Not only have North Carolina’s ABC stores — deemed essential under the governor’s stay-at-home orders — remained opened during quarantine, but business has surged.
“Oh yeah, sales are way up,” said Andrea Batsche, who works part-time at the Pittsboro ABC Store.
In her two years of employment there, she’s grown accustomed to occasional — and predictable — periods of high demand for alcoholic beverages.
“Before big holidays,” she said. “Before a three-day weekend. We get super busy before the Fourth of July.”
But in her experience, recent demand for spirits is unprecedented.
“I have not witnessed this before in the couple of years I’ve worked here,” said Batsche, who works two shifts a week at the Pittsboro store.
Statewide, North Carolina’s ABC retail stores realized a 38 percent increase in sales in March, and Chatham County’s ABC stores likewise did more business.
“Our sales have been very strong,” said Matt Williams, general manager with Chatham County ABC Board, which operates three of Chatham County’s ABC stores: at 11312 U.S 15-501, Chapel Hill; 40120 Moring Drive, Chapel Hill; and 8038 Pittsboro-Moncure Road, Moncure.
According to sales data on the state ABC website, Chatham County ABC Board’s March 2020 retail sales total of $557,915 represented a 57 percent increase over sales in March 2019 ($339,113).
“Business is very strong,” said Williams. “People are staying at home. They’re not going out to the bars and the restaurants. They’re just depending more on the stores now.”
In the liquor business for more than 18 years — and the Chatham County ABC Board’s general manager the last five — Williams said recent demand is unusual.
“Every once in a while you’ll see something come out — some new thing — and people are clamoring for it,” he said. “But March business was really high. Even the way we’re going in April. Business hasn’t slowed down.”
Sales at each of Chatham County’s five ABC stores have been strong.
The Siler City ABC Board, which operates the retail store 1404 E. 11th St., Siler City, saw a 32 percent increase in its March retail sales ($176,403 last month, compared to March 2019’s retail sales of $127,891), according to the state ABC website.
And the Pittsboro ABC Board’s retail sales for March ($184,137) show business increasing 40 percent over numbers from March a year ago ($125,534).
In surrounding counties, Durham’s ABC sales saw a 14 percent increase in March and Wake County’s a 20 percent increase.
Fran Meyers, who lives in western North Carolina but is quarantining with her elderly parents at their home in north Chatham, did her part last Friday, purchasing two bottles of spirits at the Pittsboro store.
Wearing a mask covering her nose and mouth, Meyers said she’s taking the coronavirus seriously — and taking precautions not to catch or spread it — but also going about business to the extent necessary.
Friday afternoon, that included quick trips to Pittsboro’s Lowe’s Home Improvement store for a plumbing repair need, and to the ABC store.
“I’m a wine drinker, so this is for my dad,” Meyers said, gesturing with the bag containing her purchases.
“It is essential for some people,” she said. “For us, it’s just nice to be able to have a drink once in a while. Especially now.”
While ABC stores remain open, all stores have implemented additional safety measures and policies aimed at protecting employees and customers while COVID-19 remains a threat.
Williams was early to implement a number of new safety measures at the Chatham County ABC Board’s stores, including limiting the number of customers allowed in-store to one at a time, and having clerks — not the customers — obtain the requested items from the shelves.
“We allow one person at a time,” Williams said of his north Chatham and Moncure stores. “They go straight to the cash register. They tell the clerk what they want. The clerk rings it out. And they’re out the door.”
Batsche said the Pittsboro store, with similar safety measures in place, is doing everything it can to protect customers and employees. The Pittsboro store has also limited the number of customers allowed inside at a time.
“We now have sneeze guards up,” she said, “which I’m grateful for. And we’re using hand sanitizer and disinfectants. There’s a nice distance we maintain between the customers and the cashier. There’s not close face-to-face contact. Every store has it a little bit different.”
What hasn’t changed, Batsche said, is the supply chain.
The Pittsboro store, for example, continues to receive — as it always has — two shipments per month.
“Our shipments haven’t changed,” she said. “Our supply has not been interrupted. We may not get everything we want, but that’s kind of normal. We don’t always get everything we order.”
And customers, due to higher volumes of sales and limitations on some supplies, may not always find the exact product they seek.
“Sometimes we get pretty bare,” Batsche said. “And aside from the high demand, the procedures [now in place to limit spreading the virus] take a little longer.”
That’s led to some customers getting upset, she said.
“Some aren’t happy they can’t just go shop on their own,” said Batsche. “Others say they’re glad we’re taking the precautions.”
As for why North Carolina’s ABC stores are deemed essential, Sen. Jeff Jackson, a Democrat who represents District 37 (Mecklenburg County) in the N.C. Senate, addressed the matter in a recent Facebook post.
“‘Why are liquor stores still open?’” the senator wrote on April 7. “It’s because we have a lot of people who are chemically dependent on alcohol, and if we suddenly cut off their access they would go into withdrawal and flood the emergency rooms, which we can’t have right now.”
In a comment on that post, Jackson further elaborated: “For folks who are saying, ‘No, it’s because the state wants that ABC money,’ that’s a sensible theory but not accurate. Every state — even those with private liquor sales — is keeping them open (except Pennsylvania, and they’re reconsidering.)”
“I do think it’s important the stores stay open,” Batsche said. “If we were closed, it would be another health crisis. That doesn’t mean that everybody that comes in has a problem.”
But Batsche, who also runs her own small business — Studio 17, 17 Hillsboro St. in downtown Pittsboro — is struggling with reopening her own store.
“I have my own small business,” she said. “I’m just lost. I don’t know what to do. I make clothing and sell vintage. I’m not getting the small business money when I need it and I don’t want to lose all the work I’ve put into building my business.”
But she’s also “trying to stay mindful of the situation,” and said she’s not quite ready to re-open her own shop.
“I don’t think it’s time to relax,” she said. “I’d rather be safe than sorry.”
As for keeping herself safe during this period, Batsche said she’s “doing what I can,” and she’s appreciative of safety measures in place at her part-time work.
When her shifts end at the Pittsboro ABC store, she said, “I get home, my clothes go in the wash, and I get in the shower.”
Williams, meanwhile, said safety procedures will stay in place in the ABC stores he oversees for as long as necessary.
“Hopefully, we’ll get this thing under control soon and get back to normal,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Randall Rigsbee can be reached at rigsbee@chathamnr.com.