Alcohol. Something that has helped us all get through the pandemic. Remember when we first went into quarantine and the liquor stores had lines around the buildings? Everything was sold out and people were stocked up. Personally, I bought myself a case of my favorite wine
and some liquor. Let us just say that wine went fast. When I started to think about how crazy people went when the pandemic began regarding buying alcohol, I wondered just how much alcohol sales increased.
Not only were people buying out all the alcohol they could find but they were doing it online. According to Statista, total online alcohol sales in March were up 243% and it was not stopping there. COVID-19 really changed the e-commerce business forever. Everything is online now. Almost every state in the country allows for alcohol to be delivered right to your doorstep. This was a game changer for the industry. Alcohol e-commerce sales were expected to hit $5.6 billion in sales, up almost $3 billion from last year. Alcohol is the fastest growing e-commerce purchase during the pandemic.
So why were people drinking so much? COVID-19 has brought a lot of stress to the country, when stress hits, people drink. Also, all the bars and restaurants had shut down in major cities and areas around the country, this caused people to buy alcohol and drink it in their houses. According to Pollard and colleagues, three out of four adults consumed alcohol an average of 1 day more per month. People began drinking more frequently and drinking more. Something I thought was very interesting is the main increase in drinking was in women. A survey done by RAND corporation showed that the frequency of drinking per month increased by 14% and 17% among women.
The highest rate of alcohol sales were in March when the pandemic first hit and many people were isolating, but the increase in sales is not expected to go away. Through researching this interesting topic, I thought to myself how can I tell a story with the data I was looking at like I had read in Tom Davenport’s “Telling a story with data”. Data can be deceiving if portrayed in the wrong way. For instant, the data I have shown above is drastic and it is shown just how drastic in graphs. Data can impact people in the correct or wrong way when portrayed differently. In conclusion, alcohol sales are booming and it is not planned to stop any time soon!
Resources
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1109183/alcoholic-beverages-sales-growth-coronavirus-us/
https://www.theiwsr.com/beverage-alcohol-ecommerce-value-grows-by-42-in-2020-to-reach-us24-billion/
https://www.winsightgrocerybusiness.com/center-store/check-your-spam-folder-hormel-acquires-planters
https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/deloitte-review/issue-12/telling-a-story-with-data.html
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