Liquor Sales

As the economy turns down, Americans are cutting back on their liquor -- with a major exception: whiskey. Sales of bourbons such as Jack Daniels and Maker's Mark are bucking a slump in demand for distilled spirits that set in during the final months of last year, according to industry officials.

As liquor sales boom, Beam Inc. is expanding its spirits empire, paying $605 million in cash to buy the Pinnacle Vodka and Calico Jack rum brands from White Rock Distilleries. Beam's long list of products already include Jim Beam and Maker's Mark bourbon, Courvoisier cognac, Canadian Club whiskey and Skinnygirl Cocktails (which saw a 388% boom in volume sales last year, according to research group Technomic). What it doesn't have are vodka flavors such as Atomic Hots, Cake, Gummy and Whipped Cream.

The owner of a Van Nuys liquor store that police say is known to local teenagers as an easy place to buy booze will face multiple charges of selling alcohol to minors, the Los Angeles district attorney's office said. Ghassan Sayej, 33, owner of At Express Liquor, 5658 Sepulveda Blvd., was charged with 10 counts of underage liquor sales, Deputy City Atty. Laura Van Eyk said. Store clerk Katarzyna Oszszyk, 36, was charged with nine counts.

From a distance, Jay Hibbard has been watching the emotional, never-ending debate on Connecticut's ban on the Sunday sales of alcohol in supermarkets and package stores. As the eastern regional vice president for a national liquor manufacturers association in Washington, D.C., Hibbard came to Hartford this month for a key public hearing in an attempt to persuade legislators to lift the ban. Despite watching the issue closely, Hibbard would not make a prediction on whether 2011 will be the year the ban is lifted.

The Lost Hills sheriff's station will join forces with state Alcoholic Beverage Control investigators in August to determine whether area merchants are complying with laws on selling alcohol to minors. According to Deputy Kelly McMichael, investigations will be conducted in Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Malibu and Westlake Village, as well as unincorporated county areas patrolled by the Lost Hills station.

The Ventura County Sheriff's Department is launching a covert operation in the Ojai Valley it hopes will be a complete failure. The Undercover Decoy Program, which runs through the end of this year, will test sales clerks on how carefully they screen minors who try to buy alcoholic beverages. Decoy customers who are 18 or 19 years old will attempt to buy beer, wine or liquor from licensed establishments, according to Sheriff's Capt. James Barrett.

Community representatives of the West Adams district are upset that a planned grocery store on the ground floor of a 52-unit senior citizens housing complex was awarded a permit to sell beer and wine. The market and the housing complex, located at Western and Adams avenues, are part of a $5.9-million project of the Community Redevelopment Agency.

A restaurateur vowed Tuesday to file a legal challenge to a new ordinance adopted by the San Fernando City Council that will ban liquor sales by most new businesses. Regina Sancho-Bonet, owner of the Saraerrols Greek Restaurant on Maclay Avenue, said she decided to challenge provisions limiting the proximity of liquor businesses to some public buildings after the council Monday rebuffed a last-minute plea to relax restrictions on restaurants.

Community representatives gathered on Monday in front of the branch City Hall in Van Nuys to protest a court decision barring police from using underage decoys to catch liquor outlets selling to minors. Calling decoy sting operations the most effective means of fighting alcohol sales to minors, the protesters called for a constitutional amendment to overturn the state appellate court ruling.

Residents may yet be able to buy liquor at the Thrifty-Payless store on Harbor Boulevard. City Council members narrowly defeated a request last month to grant the store a liquor permit, saying the area already has enough outlets selling alcohol. But a lengthy memo from Thrifty management to the council persuaded members to reconsider.

The people running the nation's large liquor companies may need a few stiff drinks right about now. Typically this is the best season for the industry as we toast another year of accomplishments and look ahead to the next with a vodka martini or a fifth of Scotch. Consumption of alcoholic beverages typically kicks up from Thanksgiving through Jan. 1 as households and companies entertain more. But this year the business has been plagued by a slump in the bar and restaurant trade, frugal consumers who are trading down to less expensive brands and stiff price-cutting to boost sales.

A vote on a California Senate bill that would force supermarkets to route all alcohol sales through live cashiers, who could ensure that buyers are sober and of legal drinking age, was delayed after the author pulled the proposed legislation. Proponents of the bill say it is too easy for minors and the inebriated to buy alcohol illicitly by using the self-check machines rather than regular lines overseen by a grocery clerk. The delay is a procedural move that will allow the bill, AB 1060, to be considered at the start of the new legislative session in January without having to make its way past all the legislative committees again.

As the economy turns down, Americans are cutting back on their liquor -- with a major exception: whiskey. Sales of bourbons such as Jack Daniels and Maker's Mark are bucking a slump in demand for distilled spirits that set in during the final months of last year, according to industry officials.

The makers call it a "party in a pouch." Critics say it's more like an alcoholic candy bar. ShotPak is a line of alcoholic beverages that come in shot-sized, laminated-foil plastic pouches that are reminiscent of the drinks children pack in school lunches. Purple Hooter is one of the drinks, which sell for 99 cents to $1.50 in liquor stores and for more in some nightclubs.

More than 150 people were arrested Saturday on suspicion of buying alcohol for minors as part of a widespread sting in Southern California that authorities say was the largest in state history. The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, alongside several law enforcement agencies in 20 cities in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego and Santa Barbara counties, asked minors to stand outside liquor stores and ask adults to buy alcohol on their behalf. Those who agreed were cited, authorities said.

The distilled spirits industry expects its U.S. revenue to increase 4.6% in 2008, down from last year's growth rate, a trade group said Friday, as the weaker economy forces people to tighten their budgets for going out. The Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. expects spirits makers to post $19 billion in revenue in 2008. Revenue rose 5.6% to $18.2 billion in 2007. Sales by volume are expected to go up 1.9% in 2008, the trade group said, reaching 185 million cases. Volume sales advanced 2.

Thirty protesters outside Ynez Elementary School last Saturday called on city officials to toughen restrictions on businesses that sell or serve alcohol. "No booze by schools," read one of the group's placards. Phyllis Rabins, a protest organizer, complained that the City Council has been slow to prohibit liquor sales near parks, schools, churches, hospitals and drug and alcohol treatment centers.

It's Thursday night, the end of the Iraqi workweek, and Fami Ameen is scrambling in his crowded Assassin's Gate liquor store as customers clamor for everything from beer and whiskey to ouzo and arak, the popular local alcohol. Call Ameen an unexpected beneficiary of the "surge." For decades, Iraq had a reputation as a modern, secular society that liked to drink and knew how to party, from wild hotel discotheques to genteel members-only social clubs.

U.S. prosecutors are probing possible counterfeit wine sales, auction houses Christie's International and Sotheby's said Tuesday. The New York office of Christie's said it had received a subpoena requesting information on wine sales and had been cooperating with authorities. The London-based auction house sold $58.6 million of wine last year. "We have been cooperating with officials and will continue to do so," spokesman Toby Usnik said.