Unpacking the Post-Covid Sales Slump

Dear Client:  Last week, your editor travelled to Oklahoma City to address the state's association of package stores, where a major theme emerged as to whether recent softness in beer, wine, and spirits -- (all three bev-alc types are down for the first time in modern history) -- is transitory or a new normal.  The usual villains were mentioned:  Weather, health & wellness, Gen Z staying home, online gambling, video games, tariffs, GLP-1 drugs, ICE raids, inflation, economy, lack of