There is rarely a slow weekend at Stinson's Village Store, Hanover's only vendor of the popular beer Keystone Light. However, one weekend -- Homecoming -- is that much faster than others.
Although the store's owner, Jack Stinson, was reluctant to detail how much of a sales-increase he typically sees over Homecoming weekend, he did say that he was stocking extra cases of beer in preparation.
"There is a spike in beer, but this is what happens in such a big event. You get a lot of things going on. Alumni -- young alumni -- come back, and the festivities are huge," Stinson said.
Stinson called Homecoming the biggest of the special weekends at Dartmouth and said that it seemed to draw the best crowds by far.
With good business comes attention from the law, and that spells added stress for the beer vendor.
"This weekend we expect the liquor inspector. In fact, we expect more than one liquor inspector. We'll be monitored and Hanover detectives will use undercover people," Stinson said.
Stinson urged students and fraternities to be smart when buying beer and to avoid careless mistakes like having an underage student in the car with someone purchasing the alcohol. Stinson also suggested that fraternities could cut down on the number of alcohol-related arrests if they provided some form of transportation for students.
"I would estimate about 50 percent of all alcohol-related student arrests come from people walking across the Green and through public areas. Limit that and things will look a lot better," Stinson said.
In addition to Stinson's spike in beer, other Hanover businesses look forward to good weekend sales in everything from Dartmouth memorabilia to pizza.
Everything But Anchovies, a popular local pizza restaurant, will be catering several large events in addition to their normal late-night crowds.
"Homecoming is probably about 30 to 40 percent larger than other fall weekends for us. You have to expect this because there are like five or six thousand people on the Green at one point at times during the night," EBAs manager Jim Dowd said.
The Hanover Inn, which is booked solid for the weekend, will continue its tradition of selling apples and hot and cold cider across from the Green on Friday evening of Homecoming weekend.
If the weather is good, Lou's Diner, another local restaurant, will open a table in the mornings to sell coffee and pastries in front of their building in order to cut down on lines.
"Homecoming weekend you get all these old guys who've been at Dartmouth 30, 40 years ago and this is one of the only places left from then, so they relive their time at Dartmouth here," Lou's Diner owner Toby Fried said. "And the crowds are always, always big."
