I keep seeing articles like this, about how people choosing to drink less is hurting bars and restaurants, and it's almost always framed as people, especially younger generations, don't like to drink.
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@FurryBeta @MLE_online I love that being able to afford to smoke cigarettes is slowly becoming a flagrant show of wealth.
I imagine some silly future scene where some dude rolls up in a Bentley and another person in a leather jacket's like, "oh yeah?" and then casually lights a cigarette (that costs the same as that car.)
@ArchiteuthisFlux @MLE_online It’s pretty much the same as lighting cash on fire anymore. Not quite as flamboyant as lighting a cigar off of a C bill, but getting there
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@MLE_online Hmm. Am I just running a business with diminishing cultural relevance in an unraveling economy? No, it's the people who are wrong.

@thriftwicker @MLE_online omg without the text this meme is a perfect depiction of waking up after drinking *right on the edge of* too much and just powering through through it like an adult.
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@ArchiteuthisFlux @MLE_online It’s pretty much the same as lighting cash on fire anymore. Not quite as flamboyant as lighting a cigar off of a C bill, but getting there
@FurryBeta @MLE_online This gives me an idea for increasing international demand for US dollars...
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I keep seeing articles like this, about how people choosing to drink less is hurting bars and restaurants, and it's almost always framed as people, especially younger generations, don't like to drink.
They never seem to bring up the fact that a cocktail is like $20 now unless you go to a really divey dive bar. It's the same kind of reporting they on how no one goes to the movies anymore. It's always about changing habits, and never that movie tickets just cost a lot now.
@MLE_online But they do drink less indeed.
Yes, they know they could buy cheaper alcohol from stores and drink it wherever. And some do. However, the overall alcohol consumption is lower in the younger generation.
So while they are being priced out by restaurants' alcohol prices, there is more going on.
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There are limits, and if I can buy two bottles of vodka from the grocery store for the price of a single cocktail, I'm going to opt to not have that cocktail most of the time
@MLE_online sugar is retail $8.00 for 20 lb, which ferments to 3.5 gallons of vodka. If the energy source is retail propane, the cost to triple distill 3.5 gallons is about $10. So, grocery store vodka is inherently worth about $1/fifth, federal tax on it is $2.70, California state tax is another $0.66. So even for the cheap stuff, price is dominated by packaging and distribution.
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@ljrk if you think people should drink less, that's fine, but it's a different issue than what i am talking about
@MLE_online You claim that people younger generations like to drink anymore. I concur. And I also think that the framing of this to be something that inherently needs fixing is bad.
And yes, I'd rather have less alcohol induced domestic violence or traffic deaths, as well as any number of other issues.
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I keep seeing articles like this, about how people choosing to drink less is hurting bars and restaurants, and it's almost always framed as people, especially younger generations, don't like to drink.
They never seem to bring up the fact that a cocktail is like $20 now unless you go to a really divey dive bar. It's the same kind of reporting they on how no one goes to the movies anymore. It's always about changing habits, and never that movie tickets just cost a lot now.
@MLE_online How dare you not spending 3 hours of pay on a drink! Won't you think of the CEOs in the killing-people-thru-liver-failure industry?
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I keep seeing articles like this, about how people choosing to drink less is hurting bars and restaurants, and it's almost always framed as people, especially younger generations, don't like to drink.
They never seem to bring up the fact that a cocktail is like $20 now unless you go to a really divey dive bar. It's the same kind of reporting they on how no one goes to the movies anymore. It's always about changing habits, and never that movie tickets just cost a lot now.
@MLE_online @blogdiva good, fuck bars. They've been all too happy to churn out drunk drivers for decades.
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@stiv @MLE_online If your drink was $13, and your food was the same, then your food would have been $16-17 without the drink. Many restaurants, specifically those which offer alcoholic beverages, price their food as a loss leader. With high costs and low prices, food nearly breaks even. All of their profit (and it ain’t much) comes from drinks’ higher margin. Without the lower priced food to bring people in to purchase drinks, people would walk next door.
It’s the same with desserts, though I haven’t seen those brought up in this thread. I’m sure most of us who skip drinks at dinner due to the price will also be skipping dessert for the same reason. The only different for me is that I grew up skipping dessert because my parents couldn’t afford it. We might have something at home, but (almost) never at a restaurant.
@ClickyMcTicker @stiv @MLE_online
A lot of restaurants sold the food at a bit above cost and made profits on the drinks. When their costs went up, they had to increase the costs of the drinks to cover it, because increasing the price of food would send people to competitors. Unfortunately, this just made people drink less.
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I keep seeing articles like this, about how people choosing to drink less is hurting bars and restaurants, and it's almost always framed as people, especially younger generations, don't like to drink.
They never seem to bring up the fact that a cocktail is like $20 now unless you go to a really divey dive bar. It's the same kind of reporting they on how no one goes to the movies anymore. It's always about changing habits, and never that movie tickets just cost a lot now.
@MLE_online @lisamelton I volunteer at what’s basically a beer co-op that’s open to the public. No one gets paid (not even tips directly, those go to the bartender party fund), no owner takes a cut, no usurious landlord; it’s the cheapest bar in town, largely because there’s no profit motive. Standard beer is $1.25. And I know our numbers because I count and drop the till when we close—they’re very noticeably down since pre-pandemic. It isn’t *only* cost, there’s something bigger.
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I keep seeing articles like this, about how people choosing to drink less is hurting bars and restaurants, and it's almost always framed as people, especially younger generations, don't like to drink.
They never seem to bring up the fact that a cocktail is like $20 now unless you go to a really divey dive bar. It's the same kind of reporting they on how no one goes to the movies anymore. It's always about changing habits, and never that movie tickets just cost a lot now.
@MLE_online well ticket prices would be bearable if it weren't for all the people that now take their phones out all the time and talk all through the movies. And movie theaters don't do anything about it. Usually it also doesn't come up in that reporting as well
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@MLE_online some multinational restaurant conglomerate executive is drafting a memo right now titled "stop thinking of our cocktails as 'expensive poison' and start thinking of them as "bicycles for your inhibitions'"
@misternineham @MLE_online I wanted an inhibition skateboard.
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@Mungencakes @MLE_online
Thats just standard disparagement when the working class ever stands up for itself though the ages:@liquidlamp @Mungencakes @MLE_online
Great work !! -
I keep seeing articles like this, about how people choosing to drink less is hurting bars and restaurants, and it's almost always framed as people, especially younger generations, don't like to drink.
They never seem to bring up the fact that a cocktail is like $20 now unless you go to a really divey dive bar. It's the same kind of reporting they on how no one goes to the movies anymore. It's always about changing habits, and never that movie tickets just cost a lot now.
@MLE_online alcohol is, in many cases, probably more expensive than other recreational drugs now. Lits of them around. Kids still like to party.
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I keep seeing articles like this, about how people choosing to drink less is hurting bars and restaurants, and it's almost always framed as people, especially younger generations, don't like to drink.
They never seem to bring up the fact that a cocktail is like $20 now unless you go to a really divey dive bar. It's the same kind of reporting they on how no one goes to the movies anymore. It's always about changing habits, and never that movie tickets just cost a lot now.
Drinks, even when they're affordable, are scam levels of expensive.
A quarter keg of bud light costs a little over $100. Then you charge people $3 a drink. There's over a hundred drinks in a keg.
Then, you charge people for a fountain drink of cola for 8 bucks at a theater? It's like a keg of syrup that you mix with water. It's a bazillion drinks that you're gouging people for.
Give me a stripped down non-divey place to go out to that has a weekly open mic night and I'm good.