Closely studying the relationship of the student body to the local liquor store has pointed me toward possible conclusions in the alcohol consumption phenomenon of college. While science and medicine have attempted to prove that some people are genetically predisposed to alcoholism, I believe that the societal state of social relations is another key factor in the identification of alcohol dependency. In this societal state, dependency is often less severe than alcoholism and less obvious in its consumption practices, yet still ingrained in the everyday as routine and necessary. The necessity of alcohol consumption is not always based on chemical addiction, but is instead deeply rooted in social addiction. Social addiction is based on the growing need for social interaction despite the declining presence of physical interpersonal communication in the post-modern world.
Playing the role of social lubricant for centuries, alcohol has become a standard medium to repair broken social traditions and absent formalities in communication, allowing the socially awkward to bridge the communicative gap of fear and social anxiety. This is apparent in the many roles that alcohol plays as a measure of communication and a subject of communication. As visible through my previous observations, there is more to alcohol than just its psychoactive properties that trigger social confidence and interpersonal opportunities. There is the ritualistic presence of alcohol as a good that accompanies social occasions, such as parties and private dates. Alcohol attracts people to gather around it and is often used to justify a bold leap of attraction from one human to another. In many cases, the act of purchasing liquor on a regular basis becomes the act of meeting a liquor store owner and employees, who become regular faces to the routine consumer. Finally, there is the subject of connoisseurship where individuals come together to express their opinions, share their experiences, and relate on the topic of taste, forming a community around alcohol as a romanticized product. In all of these examples, alcohol acts as a magnet to attract interpersonal socialization. Physical human interaction has become an overlooked necessity in the post-modern age where communication is increasingly virtual and technology is increasingly alienating, making alcohol a classical pillar for students to grab onto and socialize around as a traditional means of interaction. As these traditional forms of socialization continue to dissolve, alcohol becomes more important in its social role and dependency grows to ensure the continuation of interpersonal communication, especially within the college environment.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Sunday, April 22, 2012
The Collector
For those alcohol consumers interested in expanding their beer and wine pallets beyond the standard choices of mass produced supermarket 30-racks and boxed wines, beer distributors and liquor stores often provide a unique range of products to satisfy the demands of these alcohol connoisseurs. Many drinkers perceive the acts of brewing and winemaking as artistic crafts that deserve examination of taste and contemplation of expertise. This is another dimension that in addition to the social and psychoactive properties of alcohol, attracts consumers to participate in its cultural consumption. Individuals attracted to the notion of alcohol connoisseurship are not only interested in alcohol as a drug, as they are also aware of alcohol as an art, subject to individual opinion and the process of review. Beer and wine enthusiasts are interested in the alcohol creation process from start to finish, familiarizing themselves with styles, tastes, history and geography, breweries and vineyards, all in the pursuit of extensive alcohol knowledge. They do this as an attempt to formulate their own educated opinions of alcohol brands, positioning themselves as the taste makers and experienced critiques within the alcoholic art world. For others, the act of consuming different alcohol brands is the act of adding to a collection of alcohol experiences; the mind of the adventurous collector who consumes to expand his or her knowledge of the craft and to check another brand off the list. Still others journey through the endless variety of craft beers and wines as a search for the perfect drug, one which tastes good, feels good, and embodies the individual's personality.
By continuously stocking the shelves with new varieties of microbrewed, limited edition bottles, the local liquor store has built its reputation as supplier for the inquisitive brewers and adventurous beer tasters of the area. With the presence of the surrounding colleges full of trend setters and creative art students, the store strategically orders obscure craft beers with unique labels and curiously inviting packaging. These tantalizing bottles and cans serve as conversation starters and content for beer-talk among growing connoisseurs. In some cases the visually stimulating beer bottles serve as fashion accessories as students traverse crowded party floors with their flashy beer bottles held out in plain view. The success of these decorative beer brands is easily apparent within the local liquor store, especially with the beer Mississippi Mud, a product of the Mississippi Brewing Co. in Utica, New York. Mississippi Mud is a microbrewed black and tan very similar to the black and tans of the famed Yuengling company, the oldest and now largest American-owned brewery. While the two beers share a very similar taste and almost equal alcohol percentage, Mississippi Mud is both obscure and eye catching, packaged in a small moonshine jug and emblazoned with old timey writing and the image of a swamp gator. This has made Mississippi Mud an instant hit at the local liquor store. Although it is more expensive than Yuengling, it is an obvious favorite among the college population, as students can be seen carrying the jug around campus with one finger through the tiny loop handle, yielding it comfortably and proudly as a stylistic choice of alcohol taste.
