Americans Spend Over $21 Billion Drunk Shopping

Every time we think we’ve run out of things to write about we’re blindsided by something new…like the billions Americans spent on spontaneous drunk purchases last year.

Here’s what we know…

More than a fifth of Americans (21.4) admit to shopping under the influence according to the latest Drunk Shopping survey from finder.com, an annual survey of roughly 2,000 American adults asked about their drinking and shopping habits.

While the number of people buying items after drinking is down compared to last year, drunken shoppers are still spending a lot.

The average drunk shopper is spending an average of $423.73 on drunk purchases this year, compared to $768.58 last year. Collectively, Americans spent $21.6 billion on drunk purchases in the past 12 months, down 51.80% from last year’s $44.9 billion.

American Alcohol Drinking Patterns by the Numbers

• 69.7% of Americans drink at least one alcoholic beverage per week
• On average, American drinkers consume 8 alcoholic drinks per week
• The most commonly consumed alcoholic beverage by men is beer, with 63.7% of men drinking at least one beer a week, compared to women who tend to favor wine, with 46.2% of women having at least one glass per week
• Millennials and Gen X are consuming the largest amount of alcoholic beverages weekly, both consuming an average of 8.85 drinks per week
• Americans on average spend the most per glass of wine ($11.86) and the least on a can of beer ($7.57)

Here’s what Drunk Americans are buying

For those of you who have ever made a late night pizza call after a night of power-pounding beer, it will come as no surprise that food is our most common drunk purchase.

More than 80% of drunk shoppers admit to purchasing food while drunk, followed by apparel including shoes, clothes and accessories at 60.0%, and cigarettes at 58.6%.

When looking at average dollar amount spent, Americans spent the most on gambling ($121.07), followed by car-related purchases ($89.64) and vacations ($84.52). Food, the most popular category, had drunk shoppers spending an average of $82.32.

Men Shop Drunk More than Women

Over a quarter (28.6%) of men admit to drunk shopping, with male drunk shoppers spending an average of $489.54. The top purchase for men under the influence is food (86.3%), followed by cigarettes (69.1%) and gambling (63.9%).

Significantly less women (15.0%) admitted to drunk shopping than men, with female drunk shoppers spending an average of $303.00 on their purchases during the past year. The top drunk purchase among women was food (70.1%), with shoes, clothes, or accessories coming in second (55.9%), and cigarettes in a close third (39.4%).

Millennials and Gen X Shop While Drunk the Most

In keeping with last year’s report, millennials were the generation most prone to drunk shopping (36.5%). Following millennials was Gen Z (29.7%), Gen X (26.5%) and baby boomers (8.0%).

Although drunk shopping was the most prevalent among millennials, Gen X was the generation that actually spent the most on average among drunk shoppers. However, all generations spent less drunk shopping this year compared to last year. Gen X drunk shoppers spent an average of $521.57 compared to last year’s average of $797.49. Following Gen X are millennials ($475.75) and baby boomers ($274.62).

US Regions with the Most Drunk Shoppers

The West showed the highest percentage of people admitting to drunk shoppers with 25.1% of adults in the West saying they had drunk shopped in the past year, spending and average of $486.52. This was followed by the 22.0% of the people drunk shopping in Northeast, 19.9% in the South and the 19.8% in the Midwest.

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Finder is an online comparison resource dedicated to helping people make better economic decisions. And the data used in its survey is based on an online survey of 1,800 US adults born between 1928 and 2002 commissioned by Finder and conducted by Pureprofile in September 2020. Participants were paid volunteers.