Strangulation of enjoyment

[madscientist451]

Woke up early, was scrolling thru news articles, and noticed that distillery bankruptcies are a thing these days, with some big players like Jack Daniel’s cutting costs by outsourcing barrel production and reorganizing (likely firing) management teams. So switched to You tube over coffee and noticed some videos about how the pub culture in the UK is in decline. 5 UK pounds for a pint, ($6.64) costs of everything going up vs wages, heath concerns and even legal weed are all adding up. The title to the thread comes from the pub owner being interviewed at about 3:22 in the video linked below. I’ve never been to a British Pub, and hope they don’t all close down before I get my retirement travel plans going.
So what y’all think? Is enjoyment being strangled? Are we just exchanging hours of our lives for dollars so we have enough cash flow to keep ahead of the payments owed? Or has what people enjoy shifted and is now something different? Anyway, I enjoyed the video and a look inside of various UK pubs.

 

[jdauria]

I think the fact that breweries are closing left and right over the last few years is also a sign that drinking is in a decline. Kids these days seem to see beer as an old guy's drink...they are buying weed, microdosing mushrooms and drinking craft cocktales and seltzers instead. You can see it in packies every day as more and more shelf space for beers is gone, replaced by seltzers and cocktails in a can. My homebrew club saw it this year, when he tried to revive our beer fesitival. Before Covid we had 500-600 people attend, this year we had only 19 tickets sold a week before the event. Thankfully the town forced our hand by refusing us a one day license as they wanted "professional bartenders" to pour, so we canceled the event.

That would be sad if English Pubs went the way of the DoDo bird, have never been, but getting to England has been on my bucket list for years.

Saying all this, I did go to Oktoberfest in Munich two years ago and seeing 10,000 plus in each of the tents all drinking great German lagers was one encouraging sign that all is not lost...yet. Side note: Sitting in HofbrauHaus drinking a few steins in the same place Hitler rallied the Nazis and allied troops drank after invading Germany was pretty cool. As was going to Augustiner-Keller beer garden and sneaking downstairs in their main building to their giant beer hall and into their old beer caves was something I will never forget. If only I could have found the light switch for some good pics!

 

[mac_1103]

So what y’all think? Is enjoyment being strangled? Are we just exchanging hours of our lives for dollars so we have enough cash flow to keep ahead of the payments owed? Or has what people enjoy shifted and is now something different?

All of the above.

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

I agree with mac on this one.

 

[Agent]

Not to mention that folks don't need/want to go out to "socialize" anymore.

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

Right... especially the younger generation, I'm 40 and my wife and I go out to a local brewery pretty often, once a week, every other week at the least, sometimes more. And I'd say we are almost always the youngest ones there.

 

[mac_1103]

I'm 40 and my wife and I go out to a local brewery pretty often, once a week, every other week at the least, sometimes more. And I'd say we are almost always the youngest ones there.

And we're almost always the oldest ones there. Of course, that's mostly because we're old, but we do see people younger than you regularly (although they're often not drinking beer).

 

[Snuffy]

I'm just glad this discussion didn't involve David Carradine.

 

[corkybstewart]

On the rare occasions I do go out for a drink, usually while traveling, I end up next to a person who's loudly insisting we should listen to his inside info about the political party i oppose. Turns my bar visit into a one and done.
And in general I think drinking in a bar will help us relive our adventurous and misspent youth. But after a drink, maybe 2, we ask ourselves why we bothered.
We are neither rich nor poor, as our 70s approach way too fast and the future of our investments becomes more precarious it's just easier to justify hanging out at home and shunning social life, at least when we are in the States.
In France it's very different. My wife has 9 siblings who live within 10 minutes of us, somebody visits us everyday, often with a bottle or 2 to share. There are village events all around us so we always have something to do that includes social interaction with friends and strangers. Our village has a little pub, all profits go to their version of the PTA. There's almost always someone there that we know, and always strangers as well.
So I'm not convinced about the strangulation of enjoyment. Our enjoyment has evolved from long nights in bars to hanging out with a select group. We have rockhounding friends in France and the US- this weekend we'll be in the volcanic region of France with several of them at a gem and mineral exposition. In September a couple of them will travel to New Mexico to collect in our area. Tons of unstrangled enjoyment, just different.

 

[sibelman]

exchanging hours of our lives for dollars so we have enough cash flow to keep ahead of the payments owed

the future of our investments becomes more precarious

The popularity of various forms of enjoyment will always evolve, but the ability to engage in discretionary spending for "mere" enjoyment is shaped by economic well being.

There's been some strangulation going on, for sure, but discussing that quickly gets us into debate forum material.

 

[corkybstewart]

There's been some strangulation going on, for sure, but discussing that quickly gets us into debate forum material.

I'm trying hard to keep it neutral

 

[sibelman]

keep it neutral

Yeah, but... Neutral strangulation isn't really a thing.

The part about social forces (the alleged "epidemic of loneliness") may surely be a factor in failing pubs. And, at least here in the U.S., we're likely seeing deflation of a craft beer bubble.

 

[mac_1103]

Based on the small and non-scientific sample of my own children and their friends, I can say that at least some Millennials still go out drinking. And sometimes they even drink beer.

 

[Broken Crow]

I'm with @Snuffy on this one... I kinda read the title and went this way;

...though if he were alive today he could be one of the celebrities crowding the market with thier gin and whatnot.

 

[sibelman]

Young people abound in Portland-area taprooms. This subject surely could be better informed by data rather than mere anecdotes.

https://shunbeer.com/article/what-demographic-drinks-the-most-beer

https://nbwa.org/resources/fast-facts/

https://www.beveragemarketing.com/shop/assets/PDFs/BeerMarketUS2021.pdf

 

[Snuffy]

I think it's a culture shift in the UK. Pub regulars are aging out. It's too expensive.
They should just brew their own, right?!

 

[JC Mendyka]

Indeed, let us all be a part of the solution and not a part of the problem. Let us show the local watering hole or public house the due it deserves and never let them fear for loss of a sheckle.