CARMEL, Ind. — After two years of lockdown, weight gain, and job change during the COVID-19 pandemic, some things are back to normal — but not everything.
As Americans try to get healthier, along with exercise, many people are giving up alcohol.
It's a trend two Indiana sisters are betting on, as they open the first full-time alcohol-free bottle shop in Hamilton County.
Kristin Patrick and her sister, Andrea Marley, are putting the last touches on the store, Loren's AF Beverages. It will open at the end of the summer in a strip mall along Hazel Dell Parkway and East Main Street in Carmel.
"We're looking for sort of a boutique gallery style. We're going to have a big Instagram wall where people can take pictures or something so you can buy what you're going to buy and then get your picture taken," Marley said.
After both gave up alcohol last year, and a lot of research, the sisters decided to capitalize on an emerging market: alcohol-free beverages.
"In January of this year, we stumbled across this article in a magazine about these alcohol-free bottle shops that are popping up across the country, and we knew it right away: That's what we wanted to do," Patrick said.
The sisters said the idea behind the store is not to shame drinkers or stand up against alcohol use, but to give everyone an option.
"Our concept is we're trying to not be so focused on sobriety. We're focusing on being a host, because you don't need to ask everybody, 'Why are you not drinking tonight?' That's none of their business," Patrick said. "What we want is to make sure that you've got wine and non-alcoholic wine and you've got something for everybody at the table."
Globally, the non-alcohol trend is a $10 billion per year business, with non-alcohol bottle and bar shops popping up all over the country.
Part of the success is because companies are perfecting the taste in everything, from beer to spirits and wine.
One of the most successful parts of the market is in the development of good tasting non-alcoholic beer.
"We will have a wide variety of alcohol-free beers of all different types," Marley said. "We're going to have alcohol-free wines. We've got the whiskeys, the tequilas, the gins, the rums. We've also got a lot of botanical blends that you couldn't really fit in their own category."
It's a niche for people who don't drink, want to drink less, or if hosting an event, just want to have something for everyone.
"A lot of people are making new fitness goals around eating better and drinking better. And what we love about so many of these products is they're vegan, they're low calorie, they're gluten-free, and so truly making healthy choices," Patrick said.
The sisters hope to open Loren's AF Beverages by the end of the summer.