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Hey, some good news when it comes to drinking beer out on the town…the cost of buying a pint at a bar is dropping.
Here’s what we know…
According to US Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the average price of beer, ale, and other malt beverages away from home (the industry term for this is “on-premise” drinking, but whatever) has dropped 0.5%, over the past six months.
Business Insider is reporting that “this is marks the first six-month period since 1997, when the US government began tracking the category’s Consumer Price Index, that the cost of beer in bars and restaurants has dropped instead of growing.”
And to be sure this drop in pint pricing is more a reflection of Big Beer mass-market offerings than it is something from Russian River…
Probably not getting cheaper in bars
Unlike craft beer, which in spite of slowing momentum continues to see its sales grow, Big Beer’s brands have been struggling of late with Gen Xers transitioning to wine, spirits and pot for their buzz or adopting a healthier and more sober lifestyle altogether.
According to recently released IWSR Drinks Market Analysis data, global beer volume dropped by 2.2% in 2018. In the United States alone beer sales by volume dropped by 1.6%.
And since younger generations have historically made up the bulk of consumers who drink out with greater regularity and less of them drinking beer than ever before, Big Beer is looking to find ways to reel them back in…And one option is cheaper pricing.
To be clear, as the Business Insider astutely points out, this drop in on-premise pricing “doesn’t mean that beer prices are cheaper than they’ve ever been, just that the average price has returned roughly to October 2018 levels.”
“But the first six-month drop in more than two decades for the category highlights beer giant’s struggle to win over millennials and Gen Z.”
