Confessions of a Liquor Store Employee

(This is part of a series of short, exploratory class writing from students at the University of Minnesota enrolled studying the Sociology of Drink. Some authors wanted their names used, others preferred to be anonymous for public posts.)

by Jacqueline Hess

For the last year I have worked in a liquor store that specializes in craft beer in South Minneapolis. When I started, my mom, who was a bartender through college, told me that in her experience (therefore she said it more as a fact than an observation) that “vodka drinkers drink twice as much as anyone else." I wanted to look at how drinks signal social status, and how liquor store employees create mental "types" to make sense of their customers (like everyone does, I suppose).

Over the last year I have seen the same guy come in every day, sometimes twice a day, and buy a case (24 pack) of cheep beer (Coors light, Natural Ice, Bud Light, etc.), and a 375 mL (We call it a pint) of Karkov vodka, the cheapest we sell. He is an older (65+) white male, who comes in looking dirty, smelling, and pays in cash. When I say I see the same guy coming in, I mean to say that we have several different guys who match the same description coming in every day. Mostly they refuse to engage in any conversation, even the, “Hey, how are you doing today?” is brushed off with a scoff and a scowl.

On the other side of the spectrum, we have people who come in less frequently, once or maybe twice a week, looking for the latest and greatest craft beer. They are willing to spend $10-$20 on one bomber (750 mL bottle) and like to talk to the staff about their favorite aspects of a certain beer or a certain brewery. Most of these craft beer heads are younger, 25-35, come in dressed much nicer than the case + pint guy, but not overly dressed, typically male, but some female, and are more excited about the culture behind the beer than the drinking to get drunk parts of beer. These are the people who, like we talked about last week, would fit in with the casual daily drinkers of the south, where the functioning alcoholics from above would be associated with the binge drinkers of the north.

Of course we have the “good” spirit drinkers (Vodka, Whiskey (scotch and bourbon), Gin, Rum, Etc.), those who come in frequently, but infrequently buy a $15-$50 bottle, often from a local distillery, and would be offended if I offered them anything from lower than the middle shelf. This drinker is typically 35-50, appears to be middle class, isn’t afraid to ask for opinions or to ask about something new. This drinker, much like the Craft beer heads, give a vibe that they are more interested in the social aspect of the drink.

I do want to point out that I am generalizing groups of people here. But in any line of work, this happens. Humans don't come in an endless varied spectrum. Sooner or later, and rightly or wrongly, we begin to notice types. Three months ago I began working at a new location, in a middle class suburb. Because we are still new we are getting a lot of first time people in every day, but after the first month we already have some of each kind of regulars.

In particular, I enjoy a woman who comes in frequently and has been very open in telling me quite a bit about her life. She is a mother of two kids, she used to only drink German white wine, and when we opened she started doing a build-your-own 6-pack of craft beer (a special thing we do in our store). Since that first visit in she has grown a love of all things craft beer. She comes in twice a week to buy, then each night she drinks and rates her new beer and posts it on her blog that she started since becoming a customer in our store.

A big difference I’ve seen from the Minneapolis location and the suburb location is that the guy who buys a case of beer (although, in the suburb, it is rarely paired with a pint of anything) is usually lower-middle class, going out on his boat, and buying a cheep beer because he knows all his friends are going to be drinking it too. So the stigma against suburban macro-beer drinkers is less harsh than the stigma against Minneapolis macro-beer drinkers, partly because they have never taken the time to try any of the craft beers we have available, just choose to drink what they have always known.

After talking to coworkers who have been in the business for at least as long as I have, they seem to agree that most of what someone drinks has to do with one of two things, their socioeconomic status, or their addiction. One said pointed out, “The guy who comes in and buys a pint every day is doing it for one reason, if he has it, he will drink it. Whether it is a pint or a liter, if its there he (or she) will drink it. It’s a matter of control, not preference.” Personally I see this as more of a Psychological issue than a Sociological one, but it was worth pointing out. A different co-worker pointed out that the guy who comes in every day is spending more overall than the guy who spends $50 on one bottle even though he has fewer resourses (because he often makes less money). 

When I asked a third co-worker if there was a correlation between class and what people drink, she didn't want to be pinned down. We talked about the "pint a day" crowd as well, and she agreed with coworker 1, that it’s all about control rather than economics. It would be cheaper in the long run to buy a larger bottle, but if it were a bigger bottle they would drink that too. She also points out that certain higher socioeconomic status people try too hard to let everyone know that they are of a higher status, letting the bottle they buy work in the same way their car works, to show others how much money they make and often try to put the idea out there that they are better than you based on what they buy. Coworker 3 has only worked at the suburb location, so she can’t compare the difference in the two stores, but even working one day a week she can tell who is a regular and who is not.