Beer Sales At Home Slump Too

After the September 08 “crisis” one of the oft waved stats in trend circles was that non-pub or bar sales in alcohol was rising. Maybe as a reaction to the doom and gloom, the suggestion was that people were buying a load of booze and glugging it down faster than their 401ks were plummeting.

News from the UK is that this trend has ground to a halt and that off-premises trade of beer has declined by 11% in the first quarter of 2009 – the third quarter in a row. The Financial Times reports:

Beer sales in supermarkets and off-licences fell 11 per cent in the first quarter compared with the same period last year – the biggest first- quarter decline since 1997 – debunking the theory that pub-goers are staying at home to drink…

“When the financial crisis hit last autumn, people stopped going to the pub altogether. Now, we are moving into the second phase, where people think going to the pub is important but need to economise and so they will drink less at home,” Trevor Stirling said [an analyst at Bernstein Research].

FT – Off-trade beer sales slide 11% in quarter

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