Americans no longer drink. Alcohol giants are scrambling to manage the fall -out.

Cold beer on a Friday night? Maybe non-alcoholic.

Only 54% of Americans of Drinking age today consume alcohol, according to a recent Gallup survey, the lowest share since the survey started in 1939. Even those who do participate less, with a factor of almost half.

The US drinks less and cultural connotations on alcohol consumption have been shifted. The number of Americans that drink so badly for their health has increased every year since 2016, according to Gallup.

These changes harm the largest alcohol producers in the country, forcing them to find ways to adapt to what, according to different experts, can be the early stages of a tobacco-like sea change for alcohol.

On the most recent profit call from Coorsmaker Molson Coors (TAP), an analyst buzzed: can consumer behavior get worse before things get better? Or did the distributor see Bullish sign?

“Handy,” said CEO Gavin Hattersley, “we have not seen any improvement in general consumer confidence or behavior.”

When the drinking giants of the country released their last income, they reported delays in volume growth across the board. Of the biggest names in the industry, Molson Coors and Corona Distributor Constellation Brands (STZ) took the most difficult hits, the recording volume falls 7% and 3.3% respectively.

Anheuser-Busch (Bud) and Sam Adams Ouder Boston Beer Company (SAM) did a little better, with beer volume from 1.9% and 0.8% respectively.

“The industry,” said Bottle Raiders vice-president of Marketing Amanda Paul-Garnier, “has never confronted as much pressure as today.”

In the sixties, smoking was deeply embedded in American life.

Advertisements that sell cigarettes were regularly led in commercial breaks on TV. Restaurants, planes and even hospitals were filled with smoke. Almost half of the country was ordinary smokers.

All of that changed in January 1964, when surgeon -general Luther Terry published a report that would spend the night of the tobacco habits of Americans – the first to make a direct connection between smoking and cancer.

It turned out to be a turning point for big tobacco.

Within five years, the congress had adopted a series of laws that required warning labels for all tobacco products and cigarette advertisements forbidden during broadcasting media. The percentage of Americans who smoked had fallen by 5%, according to the American Lung Association.

The alcohol industry must now suffer from the same health -conscious movement that hits tobacco. In January, the former American surgeon General Vivek Murthy published a damn report that connected alcohol consumption with the risk of cancer and calling measures, including warning labels on alcoholic drinking containers, just like those who are sold cigarettes in the US.

Consuming one drink per day, the report showed, increases the risk of alcohol -related cancer by 19% in women and 11.4% in men. The have two drinks per day, those figures bumps at 21.8% and 13.1% respectively.

According to Peter Monti, a professor at Brown University who studies alcohol consumption and addiction, the audience had never appreciated that link, but he sees the opportunity to shift.

“We have the attitude, beliefs and behavior really reversed with regard to tobacco in a way that I think we can do for alcohol,” Monti said in January. Modern drinking, Monti told Yahoo Finance, is “now more popular than ever before.”

Culture may already be on the move.

The results of the Gallup survey reflect “a shift that has been building in society for quite some time,” Paul-Garnier told Yahoo Finance.

Alcohol consumption has fallen every year since 2022, compared to 67% of Americans who report that they use alcohol to only 54%, according to Gallup.

And the trend is not limited to a demography.

Only 1 in 2 of the 18 to 34-year-old crowd of young adults reported that they drink alcohol, a decrease of 59% in 2023. Consumption levels for both 35 to 54-year-olds and the 55-plus cohort are 56%, 10 and 5 percentage points respectively, in the last two years. The decrease also applies to all income levels.

“All signs suggest that alcohol follows a process that is comparable to Tobacco,” said Paul-Garnier.

And among those who do drink, falls the frequency with which they do this. Twenty years ago, survey participants who consumed alcohol had an average of 5.1 drinks in the seven days prior to taking the survey. Now that figure is just over half of what it was, with 2.8 drinks.

“Consumers … remain social, enjoy their moments,” said Michel Doukeris, CEO of Anheuser-Busch, about the company's profit call. But now they are “more control over their entire consumption.”

All this has forced the biggest alcohol distributors to adapt, similar to some smoking giants such as Philip Morris (PM) have done by leaning in smoke -free nicotine products like zyn.

Where they once bought a six-pack beer, alcoholic leaders said, consumers will increasingly probably reach options with low or no-ABV. That has encouraged the largest distributors to lean in what Molson Coors, Boston Beer and Anheuser-Busch “Beyond Beer” call side sides such as Seltzers and non-alcoholic products and other products such as hemp-dedicated drinks, Paul-Garnier told Yahoo Finance.

Anheuser-Busch reported income from his no-alcohol beer portfolio-conducted by Corona Cero-one increase of 33%, while the “mega markets”, such as Corona, Michelob Ultra and Budweiser, saw only an increase of 5.6%.

Constellation, the American distributor for Corona, said investors that the non-alcoholic supply of Corona is now the second highest stock amplifier in the non-alcoholic beer category.

The evidence has led to Anheuser-Busch believing that “non-alcohol beer is an important chance of developing the category and stimulating incremental volume growth,” CEO Doukeris told investors.

Boston Beer, who co-founder and chairman James Koch said that investors operates in a challenging and unpredictable macro-economic environment, “reported the strongest figures. The beer portfolio of the producer, with brands such as Real Seltzers, is now 85% of the volume of the company, better than beer, wine and spirits.

“To be honest, yes, three years ago we probably didn't look at something outside of alcohol,” said Koch. “Now our innovation team is starting to poke in opportunities.”

Jake Conley is a breaking news reporter who covers US shares for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on x on @Byjakeconley or e -mail him on Jake.co[email protected].

Brooke Dipalma is a senior reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on x on @Brookedipalma Or e -mail her on [email protected].

Click here for all the latest news and events in the retail trade to better inform your investment strategy