| Toasting the booze-free boom: Nonalcoholic beverages are big business As consumer demand rises, retailers tap into the growing nonalcoholic beverage market with innovation and strategic merchandising. See what they are doing. | ||
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| Spend time reading about the burgeoning nonalcoholic beverage movement, and behold a rousing cacophony of clinking glasses and shouts of cheers. From Gen X on down, people are stepping—if not leaping (stumble-free!)—away from full-test hooch. During this year's Dry January, 54% of adult Americans who already hit the sauce reported they were "somewhat" likely to participate in the annual booze-free challenge, according to a new report from CivicScience. That number is up from 46% in 2024. The figure may rise even more next year, especially if the Food and Drug Administration acts on the Surgeon General's call for cancer warning labels on alcohol products. When people turn to alcohol stand-ins today, regardless of whether to fulfill a Dry January pledge or transform a lifestyle, they're not replacing the hard stuff with just the OG options—seltzer water or soda. Instead, they're gravitating toward new nonalcoholic (NA) products. What was a trickling creek of them just a few years ago today amounts to a wild, sloshing river. Bottoms up, brands! And sláinte to retailers, too—it's not often that a buzzy and entirely new food or beverage category emerges and begins prying open wallets. |
