- Alcohol sales are booming, with total sales up 25% in the week ending April 4 according to Nielsen.
- Liquor stores have been deemed "essential businesses" in most states, to avoid dangerous repercussions for people who are dependent on alcohol.
- However, sellers are scrambling during the unprecedented pandemic and workers are worried that they could catch the coronavirus as they continue to go to work.
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Alcohol sales are skyrocketing, with customers flocking to liquor stores and wine shops that have been deemed "essential businesses" during the coronavirus pandemic.
While experts and employees say shuttering stores could be catastrophic for people who are alcohol dependent, some workers worry about the risk of catching the coronavirus as they continue to show up to work as "essential" employees.
Total alcohol sales were up 25% in the week ending April 4, with spirits and wine leading the way with 33% and 32% growth, respectively, according to Nielsen data. Shoppers are stocking up, according to Nielsen, with one of the largest spikes being in three-liter boxes of wine, which were up a whopping 82% this week.
The booze boom represents a continuation of a trend throughout the pandemic, with wine sales up 31% and spirits up 33.2% over the last five-weeks compared to the same period last year.
David Henkes, a senior principal at Technomic covering food and beverage, said that the growth in liquor makes sense with the sudden shuttering of restaurants and bars. Bars and restaurants typically take in half of all of Americans' spending dollars on alcohol (even if it's only 20 to 25% of the volume, due to higher prices).
"Essentially, where you had half of consumer spending has essentially evaporated almost overnight," Henkes said.
However, despite the booze boom, liquor stores and grocery retailers selling alcohol are unlikely to be celebrating the bump in sales any time soon.
"Grocers and liquor stores are just sort of trying to keep their head above water," Henkes said. "Because there's been such a huge influx into their stores now and [a] run on products, I'm not sure that they're even thinking strategically."
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Why liquor stores are essential
E-commerce alcohol sales are exploding, with direct to consumer shipments in March reaching $423 million, slightly more than 20% of the off-premise market, according to Nielsen. Shipments grew 18% by the dollar and 30% by volume compared to March 2019.
While online shopping is helping drive alcohol sales, old-fashioned in-store shopping is still dominant - something that is helped by the fact that liquor stores have been classified as essential business.
An opinion piece in the Scientific American spells out why many experts consider liquor stores to be essential. Max Jordan Nguemeni Tiako and Kelsey C. Priest explain that closing liquor stores could be catastrophic for people with alcohol use disorder (AUD), as withdrawal can be dangerous and individuals could seek out concerning alternatives to liquor.
"Because so few people have access to medications for AUD, access to alcohol becomes a matter of life or death," Tiako and Priest write. "If alcohol is unavailable, particularly liquor, people may find alcohol from other unsafe sources, specifically non-beverage alcohol" such as rubbing alcohol, alcohol-based hand sanitizers, or car coolant.
Henkes says that forcing liquor stores and wine shops to shut down can also result in other unintended and potentially dangerous consequences. For example, Pennsylvania has been the only state to deem liquor stores nonessential and force a shutdown. As a result, Pennsylvanians have been defying shelter-in-place orders, flooding neighboring states to shop for alcohol.
It "becomes almost an impunitive at some point to say, well we're going to exclude beverage alcohol, when it is something that people like and drink and enjoy," Henkes said. "Especially now when they're not driving, they're probably enjoying it a lot more responsibility than they were before."
Christopher O'Hanlon, who works at a liquor store in New Jersey, said that workers understand why it is crucial for their stores to stay open for certain customers.
"You don't want those people to quit cold turkey," O'Hanlon told Business Insider. "You don't want those people to flood hospitals because, unfortunately at this stage, we don't have, there's not enough beds for them."
Yet, O'Hanlon says, keeping stores open can put workers at risk of catching the coronavirus.
"We don't want people in hospital rooms because they're having withdrawal symptoms," O'Hanlon said. "We need to make sure their lives are protected as well. But we also want to protect our lives."
Workers are 'angry, tired and scared'
Significant demand and status as an essential business means liquor stores' business is booming during the pandemic. But, that could be putting some workers at risk.
With customers preparing to shelter in place, O'Hanlon said his store reached "historic" sales volumes in March. But, the rise in sales only served to worry workers who had to deal with coughing customers who may be more concerned about stocking up than avoiding spreading the coronavirus.
"We're all on edge. We're angry, tired and scared for each other's safety," O'Hanlon said.
O'Hanlon said he recently self-quarantined after his boss tested positive for COVID-19. He stayed on the couch for two weeks, terrified that he would infect his pregnant girlfriend or have to miss the birth of his child.
"It's scary for people in this industry, because we have families and we have loved ones and we don't want to lose them. ... No one signs up knowing that that is going to be part of their job responsibility," O'Hanlon said.
As demand skyrockets, many stores are trying to reduce risk. O'Hanlon said that his store - which he asked to remain unnamed, in order to speak frankly about the situation - has worked hard to keep workers safe, taking measures such as installing sneeze guard barriers and limiting how many customers can enter stores at a time.
States are requiring precautions such as limiting customers in stores, encouraging people to not pay in cash, and installing social distancing markers. Some are closing down liquor stores despite the rise in demand. Alabama which closed 78 ABC stores.
The alcohol industry is not suffering financially like many restaurants and bars, which are struggling to survive. But, its sales boost is far from a reason to celebrate for most within the industry.
With the clear line drawn between alcohol abuse and liquor stores with the essential business designation, O'Hanlon feels uneasy about the industry's role in encouraging others to engage in more dangerous habits.
"It's a stressful time," O'Hanlon said. "Unfortunately, in stressful times a lot of people take to drinking. And I do wonder if we're going to put people that are already at risk for becoming alcoholics, if we're going to tip the scales a little bit by being open."
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