It's Friday night, and Kaylee Rakes is ready to go out. Her short black bob is done in perfect curls, and she is wearing her favorite pair of skinny jeans. Her plans for the night change when she pulls out her wallet and discovers she has $20 less than she expected.
Rising gas prices caused her to fill up her car an extra time this week, and now she has less money to spend on alcohol at the bars. She decides to go to a friend's house instead where she can consume alcohol purchased at a liquor store for a cheaper price.
Rakes is one of the rising number of college students forced to choose between a few expensive drinks at a bar or long night of drinking at home with friends due to the increasingly unstable economy.
Local beer marketers, bar owners and liquor stores have noticed the movement of students from bars to houses for some time now and are changing their marketing strategies to regain the business of KU students.
"The trend we are seeing now is students are choosing to stay home or go to house parties with their friends instead of purchasing more expensive drinks at a bar," said Janalee Fitchett, former Coors representative and professor of business at the University of Kansas. She cited economic sources such as rising gas prices as major factors causing students to be strapped for cash.
"We sponsor various KU clubs like French Club and German Club in order to get more students to come to our bar," said Alex Plassmeyer, a bartender at Henry's Upstairs. He also said Henry's has several drink specials during the week to encourage students who may be on a tighter budget to come drink.
"We are seeing a pretty high volume of beer purchases for house parties right now," said Andrew Algren, manager of Mass Beverage. He said students who are purchasing beer for house parties are buying from 50-70 cases of beer per party, and the people who call for kegs always want to know which ones are the cheapest.
"I drink a lot and very often, so it would be very expensive for me to drink top-shelf liquor all the time," said Nick Michaels, a KU student. He said that he and his friends often start drinking at home before going out to the bars to avoid the high cost of drinking at a bar all night.
"Most of the beer we sell for parties is the cheapest students can find," said Craig Farint, cashier at Cork & Barrell. He said the most popular choice for cases is Natural Light and the most popular choice for kegs is Pabst Blue Ribbon
"I like drinking at home with friends because it is a more comfortable situation," Rakes said. She said long lines, expensive drinks and lots of people can sometimes be intimidating at bars. She said hanging out with a more intimate group of friends makes it easier to converse.
"It's simply cheaper to buy alcohol at a liquor store," said Algren. "Instead of paying $1 per shot at a bar, you can save a lot of money to help with the tightening economy." He said Mass Beverage tries to promote one type of liquor per week by offering cheap specials on whatever brand gives the store a lot of inventory for the week.
"I always look for drink specials when I go out to the bars," Michaels said. He said he will even venture out of his comfort zone and go to a new bar he is not familiar with if they have good drink specials.
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