The kids these days aren’t drinking as much as they used to. They’re doing sober dating and alcohol-free game nights and whatever zebra striping is. But you know who is still boozing it up? Their parents and grandparents. While the media (including this publication) has been chattering about Gen Z and millennials scaling back on alcohol, many of us have missed that older generations are bucking the trend. Many baby boomers are turning into baby boozers. They’re hitting retirement, they have savings to spend, and they’re enjoying a little life victory lap — accompanied by a glass of wine (or three).
A recent analysis of customer credit card spending by the Bank of America Institute found that overall spending at bars in January was up 1% from the year before. The group responsible for the increase: baby boomers, who upped their spending by 4% and seemed to be opting for the bar over going to a restaurant. While Gen Z and millennials are still spending a larger aggregate amount at bars (the last time you went out, you probably didn’t see the bar teeming with cougars and silver foxes), their tabs are shrinking. Gen Z, for example, decreased its spending on bars and alcohol stores in January by 15% compared to the same month in 2023. The youngs are backing off of the hard stuff; baby boomers aren’t following suit.
“The interesting thing that’s happening is that a higher share of baby boomers’ going-out budgets is being dedicated to bars,” said Joe Wadford, an economist at the Bank of America Institute.
A consumer survey by CGA by NIQ, a food-and-beverage industry research firm, found that average monthly spending on bars and restaurants by people between 21 and 34 fell from $166 in fall 2023 to $154 in fall 2024. During that same time period, spending by people over 55 went from $129 to $170 (of course, not all of that was on booze). The percentage of over-55 Americans who say they drink alcohol has increased from 49% in the early 2000s to 59% today, Gallup found; among people between 18 and 34, it fell from 72% to 62%. The proportion of older adults who say they sometimes overdo it has also gone up during that time period, while for everyone else, it’s gone down. Older drinkers are also drinking more frequently. A Business Insider analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data found that spending on alcoholic beverages, adjusted for inflation, has gone down among most age groups since the mid-1980s — except among people over 65.
Overall, older people still drink less than younger people, but the generations are moving in opposite directions. Baby boomers are raising more glasses while their kids and grandkids are laying off.
So what’s going on here? For one thing, baby boomers have been spending big on alcohol for years, and that’s not going to change at the flip of a switch, especially now that their kids are out of the house and they’ve no longer got The Man to answer to. They’ve got time and money to spend, and they want to spend some of it on alcohol — and the nice stuff, too. Now that they can afford it, they’re buying nicer wines and premium-brand liquors, eschewing the cheap options of their tight-budget youth.
“They’re very much in this kind of YOLO period of their lives where it’s like, ‘I’ve got money; I feel good; people are living longer, healthier lives. I am traveling more compared to prior generations,’” said Kate Bernot, the lead analyst at Sightlines, which researches the alcohol industry. “They’re just kind of in this prime time where buying nice stuff sounds good.”
As Gen Z and millennials are aging into more financial obligations, baby boomers are aging out of them.
Younger adults have their bank accounts pulled in different directions. They’re trying to buy homes or are saddled with mortgages. They’ve got car payments and childcare costs and student debt. Baby boomers, the youngest of whom are in their early 60s, are free of many of those expenses. They’ve reaped the benefits of rising home prices and a booming stock market. If you’re 23 and struggling to pay your rent, you might have no choice but to swap a night out on the town for a quiet evening in with a six-pack to save money. A 65-year-old who doesn’t have work tomorrow for the first time in 40 years and is sitting on a nice little nest egg isn’t making the same calculation. As Gen Z and millennials are aging into more financial obligations, baby boomers are aging out of them.
“For the older generation, if you think of economic headwinds and economic issues, they perhaps might not have been as affected as much as young people,” said Matt Crompton, a vice president at the market research firm NIQ, who focuses on the restaurant and bar market.
Older people may not listen to or be as aware of the health concerns around even moderate drinking as younger people. They came up in an age when some amount of drinking was considered healthy — that glass or two of red wine at night was supposedly good for their hearts. They’ve got ingrained habits they’re not going to be quick to drop in the way younger people might in trying out Dry January, Sober October, or swapping nonalcoholic options into their routines on occasion.
“They have always been pretty strong alcohol consumers since they turned a legal drinking age, so they’re just continuing those patterns, and now they just have money and time,” Bernot said.
Crompton pointed out that while cannabis is competing for the “buzz dollar” among young consumers, that’s not so much the case for most older ones. “The older consumer often will stick with what they know,” he told me.
Baby boomers may not be who we think of as the typical alcohol consumer. We don’t see them much in alcohol ads or in the media. But that doesn’t mean that they’re not excited about exploring alcohol — and brands are starting to notice. During the Super Bowl, Michelob Ultra ran a commercial featuring Catherine O’Hara, who’s 71, and Willem Dafoe, 69, playing younger competitors on the pickleball court for beer. Brands are “finally waking up to the huge spending power and interest” in alcohol boomers have, Bernot said.
For the alcohol industry, the boomer boozer represents an under-the-radar market to serve. But there’s a looming issue: As the cohort ages from “fun retiree” to “old old,” they’re going to become less frequent consumers. As people get into their mid-70s and 80s, they really slow down on drinking, and, at some point, they die. According to Sightlines, baby boomers account for 40% of all alcohol spending in the US. Brands are working to replace them, but meeting the tastes of a younger generation — especially when they’re cutting back in general — can be tricky. This is an issue for wine, in particular. Silicon Valley Bank’s latest report on the state of the US wine industry found that wine is the favorite of the three major alcoholic beverage categories for people over 60, while it ranks last for people under 60, behind spirits and beer.
The baby boomers are just enjoying some well-earned downtime.
“I hope we are all past the notion that we shouldn’t worry about younger consumers coming to wine, and all we need to do is wait or, said another way — be patient and do nothing,” wrote Rob McMillan, the founder of Silicon Valley Bank’s wine division, wrote in the report. “Doing nothing won’t change our present situation.”
Baby boomers aren’t getting sloshed every night in their retirement communities — or at least most of them aren’t. But they aren’t stepping away from alcohol in the same way that younger generations are, and they’re keeping the party going longer than generations before them. Grandma might still have her two glasses of wine at dinner, while Mom has half a glass, and her 21-year-old daughter opts for a Diet Coke. Or Dad still goes to the bar for the big game and spends $30 on a handful of beers, while his son watches at home with some NA Athletic brews shared with friends. The elder half of the family can’t figure out how to get the games with all the streaming services now, anyway.
Health considerations aside, boomers are in a moment when they have the space and finances to enjoy a drink more than they have in a long time. So, they’re seizing the opportunity.
“It really boils down to where they are with their life stages,” Wadford said. “The baby boomers are just enjoying some well-earned downtime.”
Emily Stewart is a senior correspondent at Business Insider, writing about business and the economy.
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