By Kendall Worth!
As regular readers of my BLOG, may remember, on March 21st 2023 I wrote this post https://worthmatters.blogspot.com/2023/03/question-from-community-regarding-sober.html about Sober Bars. Since then, I have had off and on conversations with people who support the idea of a Sober Bar. Some people who I spoke to, also believe that a Sober Bar is not an answer to social isolation – or an affordable option for people living in poverty. A couple of people suggested – more free concerts might be a better solution.
Some people believe that the idea of a sober bar, is not the answer. First – There is, I discovered after researching the cost of ingredients, rent and utilities at a bar location; plus paying the staff a decent wage, no way you can keep the drinks cost low enough that people living in poverty can afford it. Two articles I found this one https://daily.sevenfifty.com/how-to-create-a-non-alcoholic-beverage-program-that-sells/ and a this one https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/non-alcoholic-drink-recipes supports the reasoning that keeping the prices low enough, for people living in poverty to support the Sober Bar Business, is just not an option. Second - What came up in Conversation is that creating a Sober Bar is not going to do things like as I talked about in in this post: https://worthmatters.blogspot.com/2023/07/words-of-encouragement.html It is not going to get rid of anxiety or stigma and even though everyone supports the concept behind opportunity to socialize with others. People also want to feel safe and people could potentially make new friends through going to a sober bar, as talked about in this post https://worthmatters.blogspot.com/2023/05/a-support-group-people-living-in.html
People also suggested that we are always going to have many users, of places like food-banks and Soup Kitchens, who are not going to like crowds. If we did have the opportunity to start going to a Sober Bar, aside from the drink cost, if the Sober Bar is crowded, won’t this increase our anxiety.
Yes Anxiety is something we have to think about here!
Everyone I talked to really did like, even love, the idea and concept behind a Sober Bar. In conversation, the community all strongly believe that the clientele who support a Sober Bar as paying Customers would be less likely to be heavy drinkers or behaviour problems. compared to customers who support a regular bar. If you go back to this article https://nsadvocate.org/2017/01/25/kendall-worth-on-mental-health-and-isolation-for-people-living-in-poverty-there-is-next-to-nothing/ in the Nova Scotia Advocate, I touched on the following factors:
The bar scene can also be a dangerous way to socialize and meet people.
People you meet at bars are not always considered great people. Some are heavy drinkers or have other problems.
Everyone I talked to agreed that maybe a Sober Bar could reduce behaviour related concerns of alcohol drinkers. Bar tenders working the sober bar have to be less concerned about aggressive behaviour from their customers, while serving non-alcoholic beverages. However One thing everyone I talked to agreed with is a Sober Bar does not mean no trouble, but chances will be reduced by eliminating alcohol.
Something-else that came up in these conversations is about how, in jurisdictions with Sober Bars, the consumers are not people living in poverty. Research on Sober Bars suggests that it is the better off who do not want to drink alcohol, that frequent Sober Bars.
So with all that being said, maybe running the business of a Sober Bar is not the answer for clients who want to find someone way to make social connections.
Comments
Post a Comment