Nightclubs on the brink as clean-living Gen Zs ditch scene

~~clean living~~

Can't afford $16 + tip for a drink

They mention cost of living a lot in the article. They also point out that there's way lower drug use. On top of cost of living I bet a lot of people are getting their escapism from games and Internet instead.
- I think the fact that almost anything might be laced with a lethal dose of fentanyl these days could also be a contributor. A lot of drugs are just white powder… makes it hard to know what’s in it in a party setting.
- drugs have also gotten more expensive :(
- I bet a lot of people are getting their escapism from games and Internet instead.
  
  More and more people are getting addicted to computer/smartphone games, porn and online gambling. Less do alcohol. Tobacco seems to be constant.
Plus entry fee. I grew up in a college town and went to the same university. There was a nightclub there (still there amazingly) that had beer for a dime after you paid the cover fee on Tuesdays. I think the entry fee was something like $5, if that.
- This has to be some sort of penis based loss leader for them right? Like get the dudes sloshed on cheap beer so they'll buy pricier drinks for women they hit on. I hate to say it but that strategy would definately have worked on me when I was college age.
- My college town had a bar that served 25 cent PBR solo cups on thirsty Thursdays.
  
  I still wouldn't drink them.

I'm in the "Z-lennial" group, it's mostly just the cost for me. Why would I spend $20 on 2 drinks at a bar when I can get a 12 pack for $16 and play terraria with my friends?

There's also the fact that games and Internet are a social option for your generation at all. Previous generations didn't even have that option the same way. Even as a millennial it wasn't nearly as accessible as it is now.
- For sure. My 8yr old plays with his friends on FaceTime and Roblox as soon as he gets up. In the winter online play is probably 75% of how they play. When the weather is better that changes to 25%.
- Not in the same way, but I made a lot of friends on MUDs and local BBSes in the early 90s.
Or by myself, even better!
If you're doing it right you should only drink water inside the club.
Got space on your server?

$10+ drinks is the more likely cause.

We went out recently. Purchased 4 x small red wines. Plastic cups. $100. I nearly died. It's out of control.

The new attitude, coupled with a cost of living crisis that leaves many younger generations unable to afford a party lifestyle, is having a knock-on effect on the nighttime economy.

Title is blatantly misleading. Gen Z wants to party as much as their predecessors did, they literally just don't have the money to do so.

Best to keep titles short, and free of any context that might detract from the goal of building sympathy for business owners.
Millennials didn't have money, either (and still don't), but that didn't stop us from partying. I literally entered the job market right as the economy crashed, but I still found a way to get my party on. Cheap hobo wine is the nector of the gods when you're 21 and have been unemployed since you were 17.
- Yeh it was sneaking a flask in, in my bra.
I bet it’s a little of both. I think every successive generation in the US has become more socially isolated. Car culture, suburban sprawl, internet culture, lack of “third places”, etc. I’m reminded of the sociology book Bowling Alone, by Robert Putnam. It starts with the observation that more Americans go bowling than ever, but memberships to bowling leagues has fallen. Americans are still bowling, but they’re bowling alone.

GenX/millennial here, you ain't missing much. It's loud and impossible to meet anyone unless you're already good looking.

eh you need to stay till the end for the garbage collection 😘
- Oh alright, you’ll do.
Also around your age (46). I didn't go to clubs to meet people, I went to clubs to drink and dance. Or see a band if it had live music.

I saw They Might Be Giants in a club. I saw P-Funk in a club. I saw King Missile in a club. I saw some fucking amazing bands, both national and regional, in clubs and I think the most expensive was P-Funk at $20.
The only times I ever met people at clubs were when I was hanging out in the outdoor smoking areas some of them have (had?). I wasn't there to smoke, just to get a break from the loud music.

the cause is the same as everything else: it's too expensive and we're all poor. I'd love to go out more, including to nightclubs, but I can't afford to

Soon

Gen Z is killing the food industry with a new fad they call 'dying of malnutrition '

I guess it says a lot about the Lemmy demographics but it's getting really sad that every time something about nightclubs appears here, there's a whole bunch of people explaining why they don't like night clubs.

