Washington State Spirits Privatization: How Satisfied were Liquor Purchasers Before and After, and by Type of Retail Store in 2014?

ABSTRACT

Background: In 2012 Washington State ended a wholesale/retail monopoly on liquor, permitting sale of spirits in stores with > 10,000 square feet. Implementation resulted in average price increases, but also five times the stores selling liquor. Objectives: As part of a privatization evaluation, we studied pre-post and between-store-type purchase experiences. Methods: A 2010 Washington State Liquor Control Board (LCB) survey of liquor purchasers (n = 599), and the 2014 baseline of a repeated telephone survey (1,202 residents; n = 465 purchasers), each included 10 LCB questions on satisfaction with purchase experiences, each attribute with graded response scale A = 4 to D = 1 and F (0 = fail). Analyses used t-tests for satisfaction differences by time and analysis of variance (ANOVA) for 2014 between-store satisfaction-level differences. Results: Five purchase features were rated more favorably after privatization (ps < .05–.001), including product supply, staff professionalism, location convenience, store hours, and prices (though price rated lowest both times); selection offered, courtesy, and checkout speed were unaltered, and number of staff and staff knowledge declined (both p < .001). Eight consumer experiences differed by store type: five satisfaction aspects (supply, selection, number of staff, operating hours, and checkout speed) were highest for liquor superstores, while location convenience favored grocery and drug stores, and price satisfaction favored wholesale (Costco) stores, with staff knowledge highest at liquor stores. Conclusions: Satisfaction with liquor purchases increased after privatization for half the consumer experiences. Availability (location convenience and store hours) was important to liquor purchasers. Such results are relevant to sustained support for the policy of privatizing spirits retail monopolies.

KEYWORDS:

• Alcohol monopolies
• availability
• consumer satisfaction
• liquor marketing
• pre-post comparison
• price
• privatization
• purchase experience
• spirits sales

Acknowledgments

Supported by National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) Grants R01 AA021742 and P50 AA005595 to the Public Health Institute, Alcohol Research Group.

Declaration of interest

Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not reflect the official positions of NIAAA, the National Institutes of Health and the sponsoring institutions. Authors declare that they have received support for other studies from the National Alcohol Beverage Control Association (NABCA) of Alexandria, Virginia; other than this there are no conflicts of interest. A draft of this article presented at the 143rd Annual American Public Health Association Meeting and Exposition, Chicago, IL, October 31–November 4, 2015.