Statistics published a few weeks ago indicated that at-home liquor consumption rose during lockdowns in Oz. This is from the RACGP site:
"...One of Australia’s leading bank institutions has reported a sustained increase in spending on alcohol by both low- and higher-income households between May 2020 to February 2021 compared with the previous year.
EDV has #1 share of packaged liquor sales in Oz through Dan Murphy's, BWS and Jimmy Brings et al.
I was in Young and Jacksons, opposite Flinders Street railway station and the most famous hotel in Melbourne yesterday mid-afternoon (not at a meal time), and there were quite a few imbibing.
The few CBD hotels under EDV ownership suffered badly from lockdowns such as the draconian acts of 'Dan the Dictator' in Victoria (the worst handling of COVID-19 in Oz with by far the greatest number of deaths, and the infamous hotel quarantine bungle that cost 850 lives) but trading seems (anecdotally) to be returning almost to normal in Melbourne's CBDs, and normal in the suburbs.
That the building and construction sector is doing well is a help to EDV's hotels division, as tradesmen enjoy congregating in afternoons at EDV pubs.
Depending on area demographics, many families or elderly citizens attend EDV hotels: the former for dinner, the latter for either lunch or dinner.
Despite evidence of inflation, drink prices at EDV hotels remain reasonable. Many patrons do not know about the free 'Monty's Rewards' cards that give us five per cent off meals and drinks, quite a handy little saving.
Let's pray and hope Dan Murphy's, BWS and EDV ALH Group hotels in Sydney and environs are not suffering much damage from seemingly incessant large daily rainfall.
(20min delay)