Trends in alcohol spending: Businesses, employees cut back

Ara Kharazian

Economist, Ramp

Lately, I’ve seen a lot of stories about American consumers drinking less alcohol.

Industry data shows alcohol sales are declining. And the market is responding. New brands like Athletic Brewing Company are expanding fast, and multinational companies are investing in their own alternatives (there’s even a Guinness 0).

Is this shift purely consumer-driven, or is it reshaping the American workplace too? Are American businesses, long defined by boozy client dinners and big company offsites, cutting back too?

New Ramp data says yes: American businesses and employees are spending less on alcohol.

Broad declines in alcohol consumption

Our analysis of corporate card spending shows that from 2022 to 2024, alcohol’s share of food and drink expenses fell from 13.9% to 12.5%. Alcohol spending fell or stayed flat in 12 major U.S. cities. Philadelphia and Phoenix saw the biggest drops, with alcohol spending nearly halving in two years.

Nationwide, alcohol makes up 12.5% of the average employee’s meal expense. Boston spends the least on alcohol (4% of business meal costs), followed by San Francisco (5.4%). New Orleans (23.3%), Philadelphia (22.5%), and Miami (21.1%) lead in alcohol spending. Alcohol spending increased slightly in five cities: New York, Dallas, Houston, Nashville, and San Diego.

Who’s drinking?

We also found that some teams spend more on alcohol. Using anonymized card data, we found finance, marketing, and sales teams lead in alcohol consumption. These teams often work directly with clients, potential customers, and partners, where alcohol may still feature in events.

Conversely, human resources and information technology teams spend the least on alcohol.

Alcohol spend is highest in the entertainment, food, and professional services sectors. And lowest in retail, health care, and agriculture. The entertainment, food, and professional services sectors are often client-facing (or event-based, which may drive alcohol spend).

Finally, we found alcohol spend scales with business size. Alcohol spend makes up 14.5% of food and drink spend at enterprise firms, versus 12.7% for small businesses. The differences are smaller here, but it’s likely that larger firms may have more employees in sales and marketing functions, which typically drive higher alcohol spend.

Final Thoughts

The data is clear: alcohol spend is declining in both consumer and business segments, but I don’t think alcohol is disappearing from the workplace entirely. Some industries and teams still lean on it, and spending has even ticked up in a few cities. But these trends suggest a new normal: less alcohol, more alternatives, and maybe fewer next-day regrets.

For more insights, follow Ramp’s economist Ara Kharazian on X, LinkedIn, and Substack.

Ara Kharazian•Economist, Ramp

Ara Kharazian is an economist at Ramp. His writing and analysis of AI, business spend, and the economy has been covered in the New York Times, NBC News, ABC News, NPR's Planet Money, Bloomberg, the Guardian, Vox, Axios, and more. Ara previously led economic research at Square and developed Square Payroll Index, which became one of the key public datasets used to track restaurant worker wages, tips, and overtime in the United States. He was previously an economic consultant at Cornerstone Research.

Ramp is dedicated to helping businesses of all sizes make informed decisions. We adhere to strict editorial guidelines to ensure that our content meets and maintains our high standards.

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