Thrive Market headquarters at the Fast Company Creativity Unconference in Los Angeles, California.
Araya Doheny | Getty Images
Thrive Market is officially drying up.
The online health and grocery marketplace will become the first major online grocer to remove all alcohol products when it removes them. its subscription service. The company plans to completely replace the category with a range of more than 20 brands and 100 products including beer, wine and non-alcoholic mocktails.
“It’s time to really double down on alcohol-free products and take a position that matches the evolving science and changing consumer attitudes around health and wellness,” Nick Green, CEO of Thrive, told CNBC. “Alcohol is not the future.”
The company said the move reflects changing consumer preferences and the growing popularity of “Dry January”, when people abstain from drinking at the start of the new year. Thrive first entered the wine market seven years ago because it saw an opportunity to “raise the health standards in the category,” according to Green, but in recent years the category’s decline has been a reason to exit.
“What surprised me is how quickly this change seems to happen with alcohol,” Green said. “There’s a whole shift in attitude, a sort of paradigm shift, in the way that alcohol is viewed frankly like tobacco, where I think there was a time when smoking was very socially acceptable.”
A recent Gallup report found that only 54% of American adults now consume alcohol, one of the lowest levels in decades. At the same time, the latest data from the Nielsen beer scanner shows that U.S. beer volumes have fallen by a mid-single digit percentage year over year since June.
Research firm Bernstein said the data highlights a deeper consumer shift away from traditional beer, especially as drinkers explore everything from spirits-based ready-to-drink cocktails to non-alcoholic alternatives.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that we are seeing a widespread reduction in alcohol consumption in the United States,” Bernstein analyst Nadine Sarwat said in a recent research note.
At the same time, the soft drinks sector is booming, with sales expected to reach $5 billion by 2028, according to alcohol data firm IWSR. More brands like AB InBev, Molson Coors And Heineken entered the market.
Non-alcoholic beers photographed for Food in Washington, DC on March 11, 2024.
Scott Suchman | The Washington Post | Getty Images
Thrive said its own data also reflected the national shift. Searches for alcohol-free options on ThriveMarket.com have been steadily increasing and accelerating over the past three months.
Thrive, a CNBC Disruptor 50 company in 2024 and 2025, has more than 1.7 million paying members nationwide and had more than $700 million in sales last year. As its average shopper consumes 15 items per basket, the company is betting that a growing share of those items will be alcohol-free.
“People don’t shop on Thrive Market the same way they might shop on Amazon, where they order one thing and ship it separately,” Green said. “People get big boxes of stuff, they turn to us for their basics, like companies like Costco do.”
The company also cites logistics as a motivation for the move. While alcohol can only be shipped to 39 states, most non-alcoholic beverages can be shipped throughout the United States.
“People are basically turning to a healthier alternative,” Green said. “We can focus on being the place they turn to for innovation.”