BEAR, Del. – When times are good, people drink. When times are bad, people drink.

It’s a cliche that liquor store owners are trotting out often these days, to make a point. Even though most sectors of the economy are suffering, store sales of wine, beer and spirits are holding up, larger retailers and industry officials say.

And that’s a good thing for the industry, because it is making up for lost sales at restaurants, hotels and resorts, which have found business swooning as customers cut back on discretionary spending.

Industry officials say people are changing what, how and where they drink.

As fewer people go out to eat or patronize taverns, they’re reluctant to give up that end-of-the-day drink, or glass with dinner, said Bob Kreston, owner of Delaware’s Kreston Wine & Sprits in Wilmington and Middletown.

“I don’t see people necessarily drinking more or less, but they’re just drinking in different places,” Kreston said.

Jeff Becker, president of The Beer Institute, said recently that he expected profit margins to remain about 1 percent nationally through the end of 2008. That’s not bad, even for good times, he said.

Recessions during the last 50 years haven’t had much of an impact on sales, he said. The biggest slowdown in sales came in 1991, when the beer tax was doubled.

“Beer is a big, mature, slow-growth industry,” said Benj Steinman, editor of the trade publication Beer Marketer’s Insights.

Gladys Horiuchi, of the Wine Institute of California, said the national wine industry is holding up fine. During the last quarter of 2008, dollar sales and volume were up over the previous-year period.

“People still consider wine an affordable luxury,” Horiuchi said.

The one sector that hasn’t been holding up as well has been distilled spirits. Restaurant and tavern business has been off since late 2007, as the recession began to take hold, said David Ozgo, chief economist for the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. A pickup in the package store business hasn’t been enough to make up for those losses, he said.

Alcoholic beverage sales have varied from state to state depending on the economic conditions, said John Bodnovich, director of communications for American Beverage Licensees. He expects sales to hold up, but thinks retailers could be harmed by new or higher “sin” taxes, as governments seek to raise revenue to balance budgets.

As in the retail field generally, bargain brands and top-shelf luxury labels are doing the best.

Mark Harrison, operations manager at ABC Liquors in Bear, said he’s seeing people “trade down,” with the person who used to spend $17.99 on a case of Budweiser now spending three or four dollars less for Miller High Life, Busch or Milwaukee’s Best.

Harrison said his store has cut profit margins on some products to make sure they sell, despite recent price increases by the manufacturer. Anheuser Busch, Miller and Coors all raised their prices in recent months, he said.

Nevertheless, his profits are “on the plus side from last year,” Harrison said. Being a large retailer helps, as he can sell larger volumes, he said.

Wine still brings people joy, and even if they’re not going out as much, they’re still having dinner parties at home, said Frank Pagliaro, owner of Frank’s Union Wine Mart in Wilmington. He said he hasn’t seen much of a change in people’s buying habits in recent weeks, but he has seen a drop-off in corporate sales, as some companies canceled their holiday parties.

Tom Durnan, 81, of Bear, said he’s always enjoyed a glass of wine before supper. He was at ABC Liquors recently, buying two 5-liter boxes of Franzia Cabernet Sauvignon.

The price has increased by a dollar in the last month, “but Social Security hasn’t,” Durnan said. He’s cut other expenses, like travel, but is reluctant to cut what he called “a small luxury” as well as a “bad habit.”

Rising prices are making it more worthwhile for some women to leave the workplace.

Shirley Ryan of Smyrna, Del., considered going back to work part time. She previously had been a part-time fraud investigator for a bank, and figured that with a 6-year-old daughter and a son who’s almost 1, the extra paycheck could help.

But Ryan and her husband did the math. The increasing cost of gasoline and day care would have resulted in a net loss, she said.

“It paid me to stay home,” said Ryan, who is expecting her third child.

Parents of young children are facing tough choices these days: whether to give up fresh fruit, whether to skip that vacation. Paying into college savings plans in times like these tends to be out of the question for families with tight finances.

When costs go up, it especially affects a young family, because their incomes tend to be lower, said Dan White, a financial adviser in Glen Mills, Pa.

With gasoline, heating and air conditioning costs heading upward, there’s not a lot of money left over for lifestyle choices like vacations, White said. A parent can be forced to take a second, part-time job, which means Mom or Dad isn’t around as much, and with child-care costs higher, grandparents often have to step in, he said.

