Christmas Spirits: To Loosen Wallets, Stores Mull Wine
When the two women first stopped by Boogaloos Boutique one recent night, they didn't buy anything. When the pair returned to Penny Scheetz's store three hours later, they were a tad tipsy.
One lingered over a cable-knit sweater with a snowflake design. "Go ahead," Ms. Scheetz overheard one woman urging her friend. "You've done worse things when you were drunk. Just buy it." She did, for $110.
It was Thursday in Decatur, Ga., the night of the town's weekly Terrific Thursday party. A yellow school bus upholstered with wildly colored fur, paid for by the city, transported shoppers around the downtown shopping district. At some stores, they enjoyed appetizers -- and glasses of wine.
Small urban shopping areas have long tried to keep shoppers from visiting faraway malls or larger chains by opening late and offering sizable discounts. Now, many across the country are adding something extra to keep the cash tills lubricated: a drink or two, or three.
A month ago, Melissa Daniel , a 28-year-old technology consultant in Chicago, hit an evening holiday party at a trendy Brazilian boutique called SOLEPassion. She recalls tossing back two glasses of champagne, without eating dinner, "and suddenly everything started looking good." She ended up with two sweaters costing $100 each. Two weeks later, she went to a sample-sale party, held by several merchants, sipped more champagne, and bought a $200 discounted Gucci duffel bag that hadn't seemed necessary when she was sober.
"I always like everything I buy," she says. "I just end up spending more than I planned."
The downtown shopping district of Quincy, Ill., which was losing customers to nearby Springfield and St. Louis, has turned Christmas shopping into a social event. Stores serve champagne during the December "Candlelight and Champagne" shopping evening, which started about five years ago. Outside, the eight-block, historic area is decorated with luminarias -- sand-filled paper bags lit by a candle -- Christmas wreaths and music.
"Ladies come in their fur coats for the evening," says Karol Ehmen, executive director of the Historic Quincy Business District. "That's pretty unusual for Quincy."
Ms. Ehmen has shared the idea with other communities. Some say their customers wouldn't be attracted by free alcohol. She suggests they give out chocolate instead.
The laws governing who can serve alcohol vary dramatically between states. Often, they're also subject to the interpretation of local liquor boards. In Illinois, for example, it's illegal to give away alcohol, except at private parties. In Texas, stores can give away alcohol if they don't charge an entry fee. In New Jersey, a store would need to hire a caterer.
Other ticklish problems arise. Some shops have been known to cut off customers in mid-spending, and drinking. At a fall 2003 private shopping party at a boutique called Armoire, owner Nan Hager watched one intoxicated woman pick out $1,200 in clothes and jewelry. Ms. Hager insisted she leave the goods behind at the Bradenton, Fla., store, and call back the next day when she was sober. In the end, the shopper stuck with her order.
Camille Wright, owner of the Kaleidoscope Boutique in Decatur, serves only clear-colored drinks, just in case there are any spills. Ms. Wright says her customers are mostly well-behaved, although she recalls last fall that one drunken shopper spent $1,500 on a fur-trimmed coat, jeans and other clothes after a visit to a city beer festival.
The bad news for smaller stores is that their larger competitors are trying the same trick. Two weeks ago in Chicago, Neiman Marcus stationed bartenders throughout its four-story building to serve customers attending the "InCircle" shopping party for big spenders.
Brendon Frank wasn't expecting a tipple when he showed up at Banana Republic's flagship San Francisco store last December. Planning to exchange a skirt he'd bought for his girlfriend, he instead found waiters serving appetizers and what he thought was sparkling cider. It turned out to be champagne.
Five glasses later, the 28-year-old cancer researcher had added to his girlfriend's Christmas loot. He exchanged the skirt, picked up a sweater he'd previously planned to buy and added, as an impulse, a pair of socks and a scarf. He spent $50 more than he intended. Mr. Frank reckons the value of the champagne he drank outweighed the cost of the extra merchandise. "I ended up coming out ahead," he claims.
