| School Spirits
Wahoos might not top Hokies when it comes to pigskins.
But booze is another matter entirely.
Empirical
data supports the University of Virginia’s historic
barroom bragging over arch-rival Virginia Tech. Liquor
sales per capita are significantly higher in the Thomas
Jefferson Planning District than in the New River Valley
Planning District, according to 2001 data from the Virginia
Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) and the
U.S. Census Bureau.
Virginia
Business recently analyzed ABC store sales from across
the commonwealth, and the results show a striking contrast
between alcohol consumption in the Blacksburg area vs.
the Charlottesville area. Per-capita sales of distilled
spirits in the Thomas Jefferson Planning District were
$63.20 in 2001 – well above the state average of
$53.21 – while sales in the New River Valley Planning
District were just $47.39 per person.
The
magazine did not compare Charlottesville directly to
Blacksburg because the ratio of college students to
total population is far higher in Blacksburg, and because
there are two ABC stores in Charlottesville and only
one in Blacksburg. To smooth out these differences,
Virginia Business compared the broader planning districts
that include each university.
College
towns generally have higher per-capita alcohol sales,
because many dorm dwellers are technically residents
of other localities. In other words, they don’t
show up in a college town’s census data, but they
do show up at its bars and ABC stores.
Still,
there’s no denying that students like the sauce.
Blacksburg’s ABC store sells more distilled spirits
than any other store west of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
You won’t find a busier ABC store until you drive
all the way to – you guessed it – Charlottesville.
The closest store to the U.Va. campus grossed $5.3 million
in 2001, making it the sixth largest ABC store in Virginia.
Meanwhile, the ABC store in Blacksburg ranks 10th, with
sales of $3.4 million.
Some
of the tipplers at either campus could be parents and
alumni so the numbers should be taken like a shot of
tequila — with a grain of salt. To paraphrase Mark
Twain, there are liars, damned liars and statisticians.
With a little alcohol, maybe they’ll tell the truth.
—
Karl Rhodes
Return
to Virginia Business - November 2002
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