I have consumed a fifth of hard liquor (usually Jack, Jim Beam, or Southern Comfort) in a single evening on many occasions. I usually mixed it with Coke and drank it over a period of 3-6 hours, and would have a hangover if I didn’t supplement it with plenty of water and a couple of Advil before falling asleep. I’m a 5’5" woman, and at the time I was in the 185-200 pound range. If I drank much more than that, I’d usually throw up (only drank to that point a few times). So yeah, you can drink that much, but it’s probably not a great idea.
I don’t do that anymore, by the way! I’m on daily anti-migraine and allergy medication, so I don’t drink at all.
At either of your jobs, what’s the largest purchase you’ve seen.
Are there any hilarious purchase combinations you’ve seen (e.g. I’ve purchased a bottle of Grey Goose, a 12 pack of Coors light, A bag of Beef Jerky, and hummus).
Do you handle the ordering for the store? How is that done? Are there certain days of the week / year that get a bigger rush on certain types of booze? (e.g. Guiness on St. Paddy’s Day).
Anyone ever break merchandise? Do they have to pay for it?
You might also check with your local bookstore. I flatten and recycle a lot of boxes at my store, and they’re pretty heavy, since they’re used for shipping books. They’re not very big, though.
It all depends on what kind of beer you’re drinking. Back when I was drinking more, 24 Coors Lights would not have flattened me (although I would have had a heck of a hangover). 24 “real” beers (e.g., a decent ale or lager such as Full Sail Pale Ale)? There’s a slim possibility if I spread it out over a whole day I could have downed them all before passing out. 24 IPAs? Not a chance. 24 barley wines? Dead of alcohol poisoning.
A typical IPA is about 7-1/2% alcohol. 24 beers x 12 ounces x 7-1/2% = 21.6 oz of ethanol, which is more than you’d get from two fifths of 80-proof hard liquor.
A light beer with about 3% alcohol would produce about 8.6 oz of pure ethanol, comparable to over 21 shots of 80-proof vodka.
Barley wines run as high as 12% alcohol. The alcohol content would be greater than what you’d find in a half-gallon of 80-proof.
Off the cuff, I’d say that’s average. As for drinking a fifth in two hours, I’m sure I have in the past. One party three years ago I was guzzling Grey Goose from a 3 liter bottle, and I’m sure I had at least a third of it over around three hours. I also went through a cheap wine spritzer phase where-in I would pore 40 oz wine, 12 oz sprite spritzers and drink two of those in under an hour. With me, such extremes of drinking most often result in blackouts, but I can do it. Ummm… go me? :o (/blush)
Which is more profitable as a percentage of markup over cost, wine or spirits? My sister worked in a liquor store years ago and said the margins were much higher on spirits. I would have thought the opposite.
My father was a foreman / Superintendent in construction after the war and saw lots of alcoholics over the years. He told me, and I believe it to be true, that the reason alcoholics buy a 1/2 pint or a pint is that they are deluding themselves into thinking that they are only going to drink the half pint. They drink it, and then want more, so they go buy another 1/2 pint. Later rinse repeat.
He also said, and again I believe this to be true, that if you are buying 1/2 pints you have a problem. For this reason, I have never bought a half pint bottle of anything.
I guess this is as good a time as any to mention the difference between a drunk and an alcoholic. Alcoholics go to meetings.
I would wager that any functioning alcoholic would vary the places they went to purchase booze, so as not to seem as obvious. What could be worse than seeing a coworker in a gas station, and having the attendant say “The usual case of Olde English for you”?
I’ve always heard them called “pints.” Why do they call a fifth a “26er”? It’s called a “fifth,” incidentally, because it was originally 1/5 of a gallon.
Now that’s my story. Dude comes up to the register (I swear on my wife’s life) with cat food, beer, and Vaseline. I’m very tactful, but the dude was clearly “cool,” so I thought I’d make a joke, which I wouldn’t do normally. Before I could even say a word, he said, “I swear, I’m not gonna get a cat drunk and fuck it!”
The woman that works at my “local” mentioned that they do this to save money also. If they bought it all at once they’d just drink it straight down. At least the time requiring you to get off your ass and come back might save you a couple of pints a week. Maybe a mixture of both reasons.
They are, however, exceedingly useful for packing books.
C’mon, which Doper didn’t find the biggest best box for his book collection the first time he moved, only to discover he couldn’t lift it when packed?! :smack: I know I did.
If you’re in a state that allows underage people into the liquor store, are you supposed to refuse service to someone over 21 if they have someone underage with them?
One of my friends is convinced that she won’t be sold to if I’m in the store with her or even in a car parked nearby. I’m 19, but in my two main states of dwelling I’m old enough to go into the stores. I like to look for hard ciders for cooking (mussels steamed in hard cider, pork shoulder braised in hard cider, that sort of thing) so I usually go in to the store anyway. When I was younger, if my dad needed to buy something (Pernod, usually, which mom uses instead of cough syrup for herself on occasion), I’d be in the store with him since we’d just done the grocery shopping across the parking lot. Yet she’s absolutely convinced that just for having me in the store, even though she’s buying liquor just for herself, she’ll get charged with providing alcohol to a minor.
Ok lots of good questions, I’ll try to get them all
Bells Oberon-Great beer, but have you tried anything from Founders Brewery out of
Grand Rapids. I suggest the Dirty Bastard scotch ale. 8.3% baby!
Sorry, no girly mags, no mags of any kind.
The biggest non-special(weddings,parties) event order I’ve had was for about $500, lots of the good stuff. I want to party with that guy.
Selling when minors are present-Someone under 21 may be with someone of age while purchasing as long as the minor does not do any of the following : carry alcohol to the counter, handle money, ask for anything, or help carry the order out. As long as they just stand off to the side and not do anything, they’re cool. I have to refuse sales because of this almost everyday.
I don’t deal with any of the ordering (thank god). I’m really just a trusted employee.
As for the strangest order, at the neighborhood store, we do fried chicken and some other standard fried finger food stuff, hot dogs, ect. So its really funny when people say “gimme a 5th of jack and a couple of breasts.”
And yes most of the alcoholics are in denial and come back over and over again everyday. Its sad.
