Retail sales of craft beers grew 15% last year. Liquor also had a good 2011, with a 4% increase in sales, while wine has soared in popularity among Baby Boomers and women in general. Everywhere you look, there’s a hip new vodka …
wine
Why It’s O.K. to Disregard the Opinions of Wine Experts
Wine critics have special powers. Not superhero-type powers like the ability to fly or control the minds of strangers, but, according to a new study, top critics have the ability to taste subtle flavors and chemicals that the …
A Deal Just For You: Niche Sites With Deals for Moms, Dudes, Jews, Dog Lovers, the Military & More
All along, skeptics said that the enormous success of daily deals couldn’t be sustained in the long run. And indeed, in recent months, the industry appears to have suffered some setbacks. Roughly one-third of all deal sites …
How Global Economic Shifts Changed the Wine Industry — For Better and For Worse
The international wine market was a favorite subject for classical economists in the 18th and 19th centuries to help explain the benefits of free trade. Adam Smith advocated free trade in his opus, An Inquiry into the Nature and …
Cheers! Increase in Liquor Sales Bodes Well for Economic Recovery
Pop open a bottle of your favorite spirits. It’s time to celebrate. Liquor sales rose by 4% last year, and growth was particularly strong in terms of exports of American spirits (up 16.5%) and sales in the pricey “super premium” …
The Next Big Things for Taco Bell, Starbucks, and Olive Garden
To broaden their appeal and expand business, each of these big-name chains is trying something new—adding breakfast, alcohol, and special bargain-priced deals, respectively.
Check Out the New Walgreens — Where You Can Get Sushi, Cognac, a Smoothie, and a Manicure
For more than a year now, shoppers have been able to buy cheap six-packs of private-label beer at Walgreens around the country. The brew, Big Flats 1901, is often described by reviewers as “drinkable,” high praise considering it costs about 50¢ a can. Ironically, though, the brand-new upscale 27,350-square-foot Walgreens in downtown …
The 5 Items That Will Get Cheaper in 2012
Here are five consumer items that will get cheaper and five that will get more expensive as the new year wears on
Wines from ‘Bad Years’ Are Often Great Values
You don’t have to know much about wine to have heard about “good years” and “bad years,” and perhaps even thrown the terms around cluelessly and nonchalantly during impromptu stops at roadside wineries. During a good year, the …
How Consumers Fool Themselves Into Thinking They’ve Made Good Purchases
If you think you make purchases because you logically and objectively evaluate the options at hand, then decide based strictly on your personal preferences and individual sense of value, think again. Here are four examples of how …
‘Breastaurants’ and 7 Other Hot Restaurant Trends
The next time you consider going out to eat, you may have to contend with temptations in the form of burgers so good that can’t be called fast food, special blink-and-you’ll-miss-them deals, drinks poured out of unusual …
Why You Should Judge a Wine Strictly by the Label
Forget about grapes, varietals, regions, “good years,” and such. Forget about the input of so-called “wine experts” as well. You know you’re going to pick a wine based mostly on the label. And is that such a bad thing?