I think there is a local law to take into account. In March 2023 Colorado allowed wine sales in grocery stores and this is hurting local liquor stores. There does seem to be a bit of a downturn but I'd wager these stores closed moreso due to that change than the national or global changes.
Totally Paige that’s been huge here in Colorado. These stores just haven’t been able to compete. It’s a shame. I didn’t want that to happen. I loved that Colorado only let people own two liquor stores. Things will change a lot here in Colorado.
@alext9723 Georgia still has the 2 store rule and new stores are still opening. I haven't noticed any closing, but changing owners has been happening. Not a good thing in Colorado.
Maybe a store like COSTCO could affect liquor only stores, but King Soopers isn't hitting into the market that hard IMO. I've yet to buy anything beside a six pack in my local Safeway. How much of it is increased taxes, which in turn raise rents, insurance, etc. Not to mention the amount of stores here in CO. Did the TW affect these other stores? Without asking the owners we will guess.
From discussion with staff at total beverage they said it was impacting sales. Maybe not for people like you and me to go to king Soopers instead, but Moms and family folks doing their shopping there how much easier is it to just pick up the drinks there too. It's all ab out convenience.
I think the legacy distilleries like Heaven Hill, Wild Turkey, Buffalo Trace, Four Roses, Jack Daniels, Old Forester, etc. will all be fine. MGP I don't know but it will probably be ok.
I've asked a big box liquor store as well as a Mom and Pop if they carried Weller 12. Both said, basically, "Yeah, we get it in all the time." One of the guy's said it and I caught a quick smile by him; not knowing why he smiled. I've been in many, many times never to see it. I suspect, as you mentioned, that what the smile meant was "Yeah, we get it in all the time. But, you're never going to see it!"
Basically it sounded like that. Maybe stores don’t get as much as we think but to never sell it to your customers is wild. There’s a store not so far away from me. They sell a lot of every spirit imaginable. Must do good business in sales. I’ve been going there multiple times to buy beer and I’ve never seen one single allocated bottle of whiskey on a shelf or behind the counter. When I ask a clerk they almost weirdly ignore my question and just mumble some nonsense about they don’t sell that whiskey lol. Some stores are just shady. Though there are many excellent stores out there.
Great video. You brought up some good points. I think we will see a slow down a bit as well as some lower prices. It may be a bit of correction that the bourbon market needs.
A lot of times I see single barrels with kind of an inflated price, and I think the main customers have figured out sometimes they're not as good as the batched expressions.
Great video and insight. I think the drop in liquor sales is multi-factoral. 1. poor economic conditions give the broader population less disposable income. 2. Boomer generation being replaced by large Millennial/Gen Z population who drink much less (Gen x generation is too small by comparison to make an impact), 3. an overall move towards healthier living, which includes giving up or reducing alcohol consumption. I don't think you'll see a bump back up in alcohol sales ever again. It's a mirror to what is happening to the economy. When you are removing a massive generation from employment (Boomers) and you don't have the population to replace them, you see a drop in unemployment and a rise in wage inflation. This was inevitable. Number of unemployed workers per job opening, June 2012 3.4, June 2024 0.8.
I agree. I feel there are many different factors and laid out a few in the time I wanted to take for the video. One I didn’t mention was grocery stores are taking over now too.
I would have to question whether poor economic conditions result in people consuming less from liquor stores, however that absolutely is true when it comes to how much money people will be able to spend in bars with alcohol drink price markups. If you look at the top alcohol consuming nations per capita, there's numerous places where the population remains in worse shape economically than the US yet they're out-drinking Americans. Uganda is probably the most striking example of that on the current list.
Well one of the stores was bought out and I think the other just downsized. I wouldn’t say there’s no collapsing. Keep in mine, 22% inflation in the US isn’t helping sales.
True, also in LA here and when I was trying to get an Elijah Craig C923 for example, the only place I could find it for a long time, it was part of a three bottle bundle. Not doing that nonsense, buying other things that I never would want, just to get the one I would.
@@ChristopherNeeme well idk where your at but there’s this place in Ontario that was selling it straight up, it’s called liquorama there selection is pretty decent if you want to check them out
@@TheWhiskeyCove true some bundles are good if you know where to search. Some are terrible you get one good bottle, and the rest are just terrible 😂 it’s like an inventory dump.
The 2 liquor stores closing by me shut down due to the rent. They opened after the pandemic chasing what they thought were big stable dollars. They thought liquor was a good investment because stores made money all throughout the pandemic. Post pandemic when things returned to normal their sales plummeted then they couldn’t cover rent. Even if their pricing was similar to Total Wine people didn’t buy.
