Jeff Santoro

I think they're going to be very much tied to the market cycle, and that's worth remembering for investors.

That's a great question.

The ones that make me money as an investor, I guess, would be the way I'd go.

I know this is an unsatisfying answer, but I think the truth of the future of the alcohol industry probably lies somewhere in between what we've been talking about.

I think the downturn in drinking is probably a combination of factors.

Some of it is likely related to the macro environment.

I don't think that's entirely untrue.

The data you just pointed out, Jason, about younger adults socializing less, drinking less in public while they're socializing, I think there's truth to that.

I think the GLP-1s are playing a small role.

I think it's going to be all of those things.

Another factor, I don't know, when I was younger, the thing that limited my drinking when I was not making a lot of money was how much I wanted to spend of my discretionary income on alcohol.

All the data shows now that younger people are having an even harder time

getting things going with high college debt, things like that.

It could just be an economic factor in terms of where this generation is.

I think this is a pendulum swing, not a death spiral for the alcohol industry.

Now, the pendulum may not swing all the way back to where it was.

I do think it's possible we see lower amounts of drinking in the future, but my guess is that it levels out somewhere in between what we're seeing now and what we saw maybe five or 10 years ago.

I think what'll be interesting to watch is how these alcohol companies handle cannabis when and if it becomes federally legal.

You've seen consolation brands already took a stake in canopy growth.

I think we're going to see more consolidation in this space between the alcohol companies and the cannabis companies, similar to how tobacco companies have diversified away from cigarettes but have still remained in tobacco products.