Higher gas prices may lead people to cut back spending at restaurants, as suggested by Technomic, but they haven’t led to a decline in volume or the number of beer-pouring locations open and ready for business, according to BeerBoard, which reports the number of locations open and pouring beer held steady at 94% for the second weekend in a row. In fact, the number of open beer-pouring locations hasn’t retreated once so far this year.
The number of taps remained at 20 peer location, although four states added a handle during the March 24-27 weekend — California (23), Illinois (18), Minnesota (21) and Nevada (21). Percentage Taps Pouring checked in at 75% on the weekend, a two-point increase over the prior period. Nine of the 11
states tracked saw an increase on the weekend, with growth paced by Minnesota (+6%), Illinois (+4%) and Nevada
(+4%).
For the second consecutive period, volume grew, this time rising 4.2% after a 3.3% climb for the prior period of March 10-13. Nevada (+17.1%) and Minnesota (+15.4%) realized double-digit growth, while California (+9.2%) and Michigan (+7.3%) were also among the 10 states BeerBoard tracked to see an uptick on the weekend. Rate of sale grew 4.1%, the second consecutive period of growth.