A popular variation on shopping parties combines drinking with good causes, simultaneously assuaging guilt and adding to the coffers. The Junior League of Morristown, N.J., held a "Champagne Shopping Spree" this year on the opening-night event of its annual gift bazaar, which helps fund community-service projects. In one evening, 200 women went through about 45 bottles of champagne and spent about $35,000 on jewelry, home decor, handbags and other gifts. It was the most successful three-hour period of the three-day event, organizers say.
Some hostesses maintain that alcohol is merely a fringe benefit. Wished NYC, an artists' collective, held a shopping event Dec. 2 advertised as an "evening of wine and design." Daneen Augello, a glassmaker and one of the organizers, says "people don't go there to get wasted and spend money they never would spend." She thought the wine would be an added bonus. "It's more of a social event -- it's not like, 'I need to go to the mall and go shopping.' "
This December, the New Braunfels Art League created a "Champagne Shopping" event on Thursday nights. The group, based near San Antonio, had earlier found success with its Hot Art After Dark promotion, which served margaritas every Friday in the summer. The league, which includes sculptors, painters and textile artists, reckons sales from January through October were up 92% over 2003.
But Leila Reynolds, a board member, says she isn't sure whether it was the alcohol that made people spend more. "The reason they might is because they linger longer," she muses. "We serve water and coffee, too," she says.
美国商店用“美酒”招徕顾客
一天晚上，两位女士随意走进布格鲁(Boogaloos)时装店，她们随便看看，可什么都没买。但当两人三个小时后转回到谢兹(Penny Scheetz)时装店时，她们却略带醉意。
其中一位考虑著是否买一件带雪花纹的针织毛衣。“买吧”，谢兹女士听到另一位女客人这样怂恿她的朋友。“你喝醉时做过比这更糟糕的事呢。买下得了。”女顾客买下了这件毛衣，110美元。
这是乔治亚洲Decatur镇的星期四。镇上每周四晚上都举行狂热周四(Terrific Thursday)晚会。一辆由市政府出钱、装饰得五彩斑斓的黄色校车带著购物者在市中心的商业区转悠。在某些商店，顾客可以品尝到开胃食品，还有--酒。
市内一些小商业区一直想通过延长营业时间、多打折等促销手段把顾客从郊区的购物商城和大型连锁店那里吸引过来。如今，全国有不少商店通过增加一些额外的好处来保住财源，例如给客人提供喝的--一杯，两杯，或者三杯。