Although expensive wine purchasing is less prevalent in the alcohol consumption practices of the local colleges, the local liquor store does not shy away from international wine enthusiasts, offering them a separate room to explore their options. With a stock of wines that vary in age, region, styles and grapes, the liquor store provides a wide price range from $10 California wines to $100 French wines to satisfy the tastes of all wine consumers. These prices most likely correspond with the commitment of the wine connoisseur or the importance of status to the wealthy individual who is willing to drop up to $100 on an alcohol tasting experience. Expensive wines come with an aura of prestige and this is portrayed within the atmosphere of the wine room. In contrast to the main room with its pop music, advertising setups, neon signs, and even cheap mass produced wine, the separate wine room is quiet and elegant, adorned with rustic wooden crates and wine racks and a plush red carpet. This gives the wine connoisseur an inviting atmosphere to read up on the history of a vineyard or the origin of a bottle, while he or she contemplates the prestige of an expensive buy.
While craft beer and wine tasting can be viewed as a personal collection of taste, the individual opinion of an alcohol enthusiast is often used to spark conversation among other drinkers. Alcohol consumers can share their experiences and connect on taste, using the art and craft of alcohol as a platform for socialization. At the same time, alcohol tasting as a hobby can lead to collection obsession and a personal dependency on rare and expensive alcohol products. This serves as another example of an alcohol reliant relationship built around social consumption.
By continuously stocking the shelves with new varieties of microbrewed, limited edition bottles, the local liquor store has built its reputation as supplier for the inquisitive brewers and adventurous beer tasters of the area. With the presence of the surrounding colleges full of trend setters and creative art students, the store strategically orders obscure craft beers with unique labels and curiously inviting packaging. These tantalizing bottles and cans serve as conversation starters and content for beer-talk among growing connoisseurs. In some cases the visually stimulating beer bottles serve as fashion accessories as students traverse crowded party floors with their flashy beer bottles held out in plain view. The success of these decorative beer brands is easily apparent within the local liquor store, especially with the beer Mississippi Mud, a product of the Mississippi Brewing Co. in Utica, New York. Mississippi Mud is a microbrewed black and tan very similar to the black and tans of the famed Yuengling company, the oldest and now largest American-owned brewery. While the two beers share a very similar taste and almost equal alcohol percentage, Mississippi Mud is both obscure and eye catching, packaged in a small moonshine jug and emblazoned with old timey writing and the image of a swamp gator. This has made Mississippi Mud an instant hit at the local liquor store. Although it is more expensive than Yuengling, it is an obvious favorite among the college population, as students can be seen carrying the jug around campus with one finger through the tiny loop handle, yielding it comfortably and proudly as a stylistic choice of alcohol taste.
Although expensive wine purchasing is less prevalent in the alcohol consumption practices of the local colleges, the local liquor store does not shy away from international wine enthusiasts, offering them a separate room to explore their options. With a stock of wines that vary in age, region, styles and grapes, the liquor store provides a wide price range from $10 California wines to $100 French wines to satisfy the tastes of all wine consumers. These prices most likely correspond with the commitment of the wine connoisseur or the importance of status to the wealthy individual who is willing to drop up to $100 on an alcohol tasting experience. Expensive wines come with an aura of prestige and this is portrayed within the atmosphere of the wine room. In contrast to the main room with its pop music, advertising setups, neon signs, and even cheap mass produced wine, the separate wine room is quiet and elegant, adorned with rustic wooden crates and wine racks and a plush red carpet. This gives the wine connoisseur an inviting atmosphere to read up on the history of a vineyard or the origin of a bottle, while he or she contemplates the prestige of an expensive buy.
