US lottery ticket salesCraft distilleries in the US
Lottery tickets bought and craft distilleries opened, both rising. Two American institutions for buying a small slice of hope, one at a kiosk for a dollar, one in a renovated warehouse for a hundred. The optimism scales with the price point.
US lottery sales doubled across this window thanks to Powerball and Mega Millions jackpot inflation, expanded scratch-off games, and online sales rule changes. Craft distilleries grew from a few dozen to over 2,500 in the same period, lifted by state-level licensing reforms and the locavore wave. Both reflect the same era of small-dollar consumer optimism: states selling more chances at a windfall, small operators selling more bottles of curated experience. Two products of the long 2010s consumer who would rather buy a story than a generic.
Different products, same hopeful purchase. The decade was generous to anyone selling a label.
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