Friday, October 16, 2015

Restaurants Charging More For Alcohol And Spending Increased

By Cornelius Nunev


Alcohol is a devil to some, but is something people have been enjoying for millennia. Americans are spending more on it in restaurants and bars in recent years, though. However, it has absolutely nothing to do with increased consumption, but rather with higher costs.

A huge markup

When looking at changes in the 30-year period from 1982 to today, NPR found that Americans are starting to spend more on alcohol in bars and dining places, according to the "What America Spends On" series.

In 1982, the Cold War still existed, spandex was in vogue and yuppies were driving BMWs. Americans were also aware of the mark up on beer, wine and spirits in dining places and bars, as only 24 percent of alcohol spending was in those places and 76 percent was spent in shops.

Today, spandex is seldom seen and yuppies still drive BMWs. However, we are spending more in dining places and bars, as 40 percent of alcohol spending takes place in those locations, compared to 60 percent in shops. However, much of it is to do with a 79 percent increase in bar and diner prices; store costs dropped 39 percent. If anything, that suggests more volume is purchased in shops.

What do you spend on?

The biggest change was what the nation indulges in. In 1982, 48.9 percent of spending was on beer, followed by spirits at 34.6 percent and wine at 16.2 percent. However, spirits have fallen to 12.6 percent of spending and wine has ballooned to 39.7 percent of spending on libations for 2012.

Wine in America is all anyone seems to want. In 2011, France only shipped 320.6 million cases of wine while there were 329.7 million cases shipped in America, according to the San Francisco chronicle. Clearly more Americans are drinking American wine now.

In the United States, Millennials are really drinking more than the previous generation and have more expensive tastes. That is why the American wine industry saw enormous increases in 2010 to become a $30 billion industry. Of the 241.8 million cases sent out from wineries that year, 61 percent came from California, making it the very best state for wine.

Fit for a king

However, the favored drink of the nation is still beer. In 2012, according to NPR, beer still accounted for 47.7 percent of sales, barely changing from 1982. Overall beer production, according to BusinessInsider, has fallen from just under 204 million gallons in 1990 to just under 192 million in 2011, though that's part of an overall trend of Americans consuming less as a whole.

Beer drinkers are slowly gravitating toward brews from Main Street rather than Wall Street, as craft breweries are proliferating. In 2011, an 11 percent growth of the number of craft breweries was recorded over 2010. There were 1,989 craft breweries in operation, with 250 brand new breweries opening and 37 closing. Craft brewers produced almost 11.5 million barrels, a 5.7 percent share of the industry, and made $8.7 billion in revenue.



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