It's interesting that enough people are drinking less to create noticeable pain for bars, liquor stores, and restaurants. Bars do serve as social and cultural institutions for people in cities, but for teetotalers, temporary and permanent, they are sources of temptation or peer pressure or both depending on someones sober profile. They could be growing out of drinking alcohol and enjoying abstinence, but still feel pressure socially to imbibe just to participate in collective ritual, or someone trying to interrupt a habit of drinking frequently since college that's carried into professional life and is catching up to them who just knows they can't complete the challenge if they step into a bar. Yes, "Dry January" is arbitrary but people wouldn't participate if they weren't getting something out of it. Alcohol is becoming more commonly viewed as a harmful drug that causes disease and contributes to poor mental health. People are also becoming more open and tolerant to alternative substances that were once culturally taboo. People are definitely not going sober for the month, just not using alcohol. People will be drinking less and less alcohol going forward which is a positive for society but not bars, restaurants, breweries, etc. They'll have to adapt with lower and non alcoholic beverages that deliver with flavor or other dimensions of enjoyability.

It's interesting that enough people are drinking less to create noticeable pain for bars, liquor stores, and restaurants. Bars do serve as social and cultural institutions for people in cities, but for teetotalers, temporary and permanent, they are sources of temptation or peer pressure or both depending on someones sober profile. They could be growing out of drinking alcohol and enjoying abstinence, but still feel pressure socially to imbibe just to participate in collective ritual, or someone trying to interrupt a habit of drinking frequently since college that's carried into professional life and is catching up to them who just knows they can't complete the challenge if they step into a bar. Yes, "Dry January" is arbitrary but people wouldn't participate if they weren't getting something out of it. Alcohol is becoming more commonly viewed as a harmful drug that causes disease and contributes to poor mental health. People are also becoming more open and tolerant to alternative substances that were once culturally taboo. People are definitely not going sober for the month, just not using alcohol. People will be drinking less and less alcohol going forward which is a positive for society but not bars, restaurants, breweries, etc. They'll have to adapt with lower and non alcoholic beverages that deliver with flavor or other dimensions of enjoyability.

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