Theres definitely a truth to it, younger people are drinking less and less every generation, which takes its toll on bars and to some extent clubs too.
Isn’t it also because going out nowadays is expensive as hell especially if you live in a big city. Young people working part time aren’t going to waste one month’s salary on one night out. And just hanging outside in public sharing a beer will make a nosy boomer call the cops on you for loitering. So the younger generations have learned how to have fun at home without booze.
There’s never been a point in my life where going out drinking all night has made financial sense. A meal and a beer at a pub, sure, but bars are expensive. And loud. And cramped.
You just have to live in the right city with sufficiently high rates of alcoholism! In Fargo, ND you could get a tall 200 lb+ man proper sloshed over an evening downtown across 5-8 bars for $50 or less as recently as 2019. Not as cheap as drinking at home, but enough that most folks without kids working full-time could do it every other weekend.
$50 or less in 2019? I live in a more urban area of the US than this and if you pregame and go with friends, you can get the equivalent of 5 drinks at 3 bars for well under $20. In 2025.
See, but that’s the rub! Who the fuck wants to spend $50 and go to that many bars? I could get a new AAA game for that much that I’ll play for hundreds of hours. Or 10 indie games that I’ll play for longer!
$50 fro 6pm-2am is cheaper per hour than a movie ticket or dinner at a restaurant, and hitting that many bars is easy when they’re all on the same 2-3 block stretch!
$200 for 1 night out is crazy. Can’t you just pregame a bit (courtesy of public transit), then go to some bars and get some cheap drinks for $5 or less each?
Theres definitely a truth to it, younger people are drinking less and less every generation, which takes its toll on bars and to some extent clubs too.
Isn’t it also because going out nowadays is expensive as hell especially if you live in a big city. Young people working part time aren’t going to waste one month’s salary on one night out. And just hanging outside in public sharing a beer will make a nosy boomer call the cops on you for loitering. So the younger generations have learned how to have fun at home without booze.
There’s never been a point in my life where going out drinking all night has made financial sense. A meal and a beer at a pub, sure, but bars are expensive. And loud. And cramped.
The kids are on to something.
You just have to live in the right city with sufficiently high rates of alcoholism! In Fargo, ND you could get a tall 200 lb+ man proper sloshed over an evening downtown across 5-8 bars for $50 or less as recently as 2019. Not as cheap as drinking at home, but enough that most folks without kids working full-time could do it every other weekend.
$50 or less in 2019? I live in a more urban area of the US than this and if you pregame and go with friends, you can get the equivalent of 5 drinks at 3 bars for well under $20. In 2025.
See, but that’s the rub! Who the fuck wants to spend $50 and go to that many bars? I could get a new AAA game for that much that I’ll play for hundreds of hours. Or 10 indie games that I’ll play for longer!
$50 fro 6pm-2am is cheaper per hour than a movie ticket or dinner at a restaurant, and hitting that many bars is easy when they’re all on the same 2-3 block stretch!
Well there’s your problem, North Dakota doesn’t exist.
If you heard the horror stories I heard from friends that went there to work the oil fields, this would be a very very good thing.
Having fun does not need to make financial sense.
And yet finances are what enable some kinds of fun. $10 dollar indie game you play for a month or one night out for $200. Guess which men are picking.
Hell, $29 and the factory continues to grow for years of entertainment. That’s not even a full meal with drink and tip at most bars.
$200 for 1 night out is crazy. Can’t you just pregame a bit (courtesy of public transit), then go to some bars and get some cheap drinks for $5 or less each?
Drinking less is probably good. I doubt that automatically leads to less dating.