I’ve seen that a few times too. Like I mentioned in the video people thought it was the new wave of alcohol and it was going to stay like that. Sadly for stores that’s not the case.
@@TheWhiskeyCoveyes the 2 store owners by me were more into the cash flow that they thought starting liquor store would offer. They barely knew anything about whiskey. I just went in one day and they told me last day. Selling bottles at cost. Very sad.
@@TheWhiskeyCoveyup but I didn’t have much money. I got Bowmore 15 year Scotch. Redemption 9 year Bourbon and Sagamore Double Oaked Rye. The store never really had allocated Bourbons. I guess they didn’t want to play that game with the distributors.
Still tough to find some allocated bottles, but hard to miss the mass of bottles that are taking up shelf space. My canary in the coal mine is Stagg Jr. If I see a bottle on the shelf for less than 200 in IL, I'll know a wave is coming.
It feels like a lot of whiskey has increased by at least 25%. I get inflation but some are up 100% which isn't right. Plus folks are sitting on a bunch and are just riding it out. Thanks for watching.
I’m curious to see where it all ends up. I started into bourbon during COVID (turned 21) so I don’t know any different than impossible to find bottles and astronomical prices. There are still shelfers that I like but I do hope that I’ll be able to go out and occasionally find a higher end bottle for those special occasions. Curious to see how it turns out, I mean it was clear the market was over-saturated. Time will tell! Good video Patrick
I think we are heading for a storm but for those who truly enjoy whiskey like yourself we will come out the other side all better for it. Thanks for watching Tucker.
It seems the distilleries will continue with the limited edition or special releases (i.e. wild turkey) to continue to increase margins while trying to keep the everyday bottles (i.e. wild turkey 101) low as possible. We'll see how the market goes. Thanks for the video!
I haven’t enjoyed this tripling of allocated prices by wild turkey. How can you sell a 10 year Russel’s for 30$-$40 but then a 13 year or 15 year for $250+. I mean the markets there for people to buy it but it’s crazy none the less.
Prices are getting crazy. I’m not sure a full out recession would decrease or reset the pricing structure to what we would want it to a recession could even cause more pipe to drink haha
@@TheWhiskeyCove It the offerings are getting too expensive. $300 bottles of bourbon $100 bottles of blanco tequila special this special that bottles. The distillers pushed the price limits and I hope they get caught with expensive stock.
Just discovered your channel. Liquor stores make money off vodka, flavored crap and cheap wine. I dont really see a downturn on those sales. Plenty of big box liquor stores opening in California these days. I agree it will be easier to get allocated bourbon in the next few years, but I would not say liquor stores are closing everywhere.
Hey dude. Thanks for watching. I would say that a lot of states are adapting California laws around liquor and that’s having a negative impact on mom and pop or locally owned stores. Maybe California isn’t seeing it as much as it’s been that way there for a long time.
The Total Wine & More national chain seems to be still expanding, in West Hollywood, they're opening a new one soon basically a block away from an existing BevMo, so they obviously want to compete head to head there.
Things are a changing in this industry and I think we will see many craft and possibly a few big brands having serious issues and maybe going under. New drinkers are driving some of these issues with Fomo and over paying for bottles because of not being educated about what they are buying. And the secondary market preys on them though that market is taking a beating in recent months. I honestly believe the higher prices are a way to limit the secondary market but it is hurting sales as many can’t or won’t spend that kinda money on whiskey.
I agree that craft distilleries will probably get hit hard. Hopefully the good ones will get supported by the community. I always try to buy local. You can buy some great stuff. Boulder spirits and copper sky being some local Colorado favorites of mine. If you spend $250 on a bottle of Russell’s 15 that takes money away from the $50 bottles you buy more regularly. Thanks for the comments gents!
Yeah a lot of the craft whiskey sits on shelves. I think it'll be good to have stiffer competition for what makes the cut. Too many distributors trying to peddle so-so product at a premium.
I used to work for a big liquor store in Texas for over 6 years ranging from manager to clerk when I first started. Let’s call the store decs. I can tell you if our whiskey sales were doing bad the whole store was doing bad. It’s a very big burden with all of the store picks we carry. We were incentivizing staff with concert tickets, food and bonuses to move x amount of store picks per week.
Correct! The allocated bourbon market does not keep a liquor store in business. When I was in college up until my early 30's I never once was interested in bourbon. Most people got interested during covid and flippers ran wild.
