Booze-Free Retailers Are Having a Party and Everybody's Invited

Nick Bodkins imagines a day in the not-too-distant future when his booze-free bottle shop called Boisson could have store-within-a-store concepts nestled into upscale supermarkets around the country. The curated retailer already has six dedicated locations on its home turf in New York, all opened since 2021, with four on the West Coast between Los Angeles and San Francisco by year’s end. But stores that cater to the alcohol-free trend aren’t confined to the coasts, with similar retailers having popped up from Charleston, S.C. and Dayton, Ohio to Pittsburgh and Houston. In fact, Boisson has its sights set on cities like Chicago, Denver and Dallas to continue its quick expansion in 2023. Bodkins and his competitors have built a fast-growing channel that was nonexistent a few years ago. He and others are tapping into and stoking the modern temperance movement that saw sales of non-alcoholic beverages reach $3.3 billion in 2021, per IWSR Drinks Market Analysis. That figure is projected to climb 31% by 2024, according to the research firm, with major conglomerates like Diageo taking stakes in non-alcoholic brands and Heineken 0.0 becoming the biggest player in the booze-free beer segment. Non-Drinkers Are Struggling in an Agency World That Relies on Alcohol At Boisson, sales have grown 7.5 times this year over last and investments have poured in from Hollywood players like the talent powerhouse Creative Artists Agency. Beyond Betty Buzz Boisson and its brethren carry an assortment of de-alcoholized wine, ABV-free brews, spirits alternatives, ready-to-drink cocktails and functional beverages (think CBD, adaptogens and nootropics). But they’re making their bones as not just places to buy Betty Buzz mixers and Ghia aperitifs, but as community hubs with wellness discussions, karaoke parties, book clubs and trivia nights. Product sampling and on-site events are among “the most important areas we focus on because consumers are still developing flavor and brand preferences,” Bodkins, Boisson’s co-founder and CEO, told Adweek. His priority is “discovery and education of consumers for these new brands and ways of mixing, pairing and consuming them.” For Sober October, an abstinence-based sibling to Dry January that continues to pick up steam, a number of stores have activities planned for their target demo, an audience that spans both teetotalers and zebra stripers (consumers who often swap out alcohol for booze-free cocktails but still imbibe). The New Bar in Venice, Calif., will host a happy hour and book signing this week with Hilary Sheinbaum, author of The Dry Challenge: How to Lose the Booze for Dry January, Sober October, and Any Other Alcohol-Free Month. It's just the latest in a string of 18 events since its opening in July. "Most folks who come to our store, online or in person, are entirely new to the world of NA [non-alcoholic drinks]," Brianda Gonzalez, founder of The New Bar, told Adweek. "They have a lot of questions and often also some preconceived notions, biases or internalized cultural norms that can make letting go of alcohol feel daunting." First impressions with the category are everything, Gonzalez said, "They'll either love it and be encouraged, or they can be turned off." For The New Bar, on-site programs have proven effective "in changing perception and showing folks first hand how much fun they can have without alcohol." Niche no more Individual brands in the space, like Seedlip, Ritual and Athletic Brewing, have continued to make inroads in high-end nightclubs, chef-led restaurants, resorts and cruise lines. They also have deals with chains like Whole Foods, Kroger, Bristol Farms, BevMo, Erewhon and HyVee. Meanwhile, execs like Bodkins are forging relationships that take alcohol-free drinks into stadiums, festivals and corporate events. But the emergence of non-alcoholic retailers may be one of the most important growth drivers, according to Tom Johnstone, who founded the Optimist Botanicals brand with his wife, Lisa Farr Johnstone, after both had careers in advertising. “These stores have had a massive impact,” Johnstone, a former 72andSunny creative, told Adweek. “For the first time consumers can see a whole category, not just the odd shelf or a single brand down in a dusty corner at a traditional retailer. It has an energy to it, and it means that you can shop like you would for any alcohol product.” While the U.K. and other parts of Europe have led the way in the sober curious movement, the U.S. is catching up, at least in part because of shops like Boisson, Sipple in Houston, The Open Road in Pittsburgh, Soft Spirits in LA, Sechey in South Carolina and influential pioneer Spirited Away on New York’s Lower East Side, Johnstone said. “There’s probably a new NA retailer opening every week, and they’re accelerating the acceptance of the category,” he said. “At this rate, I’d expect the U.S. to overtake some of the more established markets in the next 18 months.” The entrepreneur couple couldn’t have foreseen the booming success of the booze-free retail channel when they launched Optimist in January 2021, mostly via DTC, but in record time the shops have “taken non-alcohol from niche into normalized behavior,” Lisa Farr Johnstone said. Selling an experience Culling the now-packed category, Boisson stocks about 125 brands such as Surely and Lautus wines, Spiritless bourbon and tequila substitutes, Lyre’s spirits, De Soi spritzers and Kin Euphorics. “Our role is to help consumers cut through the clutter,” Bodkins said, noting that for every 20 or 30 new brands that try to get shelf space, only “one or two get through.” “We’re not the everything store—we’re not a vanilla marketplace,” he said. “And we simply don’t want consumers’ first experience with non-alc to be a poor one.” That kind of cherry picking, along with merchandising that can go toe-to-toe with any luxury boutique, has given booze-free brands an ideal forum, according to Milan Martin, founder and CEO of The Free Spirits Company. It’s part of what he calls “god’s work” being done by the non-alc bottle shops, which speak especially to millennials and Gen Z. “The retailers are the feet on the street, doing the heavy lifting of educating consumers and creating a beautiful environment,” Martin told Adweek. “They’re selling a product, and they’re incenting trial, but they’re really selling an experience.”