Why So Many Nips Sold In Manchester? It's A Mystery, Industry Says

MANCHESTER, CT — So ... the question prevails after this week's release of the latest nip bottle sales figures in Connecticut.

Why is Manchester always so high?

The answer may remain a mystery, an industry official said.

One thing for sure is that 1.275 million nip liquor bottles were sold in Manchester from April 1 through Sept. 30, according to the twice-yearly state Nickel-Per-Nip program statistics released by the Wine and Spirit Wholesalers of Connecticut. That puts the town fifth in the state behind only large cities New Haven (2.064 million sold), Hartford (1.820 million sold), Bridgeport (1.766 million sold) and Waterbury (1.648 million sold). Each has a population of more than 100,000 compared to Manchester's 59,713, according to the 2020 census.

So what gives?

"We really don't know," said Wine and Spirit Wholesalers of Connecticut Executive Director and General Counsel Larry Cafero. "It's not like Manchester is surrounded by towns with no package stores, so it's hard to tell why the sales are consistently so high."

Manchester was also at 1.2 million a year ago.

Nightlife and an extensive retail district could be factors, he said, but the industry in Connecticut promotes hometown sales rather that folks flocking to another municipality to buy nips.

"We have a very convenient alcoholic beverage system in Connecticut, which dates back to the 21st Amendment banning prohibition. It also gave state the power to regulate sales and rather than sponsoring state liquor stores, Connecticut has numerous package stores in each town."

Towns in Connecticut are allowed one store for every 2,500 people, Cafero said. The Yellow Pages lists 25 strictly liquor stores in Manchester, which can sell nip bottles.

There are eight "dry" towns in the state with no liquor stores — Bridgewater, Colebrook, Eastford, Easton, Hartland, Lyme and Union. It's unlikely that the residents of the only one reasonably close to Manchester — Union — would flock there to buy nips, Cafero said.

"We have not done a study on why some towns sell more than others," Cafero said. "Manchester has always been high in terms of sales. That's really all we can say."