BC Liquor Sales Spiked By 40% In March & People Are Buying In Serious Bulk

While some are baking bread, others are making cocktails, and some are doing both. Your isolation hobbies are your business and there's no right or wrong way to go about it. For a lot of B.C. residents, isolation means that the drinks are flowing a little more than usual. In fact, B.C. liquor sales have spiked by 40% in the past month, and there is some stockpiling happening. 

CTV News reported that liquor sales have increased by 40% in the month of March as compared to data from previous years. 

It looks like it's not just a bottle here and there. Locals are buying alcohol in bulk, according to CTV News. It seems that stockpiling isn't just reserved for toilet paper and hand sanitizer. 

For example, sales of boxed wine have increased by 144% from their regular amount. 

The same goes for beer, where 24-packs are now the go-to, with the sales for those going up by 120% in this period. Similarly, sales of 1.73-litre bottles of hard liquor have spiked by 153%.

So really, B.C. locals are not messing about when it comes to bulk-buying booze. 

Especially since virtual drinking parties are now a thing.

So it's safe to say that liquor stores are experiencing more bustle than usual. However, due to COVID-19, crowds are risky and against public health orders. 

This is why the B.C. government has had to make some changes to make sure physical distancing is maintained, especially for the most vulnerable populations. 

On Wednesday, April 15, the government announced in a press release that wine stores and private liquor retailers have been given the go-ahead to start opening as early as 7 a.m. These stores can now create early shopping hours to let seniors and the immunocompromised shop for booze if they choose to do so. 

CTV News also said this measure would lead to fewer shoppers in stores at any given time period, as people would have more time to get their shopping done. 

This extension in hours will not apply to government-owned liquor stores. 

Dr. Melissa Lem told CTV News that drinking to keep the stress away is okay to a certain extent, as long as you do have other healthy coping mechanisms and your consumption doesn't go up. 

As we said, there's no right way to do isolation.