PEOPLE MORE LIKELY TO DRINK AT RESTAURANTS RATHER THAN BARS, PER LATEST NIELSEN DATA

Source: Beer Business Daily

September 21, 2019

New data from Nielsen gives insight into where Americans are drinking. The data group tracked “where Americans are drinking” across different on-premise channel types the three months to July 2019. 

You may be surprised to learn that the leading watering hole “type” is not bars, but rather casual dining chains, with 55% of the 21+ crowd drinking there. The secondmost popular place for drinking in this data set is independently owned restaurants, at 38%. Polished casual restaurants account for 33% of the visitation total.

Sports bars were the fourth most popular drinking establishment type by visitation (and the most popular bar type), with 28% reporting having visited them for drinking. Second among bar types is the neighborhood bar, with 22% of the visits (the sixth most popular drinking establishment type overall). Brew pubs/taprooms rank third among bars and eighth overall at 14%.

The rest of the data shows that casinos account for 16% of visits and stadiums account for 11%. There is a four-way tie at 7% between airport bars, game/experiential bars, groceraunts and premium bars. The bottom of rankings is held by premium nightclubs with 2% of visits.

One location that didn’t make the top of the list, premium bars, is trying to punch above its weight: Even though this premise type only accounted for 7% of visits over the last three months, there has been a 10.5% increase in premium bar openings. By comparison, casual dining has had a 3% increase and polished dining has seen a 4.4% increase in new locations. Nielsen also reports that 33% of premium bar customers visit each week.