Alcoholic Beverage Violations, Sales Follow Seasonal Trends in Austin

Cat DeLaura, May 2020

In Austin the difference between mixed beverage sales in high months versus low months will fluctuate as much as $29 million across the city. 

“Basically everything down here is seasonal,” said Andy Kahn, who has worked as a bartender and manager at multiple bars on Austin’s Drag, the area surrounding the University of Texas’ campus.

Although during the past six years mixed beverage sales across Austin have increased by nearly $300 million or almost 44%, businesses still remain incredibly tied to seasonal peaks and valleys. 

Consistently business across the city drops in the hot months of summer and over the holiday and winter months at the end and beginning of the year. This is especially true in the 78705 zip code surrounding UT’s campus, which since 2014 has seen a difference of $2 million in sales in April versus July. Meanwhile the downtown area has reported a total of nearly $200 million in sales during the month of March over the past six years, which is nearly $50 million more than the next highest month, in large part due to the South by Southwest Festival that occurs downtown every year. 

But there is a less positive aspect of the mixed beverage business that also fluctuates seasonally: the number of Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission violations.

“The most common violations that we look for is that sale to [someone] intoxicated,” said Chris Porter, TABC public information officer, “and then sales to minors is probably the other most common one.”

Looking at data from the past six years, there are twice as many violations in the month of March as in the month with the next highest amount, February. And the vast majority of those violations happen in two areas—near UT’s campus and Downtown. That is likely in large part due to the huge influx of people who come to Austin for both spring break and South by Southwest, which often draw people specifically to those two areas of town. 

Over the past six years, there have been 132 sale to minor violations in Austin, making it the most common. Businesses are most often caught violating this law by TABC stings, in which a minor, working undercover for TABC, will enter a bar and try to order alcohol. 

“We are not trying to go out and shut people down,” Porter said. He explained that they will only use people under 18 who truly look young, and sting operatives have to use their real ID and are not allowed to lie if asked about their age. “We want to promote voluntary compliance among retailers.” 

Roughly 13,000 sting operations are conducted throughout the state of Texas in a year, with a focus on them during times like spring break, graduation or back to school months, when the number of violations are likely to spike, according to Porter. 

However, it is often the employee who sold to a minor and not the business that will be held liable for the violation. This is because of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code, which says that if an establishment requires their employees to complete a TABC certified training program, then, in most circumstances, they will not be held liable for the violation. 

This means that servers have a lot to lose if they violate any rules. “If someone gets in with a fake ID [and] if I serve them, I get the fine, which is a Class A Misdemeanor punishable with a fine of not more than $4,000 and up to one year in jail, or both,” said Andy Kahn. “I could have that fine, go to jail, and I’m fired and probably wouldn’t get hired again in town for a long time.”