By Kristin Patrick, Co-Founder of Orangily Retail & Distribution
What’s one thing brunch spots and ice cream shops have in common? Kids. Lots of them. Especially when they’re in a suburb consistently ranked as one of the most desirable for families in the US by CNBC, Livability.com, and Travel & Leisure. So how do you handle kids when you own two non-alcoholic bottle shops, one next to a very popular brunch spot and one next to a very popular ice cream shop in Carmel, Indiana? We welcome them with scratch-and-sniff stickers, cute erasers, and the occasional root beer.
My business partner Andee Simpson and I keep our walkways wide for strollers. We strategically place fragile items on top shelves. But opening our doors to babies and kids is the easy part. It’s when kids get older that the conversation becomes harder to navigate. Here are patterns Andee and I have observed within three different age groups.
High-Energy Middle Schoolers
Before launching our original shop in East Carmel, we fretted for weeks about managing the swarms of middle schoolers who infiltrate the area each weekday after school. Turns out they aren’t interested in non-alcoholic bottle shops. They occasionally peer in and tell us how “our space slays,” but they rarely stay longer than a minute. Sometimes, we see a group of middle schoolers at our West Carmel shop looking to buy something for a sleepover or video game marathon. In this case, we treat them like any other customer. We help match them to something we think they’ll like. They typically leave with TÖST, Bollygood sparkling lemonades and limeades, or Point Premium sodas. Our stores are cashless, and middle schoolers mostly pay with an Apple Watch or debit card. Andee and I agree that if you’re old enough to carry digital payment, you’re old enough to buy from our shops.
High School Couples
The high schoolers we see walk through our doors are often couples looking for a “grown-up drink” to enjoy together on a date. It’s difficult to say no in this scenario. Like many of our adult customers, they seek an evening or weekend beverage that isn’t LaCroix or soda. We’ve also seen young people being sent to buy for their parents, and teenagers buying gifts for an older family member. It’s not our job to judge every shopping scenario we encounter, but it is our job to feel good about every product on our shelves. Here is where it’s important to mention that we don’t sell drinks containing THC. Wellness is one of our core values, and we celebrate the mental clarity associated with abstaining from alcohol. Many of our adult customers, ourselves included, choose an alcohol-free lifestyle to be more present for the young people in their lives.
Social Camouflaging College Students
Indiana has over 60 colleges and universities, including public universities, private not-for-profit institutions, community colleges, and specialty schools. Though we’re witnessing massive cultural shifts around young adults and alcohol, the pressure to participate in underage drinking remains huge on many campuses. We frequently see college students who’ve decided that alcohol isn’t for them, but want to participate more fully in the social aspects of college life. This also applies to college students who can’t imbibe alcohol due to medical reasons. Mingle Mocktails is an excellent example of a brand that actively markets to college-age students. The stylish cans and slightly sweet flavor combinations are perfect for young adult tastes.
Our Stance Remains “Yes”
Most parents are running one hundred miles an hour. They may only be able to visit one of our shops with kids or teens at their side during narrow windows of time. We don’t want to compromise those opportunities by not allowing young people, especially when you consider nearly a quarter of Carmel residents are under the age of 18.1 While the argument over young people’s access to non-alcoholic beverages continues to be hotly debated, our stance remains yes to brunch, yes to ice cream, and yes to kids, teens, and college students.
1. Source: US Census
About the author
Kristin Patrick is the Co-Founder of Orangily Retail & Distribution, based in Central Indiana. She is the proud aunt of two nieces and a nephew and has worked in PreK-12 education for twenty years.
