In bars across America, fewer young bargoers – those born in the late 1990s or early 2000s – are opening tabs, instead choosing to close out and pay after every drink, The New York Times recently reported.
Does the trend bother bartenders? Fox News Digital asked a few for their thoughts.
« Is it annoying to close out the tab after every single drink for bartenders? And the answer is yes. Unequivocally, that is annoying, » said Derek Brown, a bartender and founder of Drink Company, a hospitality consulting agency in Washington, D.C.
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« You have so many things to do as a bartender throughout your shift, and closing out the tab, if you have to do it throughout the evening when somebody’s ordering two, three drinks — it takes time, and it’s frustrating and annoying. »
Today’s younger generation isn’t the first to annoy bartenders, Brown clarified.
« Every generation has its quirk, » he said.
Still, while it may not seem like a big deal to customers, closing out after every drink is a nuisance to those on the other side of the bar, especially when things are busy, Brown said.
« When somebody comes in and says, ‘I’ll take a cocktail,’ great, and then somebody comes behind and says, ‘I’ll close it out,’ you have to turn around, you have to go to the [point-of-sale machine], and you have to turn around and go back to making drinks, » Brown said.
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« All of this while being congenial, keeping a smile, making sure people are taken care of — it can be just a really, really annoying habit between all the other things you have to do. But it is part of the job. »
Some younger people claim that paying as they go is a better way to manage their drinking money.
« This is the positive side of this, right? » Brown said. « If you’re closing out every time, it’s true. You’re going to be able to monitor how much alcohol you’re drinking throughout the evening. »
Brown said « fiscal responsibility » is important from the consumer perspective.
« Once you’ve had two drinks, then the third one comes a lot faster and easier, » he said.
Others have expressed concerns about leaving their credit cards behind or in the hands of the bartender.
One way bars solved this problem was with a new system in which a customer’s card is swiped once and then immediately returned.
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« In that case, it’s not that difficult, » Brown said. « You keep your card. You put it in your pocket. That’s what we learned. »
Still, nothing stops a person from paying drink by drink.
« Somebody can just keep asking to open and close it [all] evening, » Brown said. « We just have to smile and do our best. »
Another reason for the decline in bar tabs could be that fewer young adults, in general, are drinking.
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A 2023 Gallup poll found that 62% of adults under age 35 say they drink, a 10% decrease over the previous 20 years.
Katie Fites, a former bartender in Tallahassee and recent graduate of Florida State University, said she doesn’t have a blanket rule when deciding whether she’s going to open a bar tab.
« It depends on what kind of night I’m trying to have, » she told Fox News Digital.
« If I know that my friends and I are going to be staying in one spot for the night, I will leave a tab open. But if I think that we’re going to be bouncing around and there’s a possibility I’ll forget I’ve left my tab open and leave, I will not leave my tab open. »
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Fites worked at a popular college bar that didn’t allow tabs — so most people paid in cash.
Those who did pay with a card, however, were subject to a $10 minimum.
Card payments can not only slow down bartenders on a busy night, they can also be costly to a bar owner’s bottom line.
Credit card fees, which range from, on average, 2% to 4% of the transaction, are assessed with every swipe, according to Doug Kantor with the Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC).
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These swipe fees totaled a record $187.2 billion in 2024, an increase of 70% since the pandemic, per the MPC.
That means less money for the bars.
Source link : https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/bartenders-spill-beans-gen-zs-annoying-drink-by-drink-payment-habit
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Publish date : 2025-06-29 11:00:00
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