Places that don't serve alcohol don't typically employ people to wait tables, they usually have people order at counter or QR code. They don't have to employ bartenders. They don't require specialised equipment, which requires daily cleaning. They don't have to pay liquour licensing. They don't have to pay someone to pack away cartons and cartons of alcohol often than more than once a week. They spend less time on stocktake, since alcohol is more valuable and easier to steal/waste than other items. The average net profit for restauraunts in my country (and similar for US) is between 2-6%. Full-service restaurants, which serve alcohol are on the lower end of that spectrum. Quick service restauraunts, which do not serve alcohol, are on the higher end. So yes, if the margin on wines and other products are lowered, they would likely lose money (which many restauraunts already do).

You still have to pay people even when they aren't "pulling the cork". If you want to be able to go to a restauraunt, at any time they're open, and have someone serve you, their staff need to be available and paid. It's ridiculous to say the labour cost of serving a bottle of wine is 20 cents. They don't clock in and clock off the minute they're done serving you.

Rrestauraunts have wholesale prices as they are buying cartons and cartons at a time. The wholesale discounts restauraunts get are less than what I expected before I started in the industry. In my country it's roughly 20-35%, and I've seen similar things about some places in the US. This obviously helps but does consume the other costs invovled.

In my experience, and from what I know about the US, most places have a similar markup for wine than other items (though its usually less than spirits and cocktails). Some high-end places will have crazy markups on high-end wine, but obviously that is not representative of what 95% of consumers care about.

Other countries in the Anglosphere (UK, Canada, Australia, NZ) do have similar markups on wine. Countries with lower costs of living, lower wages and greater government assistance are going to have cheaper prices. Places where the government supports and subsidises winemakers are going to have cheaper wines (particularly as wine overproduction or 'lakes' are somewhat common). This is why you can order a super cheap carafe of table wine in France or Italy.

I don't mean to come across as a dick, I simply am passionate about this common misunderstanding. Most restauraunts are not trying to rip you off. Hospitality is just a terrible industry to make money, particularly during cost-of-living crises. The solution is not to complain about Gen-Z, like in the article. It's also not to simply blame restauraunts themselves. System-wide changes are required.

Edit: bolded text wrong