I think it is called bull whip effect in economy and honestly I would blame covid helicopter money giveaway... It was sort of false alarm throughout the economies all around the world. As one politician spot on said: "Unearned money were printed and issued..."
It got cut because of a copy righted song that wasn’t supped to be copy righted lol. You may see the old one return for a few backed videos but then we will have a new intro with fresh music.
I think there is a local law to take into account. In March 2023 Colorado allowed wine sales in grocery stores and this is hurting local liquor stores. There does seem to be a bit of a downturn but I'd wager these stores closed moreso due to that change than the national or global changes.
Totally Paige that’s been huge here in Colorado. These stores just haven’t been able to compete. It’s a shame. I didn’t want that to happen. I loved that Colorado only let people own two liquor stores. Things will change a lot here in Colorado.
@alext9723 Georgia still has the 2 store rule and new stores are still opening. I haven't noticed any closing, but changing owners has been happening.
Not a good thing in Colorado.
@@usagipaige5377 you’re right! If I had more time my plan was to talk a little about that. It’s a big shame.
Maybe a store like COSTCO could affect liquor only stores, but King Soopers isn't hitting into the market that hard IMO. I've yet to buy anything beside a six pack in my local Safeway. How much of it is increased taxes, which in turn raise rents, insurance, etc. Not to mention the amount of stores here in CO. Did the TW affect these other stores? Without asking the owners we will guess.
From discussion with staff at total beverage they said it was impacting sales. Maybe not for people like you and me to go to king Soopers instead, but Moms and family folks doing their shopping there how much easier is it to just pick up the drinks there too. It's all ab out convenience.
Good things don't last forever. I just don't want us losing any old distilleries.
Right there with you. Be a big shame to lose any big boys.
I think the legacy distilleries like Heaven Hill, Wild Turkey, Buffalo Trace, Four Roses, Jack Daniels, Old Forester, etc. will all be fine. MGP I don't know but it will probably be ok.
@@systemtrend3194 let’s hope so dude. I worry about craft distilleries. Let’s rally around local ones who do good stuff.
@@TheWhiskeyCove Doing my job boss. Grabbed Chattanooga Whiskeys latest experimental release 39!
I've asked a big box liquor store as well as a Mom and Pop if they carried Weller 12. Both said, basically, "Yeah, we get it in all the time." One of the guy's said it and I caught a quick smile by him; not knowing why he smiled. I've been in many, many times never to see it. I suspect, as you mentioned, that what the smile meant was "Yeah, we get it in all the time. But, you're never going to see it!"
Basically it sounded like that. Maybe stores don’t get as much as we think but to never sell it to your customers is wild. There’s a store not so far away from me. They sell a lot of every spirit imaginable. Must do good business in sales. I’ve been going there multiple times to buy beer and I’ve never seen one single allocated bottle of whiskey on a shelf or behind the counter. When I ask a clerk they almost weirdly ignore my question and just mumble some nonsense about they don’t sell that whiskey lol. Some stores are just shady. Though there are many excellent stores out there.
Great video. You brought up some good points. I think we will see a slow down a bit as well as some lower prices. It may be a bit of correction that the bourbon market needs.
@@justinbrandenburg4415 I don’t disagree with that. I don’t think things can continue on the current course
Excellent vid. Great info!
@@esoterictrinitarian1990 thanks for watching!
@@TheWhiskeyCove thanks for the content to watch!
A lot of times I see single barrels with kind of an inflated price, and I think the main customers have figured out sometimes they're not as good as the batched expressions.
I would say that for blantons and Weller full proof.
Great video and insight. I think the drop in liquor sales is multi-factoral. 1. poor economic conditions give the broader population less disposable income. 2. Boomer generation being replaced by large Millennial/Gen Z population who drink much less (Gen x generation is too small by comparison to make an impact), 3. an overall move towards healthier living, which includes giving up or reducing alcohol consumption.
I don't think you'll see a bump back up in alcohol sales ever again. It's a mirror to what is happening to the economy. When you are removing a massive generation from employment (Boomers) and you don't have the population to replace them, you see a drop in unemployment and a rise in wage inflation. This was inevitable. Number of unemployed workers per job opening, June 2012 3.4, June 2024 0.8.
I agree. I feel there are many different factors and laid out a few in the time I wanted to take for the video. One I didn’t mention was grocery stores are taking over now too.
