Beer Distributors NAICS 424810

Sep 20, 2025 - US Drinking Rate at New Low

• The percentage of US adults who say they consume beer and other alcoholic beverages has fallen to 54%, the lowest level in Gallup’s nearly 90-year trend, the polling firm reported in August. Gallup’s annual Consumption Habits survey, conducted in July, found the figure fell to 62% in 2023 and to 58% in 2024, before reaching 54% today. The downward trend coincides with recent research indicating that any level of alcohol consumption may negatively affect health, a sharp reversal from previous recommendations that moderate drinking could offer some protective benefits. More than a third (38%) of US drinkers cite beer as the alcoholic beverage they consume most often, exceeding the 30% who name liquor and 29% who name wine. The survey also found that men are far more likely than women to reach for a beer (52% vs. 23%).
• Beer doesn’t enjoy the same price elasticity as other alcoholic beverages like vintage wines or top-shelf whiskies, with beer drinkers balking at rising prices, The Wall Street Journal reports. As such, breweries must keep a lid on costs and prices, and innovate to justify price hikes. “Beer is [still] considered a commodity,” said Justin Catalana, CEO of San Francisco’s Fort Point Beer Co., adding “People talk about a six-pack’s cost the same way they do a carton of eggs.” But that wasn’t always the case. As craft breweries began to transform the industry, consumers happily paid more for hazy IPAs and other novel brews. But as they proliferated the market became crowded and craft beers became grocery store staples, according to WSJ. Now, amid slumping sales, the nation’s 9,861 craft breweries compete for sales with increasingly popular nonalcoholic beverages, cannabis, and canned cocktails. Some breweries are expanding beyond beer to boost revenue.

• New research from Cornell University shows beer drives grocery store sales and supports relaxing laws to allow alcoholic beverages to be sold in grocery stores, Food Manufacturing reports. The Cornell study found that when a grocery store starts selling beer, beer-chasing households visited a grocery store 3.6% more often and increased their grocery store expenditures by 8% per month. Moreover, shoppers increased their spending on related categories (items likely to be purchased with beer) including snacks, cheese, deli items and soda by 17%. The research, which used nationally representative data at the store and household levels, found that the introduction of beer into grocery stores in Colorado – which began allowing grocery stores to sell full-strength beer in 2019 – can change how people shop, where they shop, and what they buy, says Bradley J. Rickard, a professor of food and agricultural economics Cornell University.
• Producer prices for beer, wine, and distilled alcoholic beverage merchant wholesalers rose 1.7% in August compared to a year ago, after rising 4.4% in the previous August-versus-August annual comparison, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics data. At retail, in August the price of beer for home consumption rose 1.2% year over year and 0.6% month over month, while the price for away-from-home beer consumption rose 3.2% YoY and 0.5% MoM, according to the BLS’s August 2025 Consumer Price Index report. Employment by the industry dipped 0.7% YoY in July, while the average wage at beer distributors rose 2.3% over the same period to a new high of $27.92 per hour, BLS data show.