Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 23, 1993                   TAG: 9305240240
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ABC STORES

It's as simple as abc. The Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control Department is clearing the shelves of our corner state-run liquor stores of items that have proven to be duds among consumers.

By down-stocking, the department hopes to save $100,000 to $200,000 annually in carrying costs.

Mostly what's being removed from inventory are off-size bottles of certain liquor brands. So, you may no longer be able to find those 50-milliliter bottles of your favorite poison, even though it will still be available by the fifth.

Indeed, there's no need for anyone to make a run on the ABC stores for fear they're going out of business. They'll still be selling about 1,300 different products - to the cash-register tune of more than $300 million a year.

Even so, there's more to this streamlining than meets the eye, and it's good news.

It makes good business sense, of course, to drop unprofitable products. But the leaner, meaner policy also reflects a healthy trend:

Here in the land of bourbon 'n' branch, people are drinking less alcohol than they used to.

Said an ABC official: "What we've noticed is that in recent years, customer demand is going down. People are buying less hard liquor, but they're becoming more selective in what they buy . . . . As consumption goes down, we can't carry as many single-malt scotches as people would like us to and still return a profit."

Incidentally, in case you were wondering: Cookies & Cream and Firewater are what you might call designer hooch products of White Rock Distilleries in Maine.

Firewater, says a White Rock spokeswoman, is 100-proof cinnamon schnapps.

Cookies & Cream? We don't want to know.