How the hell do people in the USA afford to drink at bars?

[MikeTheBartender]

I seriously have contemplated this from the day I started bartending to the present day. But seriously, a beer in a lot of major cities is about $10 right now, a cocktail upwards towards $20. I have a decent income, and no mortgage, I have to sit there and wonder when I watch these people drink what the hell does everyone else do for a living? Does anyone else think this when they go out?

[FunkyMonkee]

I don't drink so, it never makes any difference to me. If that's how they wanna waste their money, so be it! as long as they're not getting so shit-faced that they go driving somewhere and kill or disable someone else with their car!
I've been seeing quite a few YT videos where people will spend thousands of dollars on something just to either take it apart to see how it works, destroy it or do other weird experiments with it and I wonder the same thing! They spend all this time making these goofy videos!! Where to get their money that they can afford to waste it like that?
A few years ago there was some new tech device that everyone could WAIT to get their hands on!! Finally, it came out!! It was at least $1000!! Some kid about 14 or 16 years old decided to buy two of them! The first one he kept, the other bought specifically to be the first person to beat the shit out of it with a baseball bat on video to show the world!! WHY? Where did this kid get that kind of money and why would anyone want to throw it away like that?
As for drinking, I just don't see what the point is of getting so drunk you don't even know what you're doing, then you do a bunch of stupid shit you'll be ashamed of, later, then you wake up with a nasty painful head and throw up all morning, then you go right back to the bar and do it all over again!! That sounds like FUN!! WHERE DO I SIGN?

[WindAtMyBack]

Not sure where you are from, but on Tuesday Happy Hour I can get a tall strong Margarita for three bucks. A tall draft beer is two bucks. Normal price is maybe $5 and $3.

No matter what time or day it is, $20 is out of the question for normal drinks.

Anyway, it's a matter of priorities. Some people spend money at bars. Most don't. I've never been a bar person for that very reason. They are so expensive. I think you are talking about a very small minority who spend that much money at bars.

Think about it. Think about a city with a million people. Think about how many bars there are, and what percent of the million can fit in those bars. At any given time it's a tiny fraction of the population who are at bars.

[Lyndsielee666]

I also wondered how my regulars that I know were on ssi could afford to drink the way they did regularly😂

[purplepoppy]

The secret is not to pay the rent or feed your kids.

[OlderAndWiser]

Most of us don't go to bars on a nightly basis, or even on a weekly basis, and when we do, we have a limit for ourselves.

[HighlyVolatile]

My thing is that I get one of those 2-liter whiskey bottles or even a 350ml cheap bottle at the convenience store (or liquor store in the US -- in Japan, they sell hard liquor even in convenience stores).

Then I drink a boatload, get tipsy, then go to the bar. Then if the bar charges like $10 for a beer, I nurse it because I'm already in the zone and ready to talk to everyone and dance on the dance floor if it's a club.

[HighlyVolatile]

Usually, I can leave with a bill under $50 USD even for one of the fanciest bars charging $15 for a draft beer with people dressed in the fanciest suits. When I was single I could even get a girl to follow me back to my place on a budget while wearing shorts and t-shirts in a club filled with tailored suits. I relied on that cheap way to get mostly drunk and then show up at the bar/club.

[exitseven]

Yes, I think a bottle of good beer in a restaurant is more than ten bucks. I would be pounding down 4 or 5 beers in the parking lot before going into the bar.

[jshm2]

They don't really drink at bars

Most of that piss water is nursed, and they sit there trying to look good for an hour.

[Snakeyes7]

When you got an addiction, no price is too expensive.

[Fromdusktilldawn]

A cocktail 20$? Wtf even in expensive switzerland its just 15

[MzAsh]

Credit card debt

[josephinelcajon]

I do not think the majority do

[Sixgunsound]

Just stop going then.

[MikeTheBartender]

Well I make money from it as you can tell from my screen name ;)

[Sixgunsound]

Definitely didn’t bring the ‘A’ game to that one lol

You make a very good point about people’s priorities during a depression though. Are you in a hotel bar or a more expensive club, or is that seriously what people are paying in an average bar? Inflation? When government dumps money into an otherwise unchanged economy this is what happens.

[Sixgunsound]

Is the secret for the ladies at least to pretend to care about a guy, bat your eyelashes and wear a revealing top and some beta will open his wallet who isn’t allowed to expect any return on investment?

[MikeTheBartender]

I've worked in a bit of everything over 20 years, now more high end places but sadly see people who should be saving money not spending it come in and blow tons of cash even when you tell them how much they are paying above cost.

[888theGreat]

I would put a 50% tax on all alcohol drinks

[msc545]

Some make more money than you think they do

[jahaims]

Make money