I would have to question whether poor economic conditions result in people consuming less from liquor stores, however that absolutely is true when it comes to how much money people will be able to spend in bars with alcohol drink price markups. If you look at the top alcohol consuming nations per capita, there's numerous places where the population remains in worse shape economically than the US yet they're out-drinking Americans. Uganda is probably the most striking example of that on the current list.
Gen Z doesn't go out. They still drink.
Well one of the stores was bought out and I think the other just downsized. I wouldn’t say there’s no collapsing.
Keep in mine, 22% inflation in the US isn’t helping sales.
Isn't downsized just another term for closing? They did close a location. I appreciate you tuning in. Thanks for watching :)
I’m out in LA and most stores are selling there single barrels in bundles instead of it being a straight buy
I’ve seen that a few times but it doesn’t happen THAT much in Colorado yet. I don’t hate it as it’s like a Weller full proof at cost.
True, also in LA here and when I was trying to get an Elijah Craig C923 for example, the only place I could find it for a long time, it was part of a three bottle bundle. Not doing that nonsense, buying other things that I never would want, just to get the one I would.
@@ChristopherNeeme three bottle bundle for an Elijah Craig barrel proof is wild stuff. Did you end up getting a bottle?
@@ChristopherNeeme well idk where your at but there’s this place in Ontario that was selling it straight up, it’s called liquorama there selection is pretty decent if you want to check them out
@@TheWhiskeyCove true some bundles are good if you know where to search. Some are terrible you get one good bottle, and the rest are just terrible 😂 it’s like an inventory dump.
The 2 liquor stores closing by me shut down due to the rent. They opened after the pandemic chasing what they thought were big stable dollars. They thought liquor was a good investment because stores made money all throughout the pandemic. Post pandemic when things returned to normal their sales plummeted then they couldn’t cover rent. Even if their pricing was similar to Total Wine people didn’t buy.
I’ve seen that a few times too. Like I mentioned in the video people thought it was the new wave of alcohol and it was going to stay like that. Sadly for stores that’s not the case.
@@TheWhiskeyCoveyes the 2 store owners by me were more into the cash flow that they thought starting liquor store would offer. They barely knew anything about whiskey. I just went in one day and they told me last day. Selling bottles at cost. Very sad.
Get some good bottles for cost?
@@TheWhiskeyCoveyup but I didn’t have much money. I got Bowmore 15 year Scotch. Redemption 9 year Bourbon and Sagamore Double Oaked Rye. The store never really had allocated Bourbons. I guess they didn’t want to play that game with the distributors.
@@TheReal_DeanD That sagamore double oaked though!!!!
Still tough to find some allocated bottles, but hard to miss the mass of bottles that are taking up shelf space. My canary in the coal mine is Stagg Jr. If I see a bottle on the shelf for less than 200 in IL, I'll know a wave is coming.
@@masfinoreviews3814 that’s a good way of looking at it. I think secondary has come down below $200 now.
@@TheWhiskeyCove Wow! That's interesting. I almost pulled the trigger on it at 229, but I was like "eh..........I'll just take the ECBP please" 😄
@@masfinoreviews3814 sorry that was a typo lol. It was supposed to be $200. My bad.
A think a lot of it has come down to price fatigue. Bourbon has gotten really expensive lately.
It feels like a lot of whiskey has increased by at least 25%. I get inflation but some are up 100% which isn't right. Plus folks are sitting on a bunch and are just riding it out. Thanks for watching.
I’m curious to see where it all ends up. I started into bourbon during COVID (turned 21) so I don’t know any different than impossible to find bottles and astronomical prices. There are still shelfers that I like but I do hope that I’ll be able to go out and occasionally find a higher end bottle for those special occasions. Curious to see how it turns out, I mean it was clear the market was over-saturated. Time will tell! Good video Patrick
I think we are heading for a storm but for those who truly enjoy whiskey like yourself we will come out the other side all better for it. Thanks for watching Tucker.
I'm surprised Total Beverage in Thornton closed!! News to me 😮💨that was a nice store !!
I would have thought the Westminster location would have closed first but I think the king Soopers next door really killed them
I was too Jared. It was an ok store but weirdly handled their Christmas allocation.
It seems the distilleries will continue with the limited edition or special releases (i.e. wild turkey) to continue to increase margins while trying to keep the everyday bottles (i.e. wild turkey 101) low as possible. We'll see how the market goes.
Thanks for the video!
I haven’t enjoyed this tripling of allocated prices by wild turkey. How can you sell a 10 year Russel’s for 30$-$40 but then a 13 year or 15 year for $250+. I mean the markets there for people to buy it but it’s crazy none the less.
