Some party: DNC didn't seem to spike wine and spirit sales in Philly
Sales of wine and booze in the city were up about 4 percent in July 2016, when compared with July 2015. But sales have been rising about 4 percent annually anyway.
Fifty thousand visitors packing hotels ... national attention on the first female presidential nominee ... a full slate of parties and events.
How much of an impact did the Democratic National Convention have on the sale of wine and spirits? Are Dems the life of the party? Probably not.
Sales of wine and booze in the city were up less than 4 percent in July 2016, compared with July 2015, according to figures supplied to me by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. Beer sales are not tallied by any one agency.
The LCB sold $22,867,440 of booze in July 2016, compared with $22,062,453 in July 2015, and $20,527,917 in July 2014. Prices included the 18-percent Johnstown flood tax but not the city sales tax.
Wine and spirit sales have been trending up about 4 percent a year anyway, so this July-over-July uptick may be a mere blip, or even nothing.
One point of interest might be the third week of July, when almost $5.3 million of wine and spirits was sold in the city, as restaurants and bars began laying in supplies for the convention, which ran from July 25-28. (These figures, for the city and county of Philadelphia, count all sales, including the bottle of Fireball your neighbor picked up to pregame for that cookout.)
Unfortunately, sales figures for July 2000 were not available, so a comparison against the sales for the last political gathering, the Republican National Convention in 2000, cannot be made.