Some Pennsylvania newspapers put the story on Page One. Others put it on an inside page. The news? Fairly soon, Pennsylvanians will be able to buy beer in 12-packs at beer distributors.

It says something about the quirkiness of liquor sales here that last week’s announcement of a legal ruling by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board counts as news.

The Philadelphia Daily News had some fun with the story and wrote a headline calling the ruling a “Stunning PLCB reversal,” as if the 12-pack ruling was significant.

Maybe in Pennsylvania it is, but nowhere else. Beer drinkers in most other states have long enjoyed more freedom in how and where they buy their beer.

In the past decade or so, the domination of the beer industry by the giant brewers, including Budweiser and Miller, has been challenged by smaller, specialty brewers. This has prompted the larger companies to put out more varieties of beers.

When it comes to trying these new products, beer drinkers are hurt by Pennsylvania’s long-standing requirement that beer at distributors is sold only in cases or kegs. Enthusiasts wanting to try a new beer don’t want to buy a whole case, knowing they might not like the new product.

Beer drinkers in Pennsylvania can buy six packs from bars or taverns, but beer distributors, which is where most packaged beer is sold, cannot mix and match, trying six packs from different brewers.

A similar unfriendly-to-consumers story is found in wine sales. Pennsylvanians traveling to California’s wine country have for years been frustrated to learn that they cannot have wine they’ve tasted and liked shipped to their home.

From top to bottom, the Pennsylvania’s state store system and entire liquor sales system is seen as among the most restrictive in the United States. Nearly all other states abandoned total control of liquor sales, which dates back to the Prohibition Era. In Pennsylvania, restrictive rules and regulations, with state control from wholesale to retail, remains.

Defenders of the current system might have a case to make if Pennsylvania was the state with the lowest rate of alcoholism or the fewest DUIs. But it doesn’t. Pennsylvania is more or less in the middle of the pack when it comes to alcohol-related problems and DUIs. It is not the worst, but it is far from the best.

Republicans in the General Assembly want to privatize the state store system, making it work like other states. Gov. Tom Wolf, conforming to preference of most Democrats looking to protect unionized workers in the state store system, says he prefers gradual changes to “modernize” the system. This would include more convenience, better selection, better prices — something other states achieved decades ago through privatization.

Regarding the PLCB legal ruling on selling 12-packs at distributors, one Pittsburgh beer distributor said “This is the biggest thing to happen to beer since 1933,” when Prohibition ended. That’s a sad statement.

Privatizing liquor sales does not rank as a high priority for state lawmakers, given the $50 billion funding shortfall in public employee pensions, the problems facing public education, the state of transportation infrastructure and the competitiveness of the state’s tax environment. But as anyone who has traveled out of state or had visitors come here knows, Pennsylvania’s liquor laws are outdated and out of step compared to most other states.