A known side effect of alcohol consumption is diminished inhibitions. If retailers want to overcome shoppers’ inhibitions about shopping and spending money, providing them with access with alcohol might seem like an obvious and enjoyable solution. Yet the growing practice also raises some concerns about whether it is really ethical to push drinks as a way to get people to buy more. In an expanding array of retail settings, from high-end department stores like Nordstrom to grocery store chains like Mariano’s, shoppers can order a cocktail to sip while shopping or else take a seat at in-store bars to take a break. For the luxury retailers, the drinks resonate with and enhance the hedonic experience. People feel as if they are being catered to, and they find the overall experience that much more enjoyable; for companions less interested in the shopping trip, it also gives them a way to pass the time pleasurably. In grocery stores, the beverages instead give consumers a positive aspect to appreciate while they perform a relatively tedious, regular chore. Regardless of the setting though, shoppers and retailers both acknowledge that a buyer under the influence of alcohol is more likely to buy and spend more, whether that means indulging in a luxury accessory purchase or putting a fancy jar of jam into their shopping cart. This outcome raises ethical questions, in the sense that the retailers are explicitly and admittedly trying to alter consumers’ mental states and lower their resistance to marketing tactics designed to get them to buy more stuff. These questions may be especially concerning considering evidence of the rates of alcoholism, including estimates that one in eight U.S. adults struggles with drinking problems. By making alcoholic drinks so readily and widely available, retailers arguably are contributing to a relevant and important social problem. Finally, it risks an increase in risky driving behaviors, if consumers get in their cars with their purchases after downing a few glasses of wine.
Source: Abha Bhattarai, “Shopping Under the Influence?” Washington Post, February 13, 2020