COLUMBUS — Kenneth Archibold is the manager of Chateau Wine and Spirits and has been stocking shelves since public demand for spirits increased during the pandemic.
The shelves at Chateau Wine and Spirits haven’t looked the same since the start of the pandemic.
“You can kind of tell when you look at our shelves there’s a lot of stuffing missing here,” says Archibold.
He says since March 2020, people have been consuming more alcohol, making it hard for small businesses, like Chateau.
Recently, shortages have been the most pressing issue. While suppliers have had trouble obtaining glass to bottle various spirits, the truck driver shortage has directly affected businesses receiving the supply. The store has had trouble restocking wines from New Zealand and bourbons like Woodford and Bullet.
“There’s just shortage issues with different shipments,” said Archibold. “Glass is a huge issue right now so we pretty much end up being out of a different liquor every week. We talk to a supplier or distributor every week about when I am going to get this product back in and I got a picture of something the other day, they’re like it’s in the middle of the ocean on a boat finding its way to you right now.”
Although COVID-19 cases have been on the rise, he doesn’t expect them to have an impact on the supply and demand of alcohol in 2022.
The shortages come despite a 2021 Gallup poll finding alcohol consumption in the United States declined from 65% of adults in 2019 to 60% in 2021.
“Hopefully come January and February when business slows down a little bit, it’ll help the supply chain kind of catch up and get back to where it was before,” says Archibold. “COVID made everything a little bit difficult even with labor shortages and stuff like that but overall I mean we do a pretty good job of if we don’t have something we’ll find an equivalent product that we can switch it out for”
The Department of Labor released data earlier this month that shows a 1 percent increase in the cost of alcohol.