While craft beer and wine tasting can be viewed as a personal collection of taste, the individual opinion of an alcohol enthusiast is often used to spark conversation among other drinkers. Alcohol consumers can share their experiences and connect on taste, using the art and craft of alcohol as a platform for socialization. At the same time, alcohol tasting as a hobby can lead to collection obsession and a personal dependency on rare and expensive alcohol products. This serves as another example of an alcohol reliant relationship built around social consumption.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Personal Business
There are plenty of locations within the US that cater to the public demand for alcohol. From gas station 40-ounces to discounted supermarket 30-racks, the options are endless and the market is competitive. So how does a small independent liquor store stay afloat in this cutthroat corporate marketplace? Why return to the same store over and over when the businesses down the street offer the same drug in endless variety and only subtle differences. The local liquor store must establish a clientele of loyalists; customers who will come back every week to restock their supply. The liquor store of my focus has been very successful in obtaining market dominance and through relatively simple acts of customer connection. These acts include, personal greetings, small gestures of appreciation, small talk and flirtation, and most importantly, VIP treatment for regulars. Overall, it is the projection of personality and the effort of establishing a relationship that rewards the customer for his or her loyalty.
From the first time I visited the local liquor store, I noticed the unusually personable, and pleasantly cheerful attitude of the store owner. My first thought was the old comedian, Phil Silvers. He asked me my name and didn't even pretend to question my age, proclaiming that I must be 21. When I told him I was actually 22 (the age on my fake ID at the time) and a freshman at the local college, we got into discussing my life after high school. At that point I assumed the identity of my older fiend who farmed in Vermont for four years before attending college. My story wasn't very convincing but he just nodded along with a smile and pretended to buy it. It was a pleasant first impression and it put my nerves at ease, considering I was still underage and used to faking my identity at impersonal supermarkets and foreign ran convenient stores. Ever since that first interaction, the owner has never remembered my name or any other customer's at that, due to the overwhelming flow of students into his establishment. Instead he uses the easily adaptable and laughable catch phrase, "Hey there, guy" or the slight variation, "Hey there, big guy!" The owner is almost always in the store to greet students with this phrase, making an effort to invoke interpersonal feelings without any strong commitment. This greeting is well known throughout the school and mocked in a lighthearted manner, only adding to the lovable personality of the store owner.
The owner is also kind enough to perform little gestures of appreciation for the repeat faces in his store, offering miniature bottles of liquor or "nips" to large spenders and birthday customers. Sometimes just the acknowledgement of a liquor brand results in a free complimentary nip. The front counter is stocked full of them and they act as small counter weights in the balance of customer satisfaction. One repeat customer told me that she would return to the store every week and pretend be curious about a brand of vodka, always resulting in a complimentary nip, despite her repeated fascination with the same brand every time. The owner's forgetfulness and extroverted efforts to produce customer satisfaction add to the comedic aura of the store and the appeal of returning week after week.
Besides the comedic characteristics of the owner, the local liquor store also attracts sales with its employment of attractive female cashiers. The store cashier can often be a young woman, whose gamine-like aura provides happy male customers with flirtatious small talk and smiles. I noticed the effectiveness of these female cashiers through my own attraction and that of my male friends. After a flirtatious greeting, a cute cashier asked my friend, "Is that it?" and he assumed that she was challenging the size of his purchase. In an attempt to impress the young woman, he added three more items to his purchase and inquired, "How about now?"
If the attractive personalities of the owner and his employees weren't enough to create a social dependency among alcohol interested students, then there is always the promise of store VIP status. For those who have visited the store weekly, year after year, the owner provides those regular customers with inside information. He informs them of the cold 30-racks in the back and offers them access to the refrigerated back room. He also cuts the change off of the final sales price. After becoming a regular there, I began to talk beer and wine with the owner who would happily offer his opinion in taste, pointing me toward quality rather than price. When I asked him whether they carried a specific brand of wine, he eagerly ordered a batch of bottles within the week. The bottles ended up selling out rather quickly and the owner joyously expressed his appreciation for my advice. As a result, he cut the price of my purchase and threw in a complimentary nip as an extra little "thank you".
