{"id":85609,"date":"2020-05-14T09:12:06","date_gmt":"2020-05-14T14:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newpersian-heritage.com\/?p=85609"},"modified":"2020-05-14T09:12:54","modified_gmt":"2020-05-14T14:12:54","slug":"alcohol-flying-off-shelves-at-essential-us-liquor-stores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/2020\/05\/14\/alcohol-flying-off-shelves-at-essential-us-liquor-stores\/","title":{"rendered":"Alcohol Flying Off Shelves at ‘Essential’ US Liquor Stores"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"VOA \u2014 ALEXANDRIA, VA – Business is booming for alcohol in the United States during the coronavirus pandemic as Americans on lockdown battle boredom and anxieties at home. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who would usually buy one bottle of wine are going out the door with several bottles, or even a case,\u201d said Davis Wills, a manager at UnWined, a wine and beer shop in Alexandria, Virginia, a Washington suburb.<\/p>\n

UnWined\u2019s sales, which now include curbside service and home deliveries, have increased at least 30 percent in recent months, according to Wills, as customers continue to hunker down in their homes.\u00a0 \u00a0
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\n\u201cPeople are concerned about getting the virus,\u201d he said, \u201cand since many of them are teleworking in this area, it\u2019s easier for them to have a glass of wine earlier in the day than they normally would.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s given us more freedom to drink when we want to and not feel guilty about it,\u201d customer Sarah Robinett said while shopping for wine.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

When asked if she\u2019s drinking more than usual, another customer, Andrea Anderson said, \u201cWell, maybe a little bit.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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And that\u2019s just the problem, according to George Koob, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. \u201cAlthough about 70 percent of Americans drink,\u201d he said, total consumption has significantly increased across the country.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because the pandemic is causing isolation and anxiety, Koob said, \u201cIndividuals may be increasing their alcohol consumption to obliterate those negative feelings, using it as a coping mechanism.\u201d He\u2019s concerned that the \u201cdark side\u201d of alcohol consumption could rise among the 14.5 million people in the United States with an alcohol use disorder.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Julia Chester, an associate professor at Purdue University, studies alcohol use disorders. Chester says she thinks that \u201cafter the pandemic subsides, it may be hard for some people to stop their pattern of problematic drinking.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSince alcohol is so ingrained in our culture,\u201d she said, it would be hard to shut down the distributors and establishments that serve liquor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Considered \u201cessential\u201d businesses, liquor stores generate huge tax revenues that comprise a substantial portion of many state government budgets. Liquor shops in 49 of America\u2019s 50 states, as well as the nation\u2019s capital, have remained open during the pandemic. Pennsylvania shut down its liquor stores but when residents began traveling to nearby states to buy alcohol, authorities allowed online sales and curbside pickup. On Friday, the state began allowing customers to shop in some of the stores.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>
A customer being served a beer at Guitars & Growlers in Richardson, Texas. The restaurant was opened to customers on May 1 after restrictions due to COVID-19 were eased.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some states, like Maryland, are citing financial reasons for keeping beverage retailers open. A state official said the decision was economically driven and in step with allowing restaurants to sell alcohol through carryout and delivery. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other states, like Delaware, say keeping alcohol available is an essential component of health care, since the closure of liquor stores could have an adverse impact on people struggling with substance abuse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Koob concurred, adding that that a sudden surge in people suffering alcohol-related withdrawal symptoms would put \u201ca significant strain on our medical system right now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the same time, he warned against normalizing excessive drinking, noting that since \u201calcohol suppresses the immune system, misuse could possibly make someone more vulnerable to the coronavirus.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The World Health Organization suggests avoiding alcohol altogether since \u201cconsumption can exacerbate health vulnerability.\u201d For people who think loading their bloodstream with alcohol will protect them from the coronavirus, the organization has a simple message: it just isn\u2019t true.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VOA \u2014 ALEXANDRIA, VA – Business is booming for alcohol in the United States during the coronavirus pandemic as Americans on lockdown battle boredom and anxieties at home. \u00a0 \u201cPeople who would usually buy one bottle of wine are going out the door with several bottles, or even a case,\u201d said Davis Wills, a manager […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":85610,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["fa","en"],"languages":{"fa":{"title":true,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}