Square's Liquor Stores Enjoying Christmas Rush

Harvard Square liquor dealers didn't feel a bust after the Yale-game Nale boom.

Thanksgiving and the Christmas rush and kept people flocking to the package stores, merchants reported yesterday.

When the Yale game was only a week away, students and old alumni started stocking up for and weekend. Local stores reported heavy sales in glasses and shakers as well as the usual bottled goods.

Stores are Happy

All liquor stores are happy about their heavy Christmas sales, but the Harvard Provision Company views the next few weeks rather grimly. Their customers are mainly students, who won't be around to buy during the next few weeks.

Most optimistic is the Varsity Liquor Store, which doesn't make special arrangements to attract the Christmas shoppers. "We're right here in front of everyone," says the proprietor, whose store is right on the Square. "Everyone comes in here and we give them what they want holiday or not."

Mugs

The Coop, which doesn't sell liquor but the things to drink it with, also hasn't felt any pinch. During the football season students, on pre-game Thursdays and Fridays, buy cheap, expendable glasses. Now the Coop claims that customers from all over the country are ordering generous-sized beer mugs engraved with the person's name and class.

Sage's claims that its student business "isn't what it might be."

Christmas won't mean any special items for the Hamilton Liquor Store. Having lost its old location and its all-student clientele, the store now caters to everyone. Their tastes are varied and the store stocks all liquors.