When Kirstin Vracko’s husband went to rehab in May 2023, she had no plans to attempt sobriety in solidarity. “I told him ‘you’re on your own,’” she says. Drinking was ingrained into her social life, and she didn’t want to give it up. But she softened as she saw her husband take his first steps toward recovery.
“I saw a change in him that was amazing,” she says, “and I wanted to support that. So I got sober at the same time.”
Like many newly sober people, Vracko missed having a cocktail to unwind. Then she discovered the rapidly expanding world of nonalcoholic spirit alternatives. In November 2023, she opened up her own nonalcoholic bottle shop, Cheeky & Dry, in Seattle. “I dove in with two feet,” she says.
Vracko’s is one of several stories of newly sober people who have opened up brick and mortar storefronts to sell nonalcoholic spirits, canned drinks, dealcoholized wines, zero-proof aperitifs, and other nonalcoholic drinks that exist between and across categories. Terms like non-alc, NA, spirit-free, and zero-proof have become interchangeable words for this category.
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Earlier this year, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy released a report detailing the link between drinking alcohol and an increased risk for “at least” 7 types of cancer, which put the dangers of alcohol consumption in the spotlight again. As public attitudes towards drinking change, the NA market continues to grow. Polling from Gallup shows 45% of Americans think alcohol consumption is bad for your health, up 17% from 2018.
Alcohol consumption has declined over the past several years, and non-alc bottle shop owners have jumped to meet the beverage needs of a new wave of sober and sober-curious drinkers. Brands have responded as well. Spirits giant Pernod Ricard has invested in nonalcoholic labels like Almave, Ghia, and Curious AF via its venture capital arm, Convivialité Ventures, plus additional investments into research, development and production of new brands. Diageo, another beverage giant, announced plans to increase their production of Guinness 0.0, the nonalcoholic version of Guinness stout, by 300% in the coming years, after a $27 million investment, according to Just Drinks, a beverage industry trade publication.
Legacy brands with strong distribution networks are entering the market, and chains like Whole Foods and Target have started to stock more spirit-free products beyond longtime staples like sodas, iced teas, and seltzers. As NA becomes more available at national big box giants, can the independent “mom-and-pop” nonalcoholic bottle shop survive?
One thing is clear: There’s plenty of consumer demand. Some people are cutting out alcohol completely, and many are simply expanding their drinking habits to include zero-proof drinks. According to Nielson, more than 93% of NA buyers also purchase drinks with alcohol.
NA bottle shop owners think of themselves as guides who can shepherd the sober-curious around spirit-free options. “These products are kind of a mystery to people,” says Vracko. Like most NA bottle shops, she offers products like a zero-proof mezcal, meant to take the place of the familiar spirit, alongside what she calls “freeform spirits”—Figlia’s NA aperitif, or Amethyst's Lemon Cucumber Serrano spirit, for example. These new, alcohol-free concoctions don’t fit traditional spirit categories. At her shop, most first-time buyers come in looking for “a swap for a spirit, because that’s what they know. But the second they get to my sample table and they start trying products that are out there, they’ll say ‘I’m going to go with that freeform spirit.’”
That model of personalized service, sampling, and brand discovery, is what a lot of operators say sets them apart from the big box stores. Aqxyl Storms, founder of Minus Moonshine in Brooklyn, likens their shop to the music and record shops they knew growing up. “We don’t have a listening station, but we have tastings,” they say. “It’s all about education, education, education.” For Pat Dooling of Boston’s Dray, bringing new or niche brands to customers is an important facet of the business. “[Chain stores] are going to have 10% of the wine brands that I have,” he says. “And the ones I have are the ones that people haven't discovered, and haven't tasted.”
Pouring those samples and spreading the gospel of NA drinks is a big part of why many bottle shop owners got into the business in the first place. “99% of us did this out of passion,” says Grace Vroom who opened Dear Dry Drinkery in Austin in August 2023. “We wanted to create the shop we wished had been here when we first quit drinking.”
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These operators are tireless in their efforts to introduce customers to new products they’ll love, and they’re positive that NA products will only gain ground with consumers. “I definitely think it’s not a fad,” Storms says. Victoria Watters, who’s married to Douglas Watters and runs the NA newsletter Dry Atlas, predicts that alcohol will soon see a dramatic fall from grace. “I think alcohol is going to have its reckoning on the level of the big cigarette companies,” she says.
On the other hand, opening a nonalcoholic bottle shop out of passion means many operators don’t have experience running a small business. Storms sold eyewear, Vracko and Watters were in marketing, and Dooling worked in real estate. “I’m not a retail guy or anything like that,” he says. Entering the retail space as novices forced these bottle shop owners to face a steep learning curve.
Running a first-time venture means that profitability isn’t always in the cards. Some shops, like Vracko’s Cheeky & Dry, were immediately popular and financially bolstered by the holiday season, followed by a busy Dry January. Others, like Dooling’s Dray or Vroom’s Dear Dry Drinkery are in the black month over month, but they invest profits back into the business. (“I’m not getting rich yet,” Dooling says, “but I will, don’t worry.”) Some brick and mortar locations, like Bendición Bottle Shop in Chicago, have moved online, or else closed outright.
Despite the looming threat of big box stores undercutting prices and the challenges of making a profit on nonalcoholic products, most NA bottle shop owners Bon Appétit spoke to seemed optimistic. They mentioned ways that their businesses might evolve—events and newsletters—and the strength of the growing market for nonalcoholic drinks.
For some operators the business is about more than revenue. A brick and mortar location, Storms says, is important to maintain as a safe space to explore sobriety. “There were some people who would break down crying because they realized they could drink anything in the store,” they say.
Though these independent NA bottle shop owners don’t have a universal, clear-cut path to success, operators will continue to evangelize for spirit-free drinks until they can’t anymore. “I have taken out so many personal loans, and I'm just trying to keep my head above water,” Storms says. “But I absolutely love what we do, otherwise I wouldn’t do it.”
