Alcohol beverage wholesalers saw their sales fall 1.8% in November from a year ago and their inventories rise 22.6%, the Census Bureau reported.

That 1.8% decline year-to-year was in sharp contrast to the 8.7% increase bev/al wholesalers logged a year earlier.  Bev/al wholesalers inventories also rose at a faster pace than did other wholesalers.  Merchant wholesalers as a group saw their inventories up 20.9% from November 2021.

The No vember  increase in inventories could be attributed to building stocks for the crucial holiday selling season, but given the well-known decline in sales of beer and wine stocks, at least some of the weakness reflects a decline in the bev/al sector.