"Americans are drinking more during the pandemic. Craft distillers aren’t getting any of the love." - The Washington Post

May 23, 2020

Laura Reiley

Jaime Windon, the CEO and founder of Windon Distilling, sells her rum to Doyle Niemann and his wife Karen Morrill at the Riverdale Park Farmers Market in Riverdale Park, MD. (Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/For The Washington Post)

We’ve seen the memes about quarantinis, we’ve seen Ina Garten and her mondo cosmo, also the Wine O’Clock inessential worker Barbie. According to market research firm Nielsen, sales of alcoholic beverages spiked 55 percent in the week ending March 21, one of the first weeks of lockdown, and online sales of alcohol in the United States rose almost fivefold in April compared to the same period last year.

Alcohol delivery app Drizly says sales surged 485 percent through mid-April. And data analysis firm inMarket says light beer sales have skyrocketed, with Anheuser-Busch’s Busch Light sales experiencing a 44 increase over the past two months.

Restaurants and bars are just waking up from a long slumber, but our livers have been working overtime during the pandemic.