7 surprising stats about the average bartender

Shaun McGuire owned a bar before he graduated college. At this point he's been bartending for about 20 years and now works at 3 places in upstate NY, in and near Peekskill.

About a decade ago he was living the industry high life: making great money, buying a new truck, being the local celebrity. But he soon found himself in a tough spot. He got divorced, he struggled, and generally felt like he wasn't taking his professional life—or his life life—seriously enough.

Bit by bit he climbed out of that nadir, and eventually got to where he is today: a curious expert who now coaches bartenders on work/life balance, finances, etc. (You can learn more about that part of his life on his website, philosophicallydrunk.com, and we'll also be diving into more of that stuff in the newsletter later this summer.)

For this week, I wanted to highlight some stats Shaun got from the multiple surveys he's run on Reddit's bartender forum (he just did so because he was curious). Very interesting stuff.

He's found that the average bartender:

• Is 28 years old.
• Makes about $33/hour.
• Has a gross annual income of $68,000.
• Usually works at only one location.
• Generally works 4 or more shifts per week.
• Only bartends. It's their only job.

But the datapoint that surprised us the most was this: 40% of respondents said they still see themselves bartending in 10 years.

We both found it surprising because you so often run into folks who are just bartending during school, to get to the next phase of their life, to make it through the summer, etc. You know there are career bartenders, but they feel relatively few and far between. Not so.

Does this seem to match with your team? We'd be very curious know, so please just reply to this email if you have any insight.

And check out the interview clip for more on Shaun's backstory as well as the survey data he collected:

A few weeks ago we warned that Busch Light Peach was positioned to become the beer of the summer.

The data is now bearing that out: compared to last week, pageviews to the Busch Light Peach page on BeerMenus.com were up 1400%!

That's right. People are looking for this stuff like crazy.

If you currently have Busch Light Peach but don't have a BeerMenus page, create one for free right now and list Busch Light Peach on your page.

If you list it, when locals get to the Busch Light Peach page on BeerMenus.com they'll see that you have it and come on in. Believe me, it'll work.

• This one was popping up everywhere yesterday, but I should note it here too: findings from a recent study show that heavy drinkers don't actually handle their liquor better than others. While there was some degree of tolerance, even the heaviest drinkers showed signs of becoming heavily impaired after drinking.
• As we've covered before, last year marked the first time spirits' marketshare of the overall liquor market outpaced beer's. Perhaps as a response, the Beer Institute recently launched standwithbeer.org, "an educational platform to showcase the economic and social impact of the $409 billion American brewing industry, including its initiatives to promote moderate consumption and nutritional transparency. The platform also sheds light on how large liquor companies inflate their bottom line by exploiting loopholes in our tax code." Not sure how successful they'll be, but it's an interesting move.
• The Athletic just published an interesting article about how Firestone Walker's annual beer festival was once again a success this year, despite the national trend of beer fests dropping in attendance.
• And finally, Miller Lite released beer cube trays. You're meant to fill up the tray with beer and then, once frozen, drop them into your Miller Lite (they're small enough to fit). They're currently sold out, but it looks like another batch is dropping tomorrow (6/23), so set a reminder and head back to their website then!