Move over, beer: In what the league is calling a one-season test, the National Football League will allow the liquor industry to run ads during games this year. There are rules to this advertising game, however. [More]
liquor
Costco’s Bottom Line Gets A Boon From Store-Brand Booze
By 3.16.17
When times are tough, it’s generally a very bad idea to seek out hope in a bottle, but don’t tell that to Costco. Brisk sales of the warehouse club’s store-brand liquor and wine are helping make up for Costco’s lower-than-expected retail receipts. [More]
America’s Liquor Cabinets Are Seeing A Lot Of Action
By 2.7.17
If you’ve been heading for your liquor cabinet more often than the beer fridge lately, you’re not alone: For the seventh year in a row, the spirits industry chipped away at beer’s market share. [More]
Could A Strike At Jim Beam Distilleries Mean A Whiskey Shortage?
By 10.17.16 — Updated: 11.1.16
More than 200 union workers went on strike over the weekend at two Jim Beam distilleries in Kentucky after voting to reject the most recent contract offer from the world’s top bourbon producer. Does that mean we could see a shortage of the stuff in the future? [More]
New Law Lets New Yorkers Buy Booze At Bars, Restaurants Before Noon On Sundays
By 9.7.16
New Yorkers, rejoice: you will finally be able to order a mimosa at brunch without waiting for the stroke of noon. [More]
Pennsylvania Finally Putting An End To Weird Wine Laws
By 6.9.16
After nearly a century of having some of the strangest restrictions on the sale of beer, wine, and booze in the country, Pennsylvania’s rules on alcohol sales are about to get slightly less byzantine. [More]
California Bar Uses Dynamic Pricing To Sell Shots Of Tequila
By 5.11.16
While you might associate dynamic pricing — a method that changes the price of an item depending on how much demand there is for it — with airlines, ride-hailing apps, and amusement parks, there’s nothing keeping other industries from giving it a go. Like a California bar that changes the price of tequila shots depending on how popular brands are at the moment. [More]
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Kroger Wants Alcohol Companies To Pick Up The Tab For Its New Booze Organization Plan
By 1.29.16
After decades of sticking with its organization system in stores, Kroger has a new plan for how it decides which booze brands go on which shelf, and how prominently each one is displayed. Instead of relying on “category captains” from big names like Anheuser-Busch InBev and Diageo to suggest how wine, liquor, and beer are organized in stores, the grocer wants alcohol companies to pay a privately held distributor to make those display decisions. [More]
Pennsylvania Holding A Liquor Lottery To Sell Rare Booze
By 10.5.15
When it comes to rare alcohol, Pennsylvania is trying to make sure anyone who wants to buy their favorite limited-quantity wines and spirits has a fair shot: the state’s Liquor Control Board is going to host a lottery this month to give drinkers a chance to get their hands on products that are hard to come by. [More]
SEC Investigating Beverage Giant Diageo Over Allegations It Artificially Boosted Sales Figures
By 7.24.15
When a company says it’s moving a whole lot of products, that could mean that its sales are booming. The thing is, just because a business might be shipping a lot of products, that doesn’t necessarily mean it actually sold as much as it’s sending to distributors. To that end, the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating beverage giant Diageo — the company behind brands like Smirnoff, Guinness, Johnnie Walker and more — for allegedly artificially boosting its sales by shipping excess inventory to distributors. [More]
Study: Alcohol Advertising Grew 400% In 40 Years — But Americans Aren’t Drinking More
By 3.26.15
Since 1971, advertisers have churned out more and more content dedicated to pushing alcohol in its various forms. But just because we might see a galloping horse promoting beer in slow motion or a fun gang carrying a cooler of malt beverages on a beach every time we turn on the TV, computer or sit staring at a subway ad, that doesn’t mean Americans are drinking more booze than we did 40 years ago, according to a new study. [More]
Sorry, Indiana: Still No Carry-Out Booze Sales On Sunday After Bill Flounders
By 2.25.15
Indiana residents who were dreaming of picking up a bottle of wine or a few beers at their local grocery stores on a Sunday afternoon will have to stick to the other six days of the week, after support for a recent bill proposing to legalize carryout booze sales slowly drained away. [More]
Walmart Sues Texas Over Law Banning Publicly Traded Companies From Selling Liquor
By 2.13.15
Depending on the state you live in, buying booze and beer can be a bit tricky. South Carolina and Kentucky previously outlawed the sale of alcohol on Election Day, while last year, the state of Michigan pondered a law that would classify a “pint” of beer as 16-ounces or less. But it’s a long-running law in Texas banning the sale of liquor (but not beer or wine) at publicly traded companies that raised the ire of Walmart. Now the nation’s largest retailer is suing the state to gain the ability to sell the spirits. [More]
Study: Raising Cigarette Prices Means People Drink Less Beer & Booze
By 9.24.14
For those who drink and smoke, it’s no surprise that often, the more you smoke, the more you end up drinking, and vice versa. So it follows that when state taxes make cigarettes more expensive, you might be inclined to smoke less, and as such, you might end up drinking less beer and whiskey as a result. That’s the effect rising cigarette prices have on alcohol consumption (except for wine), say researchers in a new study that looks at consumption habits of smokers and drinkers. [More]
New Hampshire Clarifies: Yes, You Can Use A D.C. License To Buy Booze
By 7.16.14
What is it with all the Washington, D.C. confusion lately? There was that Transportation Security Administration agent who reportedly had no clue the District of Columbia was part of the United States, and now New Hampshire has had to clarify that yes, a D.C. license is a valid and acceptable form of identification one can use to provide proof of age when buying booze. Sigh. [More]
Costco’s Clever Plan To Sell Both Gas & Liquor In D.C. Results In Death Threats
By 12.2.13
In Washington, D.C., you can’t sell alcoholic beverages and gasoline at the same business. But when Costco came to town, it didn’t throw up its hands and do away with one or the other parts of its business. Instead, it got clever and figured out a way to sell both booze and discount gas, a move that hasn’t gone over well with other gas stations in the city. [More]
The Drinks Mix Themselves When Liquor Aisle Narrowly Misses Crashing Into Shoppers
By 10.8.13
The liquor aisle is a place brimming with possibilities — do you want wine or beer? Dark rum or light? There’s so much to choose from! The choices can become even more intimidating when they are all falling toward you in a wave of crashing glass and sloshing liquid. [More]
13 TGI Fridays Restaurants Among Those Busted In NJ For Selling Cheap Booze As Premium Pours
By 5.23.13 — Updated: 5.24.13
You might not be surprised to find that a sketchy dive bar is refilling its empty bottles of liquor with cheaper booze, but many consumers probably don’t expect a chain restaurant to get involved in such underhanded hanky-panky. And yet, 15 of the 29 places caught in yesterday’s sting by New Jersey liquor regulators are outlets of national chain eateries — and almost all of those were TGI Fridays. [More]
