The inability to buy spirits in supermarkets has had many from affluent suburbs of Auckland ordering from alcohol delivery services like Bevee, for their daily tipple and nightcap.
Upmarket suburbs like Epsom, Remuera, Parnell, Mount Eden, Herne Bay, Ponsonby along with Auckland CBD where people live in apartments and may not own cars, are the most popular areas where Bevee, an online, on-demand alcohol delivery service receives its most orders during the week.
Bevee owner, Nick Ewart says demand for alcohol delivery has gone up 300% up on normal, since the start of the Level 4 lockdown in New Zealand, two weeks ago. He says, “People are reluctant to go out and prefer to stay at home, so online purchase and delivery is a safe option for them.
“You can go to the supermarket, and you could buy beer and wine, but you can't buy ready-to-drink beverages (RTDs) or spirits, so we get a lot of orders for those products on our website,” he continued.
The volume of spirits available for consumption rose 5.2 per cent in 2020, with spirit-based drinks such as RTDs, showing an increase of 5.4 per cent and spirits such as vodka, gin, and whisky went up by 4.4 per cent.
One among the many local companies now operating in the market, Bevee delivers alcohol on demand and contactless to the central suburbs of Auckland. Having refined their contactless delivery process through the previous lockdowns, Bevee’s team of drivers are in high demand over Thursday, Friday, and Saturday when according to reports Auckland’s alcohol consumption peaks by almost 171 per cent.
While there aren’t many direct correlations between socioeconomics and the amount of alcohol consumed in a particular area – a 2019 study by the New Zealand Health Survey suggests that people living in the least deprived areas are likely to drink more frequently than those living in the most deprived areas.
Adwait, a resident of Grey Lynn discovered Deliver Easy, another alcohol delivery player during this year’s lockdown. Describing himself as a social drinker, Adwait admits that his consumption of alcohol has increased during the lockdown, and he usually has a drink every evening, while talking to his friends on WhatsApp or just after finishing work.
According to a Health Promotion Agency survey released in April last year, one in five reported drinking more than usual during the Level 4 lockdown in 2020. Increased drinking was more prevalent among 25–49-year-olds and the majority of those who are drinking more said it is helped them relax or switch off.
Drinking habits also returned to pre-lockdown levels for most New Zealanders after the announcement of Level 1 in July last year. Some 64% of those surveyed drank at their usual (pre-lockdown) levels. This meant that those who were drinking more during lockdown decreased their drinking, but also those who were drinking less during lockdown had now increased their drinking.
Dr Anil Channa, mental health specialist and psychiatrist breaks down this increase in consumption of alcohol on three factors – anxiety caused by uncertainty, financial difficulties, and boredom. Worry over the length of lockdown and employment insecurity creates anxiety in people, who then seek answers in a drink, as it acts as a distraction.
“There are several reasons why people might drink more in lockdown – the most important one is anxiety. Any uncertainty in a person’s life creates anxiety. Financial difficulty could be the next factor. The third factor is boredom. When you have nothing to do, you tend to drink more,” Dr Channa concluded.