Business booms at NC ABC stores: Sales hit all-time high $213 million in December 2022

Business is booming at North Carolina ABC stores.

Sales for December 2022 hit an all-time high of $213 million. It's the first time a single month's sales topped $200 million.

It's part of an upward trend. Sales are up 8.3% for the first half of the fiscal year.

“ABC stores in North Carolina sell spirituous liquor and fortified wine (wine with more than sixteen percent (16%) and no more than twenty-four percent (24%) alcohol by volume),” North Carolina ABC Commission Public Affairs Director Jeff Strickland wrote in an email to WRAL News. “However, fortified wine sales make up a very small portion of the overall revenue (less than 1%) and the vast majority of total sales at ABC stores are from sales of spirituous liquor.”

The numbers don't include beer and wine sales. Local ABC boards only regulate liquor and fortified wine.

Strickland said in fiscal year 2022, total revenue from spirituous liquor sales was $1.72 billion while the total revenue for fortified wine was $2.2 million.