@@TheWhiskeyCove yeah. It is crazy pricing but like you said, it sells out so they will keep doing it 😩
Prices are too high so people aren’t spending as much. The cost to operate are too high. Country needs a cleanse (recession) that resets the economy
Prices are getting crazy. I’m not sure a full out recession would decrease or reset the pricing structure to what we would want it to a recession could even cause more pipe to drink haha
@@TheWhiskeyCove It the offerings are getting too expensive. $300 bottles of bourbon $100 bottles of blanco tequila special this special that bottles. The distillers pushed the price limits and I hope they get caught with expensive stock.
Not just stores closing in Illinois then?
It seems from the conversations I’ve been having it’s a few states.
Thanks for the update 🥃 Cheers
My pleasure Tom!
Just discovered your channel. Liquor stores make money off vodka, flavored crap and cheap wine. I dont really see a downturn on those sales. Plenty of big box liquor stores opening in California these days. I agree it will be easier to get allocated bourbon in the next few years, but I would not say liquor stores are closing everywhere.
Hey dude. Thanks for watching. I would say that a lot of states are adapting California laws around liquor and that’s having a negative impact on mom and pop or locally owned stores. Maybe California isn’t seeing it as much as it’s been that way there for a long time.
The Total Wine & More national chain seems to be still expanding, in West Hollywood, they're opening a new one soon basically a block away from an existing BevMo, so they obviously want to compete head to head there.
@@ChristopherNeeme I’m not totally sure wines biggest fan. They have a tendency of monopolizing and then putting prices up.
@@ChristopherNeeme Yep, they are putting Total Wine's next to every Bevmo in the LA area.
A local store where I'm from has nearly all of it's single barrels on sale...Interesting to hear these pieces on why that may be.
That doesn’t suppose me at all. They are just not moving as fast as they were previously. Good price for us right now though.
Things are a changing in this industry and I think we will see many craft and possibly a few big brands having serious issues and maybe going under. New drinkers are driving some of these issues with Fomo and over paying for bottles because of not being educated about what they are buying. And the secondary market preys on them though that market is taking a beating in recent months. I honestly believe the higher prices are a way to limit the secondary market but it is hurting sales as many can’t or won’t spend that kinda money on whiskey.
Overpriced NDP and some small DSP that are selling young bourbons will feel the glut, but legacy brands will just cut back on producing new make.
I agree that craft distilleries will probably get hit hard. Hopefully the good ones will get supported by the community. I always try to buy local. You can buy some great stuff. Boulder spirits and copper sky being some local Colorado favorites of mine. If you spend $250 on a bottle of Russell’s 15 that takes money away from the $50 bottles you buy more regularly. Thanks for the comments gents!
Yeah a lot of the craft whiskey sits on shelves. I think it'll be good to have stiffer competition for what makes the cut. Too many distributors trying to peddle so-so product at a premium.
You see it so many times. It’s even the same whiskey but with a different label and distillery name just sourced.
I don’t think whiskey amounts to a very high percentage of revenue for liquor stores.
I used to work for a big liquor store in Texas for over 6 years ranging from manager to clerk when I first started. Let’s call the store decs. I can tell you if our whiskey sales were doing bad the whole store was doing bad. It’s a very big burden with all of the store picks we carry. We were incentivizing staff with concert tickets, food and bonuses to move x amount of store picks per week.
I think you’d be surprised. Thanks for watching Kurt.
Correct! The allocated bourbon market does not keep a liquor store in business. When I was in college up until my early 30's I never once was interested in bourbon. Most people got interested during covid and flippers ran wild.
Must just be your area. None closing her e
Where do you live?
I think it is called bull whip effect in economy and honestly I would blame covid helicopter money giveaway... It was sort of false alarm throughout the economies all around the world. As one politician spot on said: "Unearned money were printed and issued..."
Thanks for the financial insight! You could also put it as folks were also self medicating with alcohol during COVID too.
I hope this is a good one I just had to watch two minutes of a stupid video just to get to this video
I appreciate you watching the ads. It’s part of RUclips I guess but not skipping helps me out a slither. Hopefully you enjoyed it!
No “run that video”? 😢
It got cut because of a copy righted song that wasn’t supped to be copy righted lol. You may see the old one return for a few backed videos but then we will have a new intro with fresh music.
@@TheWhiskeyCove all good! Just threw me off!
All the liquor stores got Democrated 😂