for a decision and encourages folks to drink up while they can.

In other news, a hearing on the overzealous “unregistered” beer raids was held this week with some surprising and not-so-surprising results. Because bureaucrats don’t have to pass any sort of literacy test, they actually stole a bunch of beer that was perfectly legal and registered. But there were some bottles which were non registered, so the whole fiasco hasn’t gone away. Oh, and not to mention it involved the state police who were fully armed and acting like it was a drug raid.

Philly Republican Rep. John Taylor went further.

While questioning [State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement chief Major John] Lutz, Taylor expressed support for the state police but said, “In this one you and your unit were wrong . . . they knew when they were going in there they did not need four armed agents. A teenager with a clipboard could have done what they did.”

Taylor called the bust “an over-use of force,” and said, regarding priorities, that “those of us from Philadelphia have plenty [other things] for you to do.”

Lutz shot back that there was unregistered beer.

“So what! So what!” shouted Taylor. “Use a clerk to do that!

I say cut his funding. If he has fully armed cops to spare for a job that could take a recent college grad with no training and a clipboard (who would probably do a better job of identifying beer anyway), then it’s time to start making cuts.

Also interesting is the fact that they were actually questioned as to why state police stole lawful beer from the bars before actually checking to see if it is registered.

Sen. John Pippy, R-Allegheny County, asked why they’d seized brew before confirming it’s unregistered?

“Historically, the beer was always seized,” answered Lutz.

Yeah, or un-kegged with axes.

Got that? They can steal your car before they actually make an effort to find out if you really bought it. And if they screw it up, too bad. It’s on your dime.

Unfortunately, lawmakers being what they are, their solution to avoid this in the future is more regulation. They want breweries (who are supposed to register the beer) to start putting special barcodes on all beer so that they can send in a kid with a scanner who doesn’t have to think to check on beer registration status. For the big breweries, they will wholeheartedly endorse it. They can afford to make the changes without a huge hit to the bottom line. Smaller breweries, not so much.

It’s time to dismantle the entire system. No more regulatory capture, no more favors for unions, no more creating monopoly industries, no more.