Americans aren’t drinking anymore. Alcohol giants are scrambling to manage the fallout.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/americans-arent-drinking-anymore-alcohol-giants-are-scrambling-to-manage-the-fallout-203502516.html

by yahoofinance

28 comments

  1. [Only 54% of drinking-age Americans consume alcohol](https://news.gallup.com/poll/693362/drinking-rate-new-low-alcohol-concerns-surge.aspx) today, according to a recent poll from Gallup, the lowest proportion since the survey began in 1939. Even those who do drink are partaking less, by a factor of nearly half.

    The US is drinking less, and cultural connotations around alcohol consumption have shifted. The number of Americans who see drinking as bad for their health has [increased every year](https://news.gallup.com/poll/693362/drinking-rate-new-low-alcohol-concerns-surge.aspx) since 2016, according to Gallup.

    These changes are hurting the country’s biggest alcohol producers, forcing them to find ways to adapt to what might, according to several experts, be the early stages of a tobacco-like sea change for alcohol.

    On Coors-maker Molson Coors’ ([TAP](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/TAP)) most recent earnings call, an analyst buzzed in to ask: Could consumer behavior get worse before it gets better? Or was the distributor seeing any bullish signs?

    “Candidly,” CEO Gavin Hattersley said, “we have not seen an improvement in overall consumer confidence or behavior.”

  2. I’m not sure I believe that…its like the Trump polls…nobody wants to admit openly they do as its some sort of flex to say you don’t. 54% certainly doesn’t align with any of my social/family circles (I know anecdotal)…I’d say in my groups its closer to 80-90% drink to some level

  3. Well a 6 pack costs the same as a 12 pack used to plus they only stock ipa at the local sleven.

  4. I’m trying, but I really can’t do more than 2 750ml bottles a week!

  5. I stopped drinking 2 years ago. What’s amazing is that almost immediately, your resting heart rate while you are sleeping will drop. My friend’s dropped 10bpm. Mine was more like 4. Since then, it’s continued to drop and is now down by about 8. It’s very consistent as well. Even when I have covid, my resting heart rate was lower than when I was drinking (and I was only having 4-5 beers a week, never more than one a day)

  6. 1. Often drinks are consumed in social settings. With the advent of the internet and the plethora of entertainment options it provides, people aren’t in as many face-to-face social settings anymore. Thus social drinking declines and with that isolated consumpion too I bet.
    2. There’s also increased competition from other drugs such as cultural acceptance of marijuana, edibles, etc.
    3. Finally, inflation has eaten away at disposable income. Alcohol is recession resistant, not recession proof.

  9. Anheuser-Busch execs are all like “What are we supposed to DO!? I’m not losing my yachts! What do we contribute to society or something!?”

  10. Used to not be hard to find a lower watering hole with $3 beers and $5 well drinks. Now bars all want to be “upscale” and we’ve normalized $9+ beers. and $15+ well drinks. Who can afford it?

  11. Maybe it’s time to drop the prices… just a thought…

  12. Sadly it’s just not the same anymore, they’ve poisoned the poison. There is only a few people I know that will even drink an American made beer on the regular. Non transparent labeling, weird sugars, it’s just not safe. And when are people supposed to drink? All the middle class does is work.

  13. I just started buying liquor. Beer isnt getting it done atm.

  14. I wonder if there is a correlation with marijuanna/THC consumption?

    There is an ebb and flow to these things.

    I’m homebrewing, which is fun. I just recently made a strawberry, honey country wine. I put it into a blender with strawberries, ice and line wineglasses with chocolate syrup.

    Viola! I don’t know that Coors can compete with that.

  15. Aside from the cost, drinking is supposed to be fun not a coping mechanism which it has almost certainly become.

  17. Maybe instead of fighting marijuana they should have come up with THC products.

  20. By manage you mean they’re trying to ban THC so people won’t have a safer alternative to cope with this dystopia.

  22. I work 5 days a week. I work 12 hours shifts and work nights on a regular basis so I can’t have a drink. I don’t want to drink EVERY weekend, often I want to catch up on chores or catch up with family or have a day out or go on a trip.

    I could just have a single drink of alcohol but I really don’t see the point in that if I’m not drinking to get drunk. I may as well have smthn that tastes nice like a soda or a smoothie or milkshake or just good old fashioned water.

  24. Alcohol is for leisure time and bought with play money. Have to work more and still don’t have play money.

  26. One major side effect of GLP-1 medications is lowering your tolerance for the ill effects of alcohol (ie. takes a lot less to start to feel nauseous). Even though I still drink, I might do one or two beers a week, which is down from 1-2 per night.

  28. It’s way too unaffordable. So that shit costs more and makes you fat. I used to try a few ultras a day but that was way more expensive than buying a bud wiser an watering it down. Why are they charging so much for shit beer?

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