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Welcome to this special episode of Sightlines, part of Good Beer Hunting\u2019s continued coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic. I\u2019m Bryan Roth.

A month ago, millions of Americans were sitting at bars and breweries, sharing a pint or cocktail with friends and loved ones. Today, for most of the country, that\u2019s not possible, as states have issued stay-at-home or shelter-in-place guidelines, forcing the closure of what\u2019s known as \u201con-premise\u201d for the alcohol industry\u2014the bars and restaurants and places we all went out to for a drink.

What\u2019s left is the \u201coff-premise,\u201d the many kinds of grocery, convenience, liquor, and other stores where we go to get some food\u2014and toilet paper, if we\u2019re lucky\u2014and stock up on beer. We can\u2019t go out to drink, so it\u2019s these locations that are thriving as shoppers bring the bar home.

COVID-19 has forced an unprecedented pivot toward off-premise since the start of March, and in Good Beer Hunting\u2019s Sightlines stories, you may have kept up with all the changes that have happened as breweries have been forced to adapt to to-go sales or get as much product in off-premise chain stores as possible.\xa0

In the first three weeks of March compared to last year, Americans spent about 17% more in off-premise chain stores tracked by IRI, a market research firm. In the second and third weeks of the month, seven-day stretches have been roughly the equivalent of what\u2019s sold around the Fourth of July, typically the highest-selling beer holiday, amassing about $1 billion for the week of the summer celebration.

For some businesses, like grocery or liquor stores, this new reality has meant something as simple as non-stop sales. Nothing\u2019s really changed operationally except for the amount of hand sanitizer and cleaning wipes readily available. On the business side, things are booming.

For others\u2014namely those on-premise establishments\u2014it\u2019s meant trying to create a whole new business model out of thin air.