Survey: Americans spend $44.9 BILLION shopping while drunk

A recent survey conducted by personal finance website Finder revealed that Americans spent $44.9 billion on drunk purchases over the last 12 months, according to Today. I can attest to this being true, as well. Heck, I once bought a wheel lock at 3:00 am and I didn’t even own a car!

When people are sober, they’ll ask themselves ridiculous questions such as, "do I really need this?" or "at what function would I ever wear that?” When one is sloshed, however, they tend to throw financial caution to the wind, and when the ol' credit card is in the holster, one tends to tap. So a week later, in comes the home pottery-wheel and the sombrero that you don't even remember buying.

It’s an annual tradition down at Finder to find out how many Americans will admit to drunk shopping, as well as how much they tend to spend while on the hooch.

People were surveyed for a 12-month period ending in February 2020. What they found was that 22.9 percent of people surveyed admitted that they had made knee-jerk purchases while drunk. That number is actually less than the previous year, which was 26.4% of respondents.

I wouldn’t be so quick to celebrate just yet, however, since the number of shoppers who are drunk shopping are spending more money than before. Over a 12 month period, the typical drunk shopper spent $768.58 compared to $674.96 the year before.

When it comes to drunk shopping, the guys are worse than the gals, with just over a quarter of them saying they’ve shopped while getting tipsy. The survey revealed that only 19.1 percent of women could say the same.

The most common purchases were food and booze, across the board. The survey also showed  36.9 percent of people admitted to pouring a glass of liquid courage and buying clothes, shoes, and accessories.

When it came to high fashion, men were more likely to buy clothes drunk than women. With just under half, 45.4 percent admitting to it, whereas with women the number dropped to 20.2 percent.

Oddly enough, another major purchase was furniture. In a way it makes sense because who wants to be sober for furniture shopping? Men sure don’t, coming in at 51.1 per cent admitting they’ve drunkenly bought something along the lines of an ottoman. On the other hand, only 1.7 percent of women were stumbling around Ikea.

The millennials were the generation most guilty of drunk spending, 42.1 percent of millennials surveyed admitted to having spent an average of $879.71 while rosy-cheeked. Gen Z was next in line, with 35.4 percent admitting to an average year of drunk spending to rack up to $650.48.

It’s worth noting that drunk shopping isn’t necessarily bad for the economy — so bottoms up folks.