Generational Differences in Bar Behavior, and how Gen Z Annoys Bartenders (Amongst Others)

[weinoo]

Because they don't have proper bar etiquette!

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/31/business/gen-z-bar-etiquette.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Ok8.DUGp.xAEKuNmLw4J-&smid=url-share

 

Quote

His ethos reflects a growing phenomenon among Gen Z bargoers: an aversion to opening bar tabs. Much to the dismay of bartenders, many 20-somethings prefer to close out and pay after every drink, no matter how many beverages they end up ordering.

 

It can certainly add up for the establishment, and just another reason why cocktails are $20+!!

[chromedome]

Huh. I'm a boomer, and I've never run a tab as far as I can recall. Of course my tolerance for spending time in a bar is minimal, so I appreciate the freedom to leave as soon as the impulse strikes. 

[blue_dolphin]

As the article notes, the ease of cashless transactions hides the cost to the establishment.  I’d have no objection to a per-payment surcharge to cover that as long as it was clearly spelled out and not a gotcha surprise. 
These days, I have a strict one drink limit if I’m driving and I think a lot of people do something similar and don’t want to run a tab due to the temptation of overindulging. 
It’s also often the case that the bar isn’t too busy early in the evening and can more easily handle payments but it’s annoying for both staff and patrons when you have to settle up and leave mid-rush so people prefer to settle up front. 

[AlaMoi]

I'll have a drink at a resto, or wine, or beer . . . 

last time I recall "going to a bar" was 1969 . . . back then you plunked down a $5, or $10 and the barkeep deducted on service.

 

actually, come to think of it, . . . having a drink with crowd, waiting to be seated . . . the tab was transferred to the resto eating tab . . .

business stuff, when I was nominated to pay the bill . . .

Edited Friday at 06:05 PM by AlaMoi (log)

[Smithy]

I've really gotten out of touch on this topic. As with @AlaMoi, the last few times I've gone to a bar it's been in connection with waiting on a seat at the restaurant. The bar tab has been transferred to the restaurant side. As to simply going to a bar and running a tab...well, my experiences go back so far that bartenders trusted patrons to pay and didn't bother holding credit cards. No doubt the smaller town experience is different than big-city experience, too.

[blue_dolphin]

I’ll admit that my most active bar going days were when I was in college.  We'd meet up with a group, grab a table and hang out until everyone had bought a pitcher.  We all paid cash and tipped well. No tabs.

[gfweb]

I'm going to withhold comment so as not to sound like a lush. 😀

[weinoo]

11 minutes ago, gfweb said:

I'm going to withhold comment so as not to sound like a lush. 😀

 

Lemme sound like one - for you, of course.  Paying for each round separately, if you're gonna have more than one, is really fucking annoying to the establishment.  Since these kids are so great with their phones, why doesn't one pay for the evening, and everyone just Venmo their share to the payer?

 

Re: driving...no one in NYC drives, so that's a moot point here (but even when we've driven out of town for a vacation or whatever, I won't drink anything and drive).  

 

Anyway, the bottom line to me is that everyone I sent the article to had something not that nice to say about the etiquette and habits of Gen Z when they go out.  And it wasn't just old people I sent the article to!

 

FWIW, I like to leave a card, and tip in cash.

 

 

 

[Smithy]

3 minutes ago, weinoo said:

....  Paying for each round separately, if you're gonna have more than one, is really fucking annoying to the establishment.  Since these kids are so great with their phones, why doesn't one pay for the evening, and everyone just Venmo their share to the payer?

 

I totally get what you're saying about one person paying and then having everyone else Venmo (or whatever) pay that person their share. But lemme ask you this: is cash so much a thing of the past that it simply isn't considered there? Or would it be as annoying to the bar staff to pay each round with cash as it is to use electronic payment for each round? (I'm going to guess 'yes' because change has to be made...but I'm still asking.)

[C. sapidus]

Maybe bars should offer a discount if you open a tab. Sounds like it would save everyone money, except the credit card companies.

[liuzhou]

The article and the topic had me baffled for a while. I have never lived in any culture with a 'bar tab' culture and I've lived in twelve different cultures.  It wouldn't work most places. 

 

In my native Britain, it is very rare and only an honour bestowed on very regular customers who are drunks with money. The whole British 'buying your round' culture depends on paying as you go.

 

One exception I can the think of was in one somewhat seedy bar in the basement of a Soviet Moscow hotel opposite my apartment in the 1980s, but that was only because the bartender was terminally lazy and wouldn't even take your order. He just plonked a bottle of vodka, a bottle of Georgian brandy and a bottle of Russian 'champagne' in front of you, handed you a glass and let you get on with making your own коктейль, a cocktail made my mixing the three to your own formula. Lethal stuff. Any payment (if you remembered to pay) was on a trust system.

 

Paying with your phone is quicker than using a card or cash.

I also have problems with all this generational stereotyping. It makes as much sense as astrology.

 

Edited yesterday at 10:09 AM by liuzhou (log)

[weinoo]

5 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Paying with your phone is quicker than using a card or cash.

 

Quicker for whom?  It's not quicker if a bartender has to take out the credit card machine, deal with hoping to get a tip, printing out a receipt, etc. etc.

 

And I think this article is geared not toward the bar culture in GB or wherever else, but in the US.

[liuzhou]

I said paying with a phone not a credit card. Totally different. It takes a second to scan a QR code. I do it for every payment I make.

 

I understand the article was talking about America. I didn't suggest it was about the UK. That was my point. I was merely comparing it with my experience elsewhere.

 

 

[weinoo]

2 hours ago, liuzhou said:

I said paying with a phone not a credit card. Totally different. It takes a second to scan a QR code. I do it for every payment I make.

 

 

It takes a second to tap a credit card as well; it still takes much more than a second for the bartender to deal with the customer, the receipt, the potential for a tip, etc.

2 hours ago, liuzhou said:

I didn't suggest it was about the UK. That was my point. I was merely comparing it with my experience elsewhere.

 

I didn't suggest you were implying the article was about the UK; I merely suggested your pedantic ways.

Edited yesterday at 06:25 PM by weinoo (log)