The happy hour experiment in North America

Abstract

While they appear to have been of little interest in other countries, ways of banning happy hours have been debated in several Canadian provinces and in many American states. provinces of Ontario and British Columbia have both banned happy hours, but they are legal in other provinces. In the United States, 18 states have refused to allow them. Detractors have called for banning happy hours, and there have been several lawsuits on behalf of persons injured as a result of their own or someone else's drinking. In addition, some tavern owners and restaurateurs have been against happy hours, as are also some alcohol researchers. Overall, the chronicle of happy hours provides an interesting view of one type of liberalization in alcohol policy largely neglected by researchers. This review examines the concept of happy hours, research on their effects, and future possibilities for study. What is a happy hour? Many alcohol control laws specify that drinks for on-premise consumption are to be the same price regardless of the time of day when they are purchased. Such laws may have arisen originally from the fear that unscrupulous bar owners would entice workers away from work and their families with cheap drinks if they could adjust prices at will. Nevertheless, in the early 1970s, many bars, taverns, and restaurants initiated a variety of sales programs to attract more customers and increase profits-happy hours. Some of these included special entertainment or price reductions of various types as incentives to increase sales. Price reductions might involve: 1. Two beverages for the price of one, or a second at a nominal charge-e.g., the second beverage at a cost of $.01. 2. Reductions in prices, usually of 10%-50%, and usually for a particular category of drinks, but sometimes all drinks were covered. Often only more expensive drinks would be reduced in price. 3. Reductions in prices or free beverages for a particular type of patron, usually for women. Such reductions may possibly have been based upon the assumption that many women would not go to bars without special inducements. 4. All you can drink specials, in which the patron paid a single charge and could any amount of a particular beverage (usually beer) before leaving. 5. drinks for various special people-e.g., those with a recent birthday. Some of the advertisements for happy hours blatantly sell the idea of heavy consumption. A few examples follow, culled from various newspapers. A bar called the Cave Inn near Iowa State University advertised Free Beer. If your birthday was in October, they gave you a free bottle of on Tuesdays. If your football team scored a touchdown, you got a free drink. A competitor, The Fast Lane, offered beer-all you can drink-for $3.00 on special nights. A bar called Knicks charged women only $.79 on Wednesdays to unlimited quantities of beer, wine, or spirits. Another tavern offered two-for-one drinks and flowing champagne every Wednesday. Funny Bones Cocktail Lounge charged $.01 for every other draft beer. Trading Post Saloon near the University of Montana advertised Keggers, where unlimited beer was $3.00 for women and $5.00 for men. There are unconfirmed reports of bars in Northern Ontario offering three or four drinks for the price of one during an episode of fierce competition. Another bar promotion states that Every Tuesday night from 9 p.m., a gong will sound and it's open bar-absolutely free at the bar only. Drink as many as you can until the gong sounds again. Happy hours seem to be especially frequent in taverns that have a youthful clientele, particularly college students. As evidence of this pattern, a study by Breed et al. (1988) of alcohol advertisements in college newspapers found that alcohol advertisements far outnumbered advertisements for books and soft drinks. Many local advertisements were for happy hours at taverns near the college. …