Also, savings tend to take a back seat, which, if it continued for any period of time, can be especially costly since a young family has plenty of years to watch their money compound, White said.

“People fall in the trap,” he said. “Once they cut back on that, it’s very difficult to get back into it. They’re used to having more money coming in.”

Maureen Laffey, director of the Delaware College Investment Plan, said new accounts in February were down 16 percent from the same month the previous year.

Many parents around the country are making the same choice to forgo college savings plans or reducing new investments because they need cash on hand, Laffey said. There’s a penalty for withdrawing money from a 529 savings plan for anything but education, she said.

Ryan said she’s not able to put money away for her children’s education at this time.

“It would be great if we had the leftover funds, but by the time necessities hit, everything’s going up, paying the mortgage, it’s just a really difficult thing to do,” Ryan said.

Ryan’s friend, Erin Hitchens of Middletown, Del., said it appears that the price of food has almost doubled in the last six months. Junk food has stayed the same, while milk, bread and eggs have gone way up, she said. She has taken to driving 20 minutes to shop at Wal-Mart instead of at her local grocery store.

“You’re getting rid of the frills,” Hitchens said. “The problem is when you don’t have a lot of frills to begin with.”

Hitchens said her family soon will go ahead with long-held plans to visit Walt Disney World in Florida. It will probably be the last vacation for a while if the economy stays sour, she said.

They decided long ago to save money by driving, she said.

“Now I don’t know if we are going to save money on that.”

It’s the attack of the iClones.

No Apple competitor is likely to replicate what Steve Jobs did with so much panache: combine a wireless telephone, a music player and a Web browser with boundless hype. But companies such as Verizon Wireless and Sprint are trying, with their answers to the iPhone.

Many of the iPhone competitors will probably be released during the first quarter of 2008, but by then, Apple will already have moved the iPhone several steps ahead, said Tim Scannell, president of Shoreline Research in Quincy, Mass. The fact that the iPhone is now more affordable also helps defend it against competitors trying to gain market share on cost, he said.

As partners LG and Verizon Wireless prepare to release their version, the Voyager, in November, they’re betting they can provide a more user-friendly product.

One of the Voyager’s most striking features is the keyboard. Like the iPhone, it has an on-screen, virtual keypad. But flip it open, and inside there’s a miniature QWERTY keyboard. Touch screens can be finicky, and the keyboard will provide an easier, more tactile experience, said Sheldon Jones, a Verizon spokesman.

The device uses the 3 gigabyte EV-DO technology to connect to the Internet, faster than the 2 gb EDGE network available on the iPhone.

The Voyager plays music, but the device itself only holds 30 songs, compared to the iPhone’s 2,000. To expand, the customer can buy a card that expands it up to 4,000 songs.

That feature will help keep the Voyager’s price down, since people can pay for as much music memory as they need, Jones said. The price of the Voyager has not yet been set. The iPhone sells for $399, down from its initial price of $599.

Verizon has the benefit of a higher-speed network, and may appeal to those not comfortable with a touch-screen keyboard, Scannell said. But the marketplace these days is less than kind to non-iPhone music phones, he said.

Verizon is “fighting against that ‘you-have-an-iPhone-and-I-don’t-have-an-iPhone conundrum,’ and that’s going to be difficult,” Scannell said.

Verizon’s Jones said a large part of the iPhone’s popularity comes from marketing, not a superior product.

“Apple does a great job of marketing. But there’s one deficit there,” Jones said. “Apple does not know the wireless industry. We know the wireless industry.”

Mark Siegel, spokesman for AT&T, which partnered with Apple to offer the IPhone, said the iPhone sets a new standard for ease of use and functionality.

“That has spurred our competitors and other device manufacturers to take a fresh look at what they do,” Siegel said. “That is a good and healthy thing. Innovation breeds innovation.”

Sprint released its LG Muziq around the same time the iPhone was released. It has a built-in transmitter that can send music to a car stereo, and does over-the-air downloads. It sells for $99 with a two-year agreement.

There are other appealing products on the market that do some of what the iPhone does, said Kent German, senior editor for the technology Web site CNet.

The Sony Ericsson W580 “has a decent music player in it,” German said. It has a function where, with a flick of the wrist, the music track changes. “It’s a tad gimmicky, but it’s kind of cool.”

