Stop Drinking Alone

The evolutionary argument for happy hour

Photo by Caro Sheridan

Did you find yourself drinking too much during Covid shutdown? You’re not alone. Well, metaphorically at least. From mid-March to mid-May 2020, during the initial phase of the pandemic, alcohol sales around the world skyrocketed, increasing anywhere from 40% to 60% over pre-pandemic levels, with distilled liquor sales increasing more rapidly than sales of wine and beer. Some analysts argued that this retail surge merely reflected a shift from drinking at bars and restaurants to imbibing at home, but this in itself is a serious concern.

That is because, even if we were not alone in drinking more or drinking at home, we were literally alone. Even those of us lucky enough to have podded with family or friends remained extremely socially isolated. Many of us have been trapped for over a year now with kids getting schooled on laptops in the kitchen and endless Zoom meetings in sweatpants. Cracking open a bottle of wine at the end of the day was a welcome respite from the tedium and stress. There is a good reason why, in midst of the debate at the beginning of the pandemic over what constitutes an “essential service,” almost no one questioned the inclusion of liquor stores on the list.

Humans have been drinking alcohol for about as long as we’ve been doing just about anything in an organized…