I'm assuming Lemmy trends towards a more introverted group and that's cool. But I'm here not caring about Linux or Baldur's gate, while at the same time understanding that it's very important and interesting to a bunch of people.

I'm an elder millennial. I spent a shit tonne of time in clubs, as did the majority of people I know. I still did other things in places that were more quiet, had conversations and met people. It's true guys - you can actually like both!

I went clubbing to sometimes meet boys, but mostly to drink and dance to extremely loud and often very commercial music, sometimes on drugs too. Because people, that kind of activity is really fun to some people.

But these threads always read like a Boomer pile on on a Facebook post, yammering about how they played outside as kids and walked to school.

The reason younger people aren't clubbing as much is cost. That's it. Talk about that. Not how you think it's an interesting take that clubs are loud and dirty.

I was at a night club last night, partying like I’m in my 20s. Difference is now I’m helping produce the event rather than just going

(pst it's the economy stupid)

Or maybe it's because the majority of Nightclubs are bad products... Why would I want to go to a club where all the art has been sucked out in the name of profit? The resident DJs are just going play the same top 40 tracks while cheap dmx lights are set to auto. There are hundreds of promoters putting in actual value to their shows which makes people actually want to go out instead of the cheap cookie cutter shit you find in the avarage club.

Yeah it's another gen hit piece. Like Gen Z all convened and decided to skip nightclubs for, idk, the lulz
I guess that's very location dependent, I have no troubles finding cool parties here in Europe. I still only go about twice a year these days but that's for different reasons.
- Let me be clear, here in the US Nightclub ≠ venue/party/rave. They are very similar however fundamentally different.

Average cocktail around here is $15 + 20% tip = $18.

I am sorry... but maybe I am old, you tip on the drink. Either $1 or $2 depending on complexity, not on price.

Nightclubs aren't on the brink, the idea that one can open a night club and charge $$$ to get in as well as an absurd amount of money to buy drinks is. On a side note, as an elder millennial, I have never really been attracted to loud and dirty places where I can't have a conversation with anyone and every surface is slippery or sticky with god knows what.

A lot of them are reacting to the decreased number of customers by...raising drink prices. Doesn't really help the situation. I'm too old to go to clubs regularly but if there's an act I want to see, I just get drunk beforehand.

Of course a lot of this is actually because of ridiculous rents anywhere where a club might actually get patrons. Clubs are no small square footage and they need to bring in a lot of money to stay open.

It's because they are too busy switching genders and installing Linux builds

Gender swapping is just distro hopping for the body?
- Might as well try them all before deciding
WTF I love GenZ now

Alternative non commercial clubs, festivals and parties. That's where the fun is.

Never heard of that. That's interesting.
Oooo what’s a non commercial club
- I’m guessing that’s what we used to call underground and house parties?
- A club run not for profit? Mostly by some alternative folks. Often with some leftist touch. I was doing visuals in a few spots like that, besides illegal outdoor parties - best places for me. And I'm not even that much into it to begin with.

if you microdose mushrooms when you go out you only need like 1/3 of the normal number of drinks to have a great time trust

Clean living Gen Z? Lol ok sure

There's been a lot written about how Gen Z has been less prone to premarital sex and less prone to drinking (they prefer weed over alcohol and find bars too expensive) than millennials.

Never actually been to one. No real reason.

Good.

If that's what it takes for them to stop pretending that anyone wants to pay that much, then great. Alcohol prices are obscene.

And that's coming from someone that absolutely hates alcohol's mere existence as a beverage type. I won't go into that here, but rest assured I'm not losing any sleep over anything that makes it more obvious it's a bad choice.

I've always said that I am ok with almost everything that makes cigarettes and/or alcohol less convenient/more expensive/less desirable.

I'm willing to admit part of it is a "stop looking what I don't like", but I REALLY hate both of these things, and will rejoice any time something "terrible" happens to those industries or the people who benefit from them.

I'm the monster that sees a smoker get lung cancer and just don't feel bad for them. You literally chose that. Sorry but you did.

Ohhhh noooo not the nightclubs!