According to an article on the Dealbook blog, the US Treasury department is on a shopping spree. It’s a pretty long list they’re working through: every alcoholic beverage sold in the US for off-premise consumption.
And according to Impact Databank, the US wine market continued to grow, with a 1.5% increase for 2013. [level-members]
First the market increase. The data includes both on- and off-premise consumption, with off-premise consumption’s growth making up for a weakening in the on-premise market.
Restaurants are beginning to recover to some extent, but the recovery is spotty and localized to, not surprisingly, those areas where the economy is picking up more quickly.
Regarding that government buying spree, I’m not sure you should expect fedora-wearing G-men to be walking through your doors any time soon, but apparently the Treasury department is looking to expand it’s randomized program of buying alcoholic beverages for testing purposes.
Testing is mostly centered on making sure that labels and marketing are not misleading to consumers. If you say it on the label, it better be in the bottle.
Some funny anecdotes about gold flecks in Goldschlager and scorpions floating in tequila. The Treasury’s advertisement is available for viewing here.
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