最近，28岁的芝加哥技术顾问蒙莉莎?丹尼尔(Melissa Daniel)参加了一个叫SOLEPassion的巴西风格流行商店举行的一次节日晚会。她记得当时没吃晚饭就灌了两杯香槟，“忽然之间，一切变得可爱起来。”最后她买了两件毛衣，每件100美元。两周之后，她又参加了一个由几个商家联合举办的样品售卖聚会(sample-sale party)，喝的香槟更多，结果花200美元买了一个打折的Gucci粗呢包。要是清醒的时候，她肯定觉得没必要。
“我一直喜欢自己买的东西”，她说。“只是花销总比计划的要多。”
伊里诺斯州Quincy的中心商业区顾客正在流向附近Springfield和St. Louis。Quincy已经把圣诞节前的购物潮变成了一个社会活动。商店在12月份的“烛光加香槟”购物晚会上向顾客提供香槟，这种做法大概5年前就开始了。此外，包括8个街区的历史纪念区都用墨西哥圣诞灯（装著沙子的纸袋里点燃一根蜡烛）装饰起来，还有圣诞花环和音乐。
“女士们穿著裘皮大衣来参加晚会”，Quincy历史商业区(Historic Quincy Business District)执行总监卡罗尔?埃曼(Karol Ehmen)说。“这对Quincy来说可是不同寻常的事”。
埃曼还和其他一些社区的商家进行交流。但有些商家称免费香槟打动不了顾客。埃曼建议他们改用巧克力。
关于谁有资格向顾客提供酒精饮料，州与州之间的立法差别很大，而这些规定也往往取决于当地酒业管理会的解释。譬如在伊里诺斯州，派送酒精饮料是犯法的，除非是在私人晚会上。而在德克萨斯州，只要商店不向顾客收取入门费就可以派发酒精饮料。在新泽西州，商店需要聘用酒宴承办人。
还有其他一些棘手的问题。据称有些商店看到顾客不能再喝了，赶忙让他们停下来。一个叫Armoire的商店在2003年秋天举办的一次私人购物聚会上，店主南?黑格(Nan Hager)看著一位喝醉的女顾客掏出1200美元要买衣服和珠宝。黑格坚持要她把货品先放在佛罗里达州Bradenton的连锁店，等第二天清醒的时候确认是否买这些东西。最后，这位顾客还是坚持原来的交易。
Decatur市Kaleidoscope Boutique店的老板卡米尔?赖特(Camille Wright)只向顾客提供无色饮料，防止洒出来弄脏东西。赖特女士说大部分顾客言行都很得体，但她记得去年秋天有个喝醉的顾客在光顾一个啤酒节后花1500美元买了一件裘皮外衣、牛仔裤和其他一些衣服。
一个给小商店的不幸消息是：大商家也在用同样的伎俩。最近在芝加哥，尼曼?马库斯酒吧(Neiman Marcus)在整个四层楼都安排了服务生招待来参加“InCircle”购物聚会的客人，静候慷慨解囊者。
布伦丹?弗兰克(Brendon Frank)去年12月光顾Banana Republic三藩市旗舰店时根本没想过沾酒。本来打算去换一条买给女朋友的裙子，结果发现服务生端来开胃品后又给他一种饮料，他以为是碳酸苹果酒，后来才知道是香槟。
五杯下肚后，这位28岁的癌症研究员送给女朋友的礼物丰厚了不少：不仅换了裙子、选了一条原先就打算买的毛衣、还一时冲动买了一双袜子和一条围巾。他比原计划多花了50美元。弗兰克算了一下，香槟的价钱超过了额外购买的衣服的价钱。“我赚了，”他说。
目前流行一种新版本的购物聚会，把喝酒和公益事业结合起来，既能减轻罪恶感又能保证财源滚滚来。新泽西州的Junior League of Morristown今年在每年一度的礼物派送集市开幕晚会上举办过一次“香槟购物狂欢”活动，帮助社区福利工程筹款。当天晚上，200名女客人喝光了大约45瓶香槟，在珠宝、家庭装饰物、手提包和其他圣诞礼品上消费了大约3.5万美元。主办方称，晚会是为期三天的活动中最成功的三个小时。
有些女顾客认为酒不过是个额外的甜头。艺术家团体Wished NYC 12月2日举办了一次购物活动，打出的广告称“美酒和设计之夜”。其中一个主办方、玻璃制造商DaneenAugello说，“人们来这里不是为了喝得醉醺醺，然后花一些他们不会去花的钱。”她认为酒不过是个额外优惠。这不仅仅是个社会活动，不是“我要买东西就去商场”那么简单。
艺术团体New Braunfels Art League 12月份的每周四晚上都举办“香槟购物”活动。这个位于圣安东尼奥的团体早些时候在一次Hot Art After Dark的推广活动中尝到了甜头。在那次活动中，他们在夏季每个周五的晚上都给客人提供玛格丽塔酒。这个团体的成员包括雕塑家、画家和纺织品艺术家。他们计算了一下，从1月到10月的销售额比2003年上升了92%。
酒业管理会成员利拉?雷诺兹(Leila Reynolds)表示，还不能肯定人们增加消费是酒精的作用。“一个可能的原因是他们逗留的时间长了”，她说。“除了酒，我们也提供水和咖啡，”她说。
