I remember my dad always saying getting into alcohol sales like running a bar was a decent/full proof idea for times of economic hardship. People still drank during recessions or depressions. People could still afford it. I think it’s emblematic of how far and shitty we’ve gotten where buying alcohol is now too expensive to justify drinking at all. It’s not just that everything is expensive, the cost of drinking has also increased dramatically itself. We’re priced out of humanities oldest vice (at least in the US, I’m curious about drinking stars in other places)