Economy Changes Alcohol Spending Habits

Image by Martin Beek via Flickr

Tough economic times may be having an impact on the way people spend their money on alcohol, but the poor economy isn’t necessarily slowing drinkers down, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Sept. 7.

Alcohol sales are up in some parts of the country despite the sluggish economy, and research from the Nielsen Company — which monitors purchasing habits and trends — found that 80 percent of Americans are spending as much as usual on alcohol.

In the short term, the availability of less expensive brands of alcohol, from spirits to beer and wine, allows drinkers the ability to continue consuming with only slight alterations in their habits, experts say.

“People are very rational over all,” said Paul Gruenewald of the Prevention Research Center in Berkeley, Calif. “They’re doing what makes sense. They still want to sit down after work and have a beer, and O.K., it won’t be a Heineken. They’ll have a Budweiser.”

“Beverage alcohol really is only mildly affected by the economic factors,” agreed Danny Brager of the Nielsen Company. “A lot of consumers would still consider alcoholic beverages as an affordable indulgence.”

That could change with a prolonged economic downturn, however.

“A lot of people think that when times are bad people will drink more,” said Christopher Ruhm, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. “The evidence is pretty clear that, at least in terms of alcohol sales, that that’s not true, that people will drink less.”

Source: The original source for this item is found at the San Francisco Chronical (www.SFGate.com) and the referring source is www.intox.com