German said he also likes the second-generation version of the Chocolate Phone, LG and Verizon’s MP3 player with a numerical keypad..

There’s also the Samsung Upstage, a two-sided device the user flips back and forth between music and the phone. It sells for just $99 with a two-year contract with Sprint.

And the Nokia N95 has a strong media player, a good Internet connection and a camera that’s “way better than the iPhone,” German said.

“There’s not one device right now that is going to offer everything the iPhone offers in a way the iPhone offers it – the design, integration with Apple, compatibility with iTunes, which is what people really want,” German said.

But he said he’s still not sold on the iPhone itself, noting its slower Internet connection speed, low-tech camera, inability to send picture messages and failure to use Stereo Bluetooth.

“For the music phone to end all music phones, it should have these things.”

It pays to spend a little time thinking about an e-mail before you send it. Paying more attention to what you write can make your messages more effective and guard against workplace catastrophes.

There are numerous ways to make e-mails stronger and more likely to be read faster, said Mike Song, co-author of the book, “The Hamster Revolution: How to Manage Your E-Mail Before it Manages You.” The hamster, he said, refers to people spending a lot of time spinning their wheels.

The average employee spends 40 percent of his day on e-mail, Song said. That’s costing companies $300 billion a year in lost productivity, he said.

“Nobody’s reading them, they’re just scanning them. At best, they’re scanning them quickly,” said Song, whose Cohesive Knowledge Solutions is based in Guilford, Conn. “To get your message recognized, read and acted upon, strengthen the subject, sculpt the body.”

The way to get fewer e-mails is to send fewer e-mails, Song said. Cut down on your use of the “cc” and “reply to all” functions, as well as group distribution lists, he said.

A better e-mail starts with a better subject line, he said. Instead of writing “Meeting,” Song suggests being more specific, like “Sales team meeting from April 3rd.”

If you’re confirming a meeting, write back in the subject line, “Confirmed.” And when you’re sending information the recipient requested, use the word “Delivery” before describing what you’re sending.

Song believes that business e-mails ought to have a structure, which he calls “ABC.”

• A stands for “action summary.” In the first line should be the “summary point,” he said. It should leave no room for guesswork, he said. An example might be: “Action: Please submit business plan by 5 p.m. on April 3rd.” It’s important to list a deadline or time element, he said.

• B stands for “background.” This second part should be a series of bullet points, with information the recipient needs to know, he said. This avoids a “wall of words” that no one will want to read, or an e-mail that, conversely, doesn’t provide enough detail, he said.

• And C stands for “close.” This final portion should speak to the next steps that need to be taken, or perhaps a personal message to lighten the e-mail, he said. Finish it with an auto signature with contact information, he said.

There are times when using e-mail is inappropriate, Song said. In general, be careful what you put in writing, especially if the subject matter is sensitive.

“E-mail is what people are using against us,” Song said, noting that in trials and political scandals, e-mails are becoming evidence.

It’s good to avoid writing business e-mails that include anger or emotion, he said. People can lose out on a promotion two years later because of an intemperate e-mail, he said.

“An e-mail is forever,” Song said.

Communication is usually better in person or on the telephone, he said: “Two-way conversations are more robust.”

A long pause that might come up in conversation wouldn’t be reflected in an e-mail, where the recipient has more time to formulate a response, he said. “They’re missing out on nonverbal cues. That’s where a lot of leaders are falling short.”

Be prepared for anyone to see a message you send, Song said.

“Picture it on the front page of the (news) paper, and ask yourself this question: How would I feel about that?” Song said. “You have to look at the complexity, the emotional content, the legality of your message. You have to assume it’s going to slip out.”

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Make your e-mails sound active

Mike Song, CEO of Cohesive Knowledge Solutions, suggests using one of five action words when appropriate to help recipients sort through their e-mail. They can be used either in the subject line, or in the first line of the e-mail:

• “Action,” for something that you need in a time-sensitive manner.

• “Info,” for when you’re providing information that requires no action on the recipient’s part.

• “Request,” for when you need something but need to show more politeness or deference.

• “Delivery,” when you’re sending information the recipient requested.

• “Confirmed,” when you’re agreeing to a request.

Such a first line would look like this: “Confirmed: I will be at the marketing meeting May 5th, and yes, I’ll bring the doughnuts.”