These experiences with the overall personality of the establishment have sealed my consumption based relationship with the local liquor store, providing myself and others with an attractive source of alcohol. The appealing aura of this interpersonal alcohol outlet has undoubtedly contributed to the weekly consumption practices of the school campus. As students become loyal to the friendly independent business, the duty to support that business becomes a priority, and students flock to the location as a weekly ritual. Is this just another example of the interpersonal social dependency that fuels alcohol culture? How does the alcohol-oriented relationship of student and business, differ from the previously discussed examples of student and student?
From the first time I visited the local liquor store, I noticed the unusually personable, and pleasantly cheerful attitude of the store owner. My first thought was the old comedian, Phil Silvers. He asked me my name and didn't even pretend to question my age, proclaiming that I must be 21. When I told him I was actually 22 (the age on my fake ID at the time) and a freshman at the local college, we got into discussing my life after high school. At that point I assumed the identity of my older fiend who farmed in Vermont for four years before attending college. My story wasn't very convincing but he just nodded along with a smile and pretended to buy it. It was a pleasant first impression and it put my nerves at ease, considering I was still underage and used to faking my identity at impersonal supermarkets and foreign ran convenient stores. Ever since that first interaction, the owner has never remembered my name or any other customer's at that, due to the overwhelming flow of students into his establishment. Instead he uses the easily adaptable and laughable catch phrase, "Hey there, guy" or the slight variation, "Hey there, big guy!" The owner is almost always in the store to greet students with this phrase, making an effort to invoke interpersonal feelings without any strong commitment. This greeting is well known throughout the school and mocked in a lighthearted manner, only adding to the lovable personality of the store owner.
The owner is also kind enough to perform little gestures of appreciation for the repeat faces in his store, offering miniature bottles of liquor or "nips" to large spenders and birthday customers. Sometimes just the acknowledgement of a liquor brand results in a free complimentary nip. The front counter is stocked full of them and they act as small counter weights in the balance of customer satisfaction. One repeat customer told me that she would return to the store every week and pretend be curious about a brand of vodka, always resulting in a complimentary nip, despite her repeated fascination with the same brand every time. The owner's forgetfulness and extroverted efforts to produce customer satisfaction add to the comedic aura of the store and the appeal of returning week after week.
Besides the comedic characteristics of the owner, the local liquor store also attracts sales with its employment of attractive female cashiers. The store cashier can often be a young woman, whose gamine-like aura provides happy male customers with flirtatious small talk and smiles. I noticed the effectiveness of these female cashiers through my own attraction and that of my male friends. After a flirtatious greeting, a cute cashier asked my friend, "Is that it?" and he assumed that she was challenging the size of his purchase. In an attempt to impress the young woman, he added three more items to his purchase and inquired, "How about now?"
If the attractive personalities of the owner and his employees weren't enough to create a social dependency among alcohol interested students, then there is always the promise of store VIP status. For those who have visited the store weekly, year after year, the owner provides those regular customers with inside information. He informs them of the cold 30-racks in the back and offers them access to the refrigerated back room. He also cuts the change off of the final sales price. After becoming a regular there, I began to talk beer and wine with the owner who would happily offer his opinion in taste, pointing me toward quality rather than price. When I asked him whether they carried a specific brand of wine, he eagerly ordered a batch of bottles within the week. The bottles ended up selling out rather quickly and the owner joyously expressed his appreciation for my advice. As a result, he cut the price of my purchase and threw in a complimentary nip as an extra little "thank you".
These experiences with the overall personality of the establishment have sealed my consumption based relationship with the local liquor store, providing myself and others with an attractive source of alcohol. The appealing aura of this interpersonal alcohol outlet has undoubtedly contributed to the weekly consumption practices of the school campus. As students become loyal to the friendly independent business, the duty to support that business becomes a priority, and students flock to the location as a weekly ritual. Is this just another example of the interpersonal social dependency that fuels alcohol culture? How does the alcohol-oriented relationship of student and business, differ from the previously discussed examples of student and student?
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