Drinks Run Dry This Term

Students returning to campus this fall found it more difficult than usual to quench their thirst for alcoholic beverages.

The reason? Harvard’s calendar reform, which started classes a few weeks earlier than usual and left primary campus liquor providers C’est Bon Convenience and Doma Liquors caught off guard by the early return of students at the end of last month and unable to fully meet the demands of the student body.

“Usually, Harvard students come here mid-September,” said Subash Khadka, an employee at Doma. “We really didn’t know much about the calendar change, so we ran out—but not empty-empty.”

Khadka pointed to the sparsely-stocked shelves, evidence of a welcome boost in sales over the long Labor Day weekend. He had just finished placing an order for more liquor.

“The summer is slow for us, since most of our customers are students,” Khadka explained.

He estimated that Doma orders twice as much alcohol per week during the school year than in the summer.

C’est Bon faced similar difficulties in providing enough alcohol for its customers this weekend.

“We were low this weekend, we were very busy,” said Radwan Kheireddine, the store’s owner. “We’re definitely putting in more orders this week.”

Kheireddine said that he had heard rumors about a calendar change from Harvard employees who frequent the store but did not realize that the majority of students would be back before Labor Day.

“We want students to come, we wish they were here year-round,” Kheireddine said.

The temporary shortage of cheap alcohol did not go unnoticed by Harvard students.

One Quadling even offered to buy liquor off of others over a House e-mail list. (The transaction was later declared successful.)

Billy P. Hennrikus ’11, an Adams House resident, recalled his disappointment at finding both C’est Bon and Doma completely bereft of “cheap beer” sold in large quantities on his first weekend at Harvard.

He and his friends eventually went to Louie’s Superette to procure their alcohol, though the store did not carry “30s.”

“It was kind of a bummer,” Hennrikus said.

—Staff writer June Q. Wu can be reached at junewu@fas.harvard.edu.