What is Happy Hour
What is Happy Hour? Happy Hour refers to a period of time when establishments offer discounts on their products. You might think of Happy Hour more specifically as an hour when a bar or restaurant offers discounted drinks. When your company hosts a Happy Hour, usually you quit work a little early and enjoy an alcoholic beverage on company time. Cheaper booze is the primary use case for Happy Hour but the Happy Hour term has been adopted by a variety of establishments intending to draw in customers at potentially slow business times. Coffee shops sometimes offer coffee Happy Hour later in the afternoon when people are attempting to limit their caffeine intake. Nail salons offer Happy Hours to fill up appointments in the middle of the day early in the week, when people are supposed to be heads down at work. Even bakeries offer Happy Hours for when people are less likely to desire baked goods, although I don’t know what time of day that would be since it is always a good time for baked goods.
At WeWork, several locations offer a Happy Hour Thursdays at 4. In this scenario, the drinks are totally free! Most WeWorkers grab a cold alcoholic beverage from the ice bucket on the counter and head back to their work station. Occasionally, you see people engaging in conversation by the bucket of drinks. Every Happy Hour, I approach the bucket wondering if anything inside will be alcohol free. And every time, I find nothing. I could grab kombucha or seltzer on tap, but I’m always hoping to see an NA beer or NA cocktail in the mix.
Not every event in the world can pander to every dietary restriction in the world. Sidebar - we should not always use the word “restriction.” I remember telling a vegan about a dish that had honey and saying “oh, you can’t have that right?” And he said “I choose not to have that.” His correction stuck with me because he was right - it was his choice not to have any animal products. For me, not drinking is not a restriction - it is a choice. I do not expect every bar, restaurant, and event to have great non-alcoholic options. I’ve worked in a restaurant so I understand that potentially stocking a beverage that won’t sell hurts the bottom line. For a restaurant, mixing lemon and lime juice with club soda and mint allows the restaurant to use ingredients they already have on hand to accommodate the non-drinkers without making a bespoke NA cocktail with NQ liquor that could potentially collect dust. However, so many more people are following a non-alcoholic or sober curious lifestyle than in recent decades that there is definitely a bigger market for the non-drinker or the not-drinking-tonight.
Putting aside the data that shows that more people are drinking less, and being respectful that not all venues stock options for every single restriction or lifestyle choice, I would like to see more Happy Hours that don’t center around drinking. On a Thursday at 4 at a WeWork with strangers, getting excited for the weekend, I’d love to celebrate by doing an activity. This week, one WeWork is hosting a summer camp where you can tie-dye shirts and make bracelets. That sounds so fun! Aside from the buckets of alcohol, WeWork actually hosts tons of fun events like snack tastings, yoga classes and paint by number. So there are tons of non-alcoholic options. Maybe I am getting too hung up on semantics by being upset that Happy Hour is so booze focused when there are tons of non-booze focused events.
What I’m on the lookout for though is where we still default to drinking as the way to get out of working early and connect with others. Alcohol is a great equalizer. Meeting at a bar is easy. Unwinding with champagne is glamorous. But there are other options that are also easy, help you unwind and can be just as glamorous. When I am CEO of my own company charged with helping people organize their lives (hey, it’s good to dream), I’ll host the best Happy Hours, at yoga studios, doing french fry crawls, and painting ceramics, with Athletic Brewing Beer, White Claw, and probably gluten-free, nut-free, vegan snacks. Did I get everyone? In the meantime though, I provided WeWork with feedback that it would be nice to see an NA option at Happy Hour. I don’t believe in incessant complaining without action.
What’s your happiest hour?
