Bars are switching focus back to Gen X as younger Gen Z stops drinking

Have you tried getting buzzed at a bar lately? I’m 6’3” and 215lbs. If I wanted to drink enough to reduce my social anxiety I need at least 4 “drinks”. This means at a minimum $10 per drink (crappy beer usually) or even $20-$30 for some places cocktails.

I’m not spending $40-$120 plus tip to get buzzed with friends at a bar. Yeah, there are some exceptions, cheeper bars or whatever. But unless you’re an alcoholic trying to min max your public drinking it’s not where you’re friends are gonna end up. People go out to drink to have fun. And drinks are just insanely expensive.

If I want to get buzzed with friends I’ll go buy a 12 pack, order pizza, and play some board games or something. Drinking at a bar is a 2 drink max for me. And that’s only if we’re heading back home to keep drinking. Otherwise, with my tolerance, I just paid $35 for a couple worse tasting drinks.

They’re doing “how millenials killed the fabric softener industry” (which still exists???) articles about gen z, now?

What will they say about gen alpha when their turn comes? That they killed the LLM industry because they aren’t using the overlord-prescribed quantity of slop?

The wise ones in Gen X have also stopped drinking.

from what i hear about US bars, they are a scam anyway. like super overpriced.

Elder Millennial here. I ran out of money to drink at the bar. Then I ran out of money to drink at home. Now I’m hoping I have enough money to bake bread and drink ice water.

That may not be a great business model: I’m gen X and the more I age, the less I can drink. And all the people my age I know experience the same unfortunate age-related side effects of drinking.

GenZ doesn’t have money for bar trips and also why would spend $50 on bar drinks when I could get $4 in weed and have just as much fun?

Gen Z isn’t stopping their drinking, it’s gone down a bit in percentage. The alcohol companies aren’t making as much money and it’s not going up, so they’re worried. Boo hoo corporations. Did any of these wineries/breweries really not have money to start with? Besides, it could just as easily go up if they start living a decent life monetarily and the econom & politics weren’t fucked.

From 1997 to 2023, at least 60% of Americans reported drinking alcohol. The figure fell to 62% in 2023 and to 58% in 2024, before reaching 54% today. Prior to the most recent poll, the rate has been under 60% fewer than 10 times, including 58% in the initial 1939 poll and a one-time low of 55% recorded in 1958. The highs of 68% to 71% were all recorded between 1974 and 1981.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/693362/drinking-rate-new-low-alcohol-concerns-surge.aspx