How Gen Z is Changing the Bar Game

by | Jul 9, 2025 | Blog, Mobile Payments, Technology, Trends | 0 comments

How Gen Z is Changing the Bar Game

The New York Times published an article that summarized everything we’re seeing in the bar industry: Gen Z Doesn’t Want to Start a Bar Tab. It’s not that the concept of a tab itself is the issue, it’s that old school operations don’t work for these new-age bar-goers. And now what remains is a quiet crisis happening at the bar – the subtle tension between younger guest preferences and the realities service staff face nightly.

What’s Their Issue

Gen Z treat bar payments as any other type of one-and-done transactions. They order drinks, pay with a card (or more problematically hand their phone to the bartender), and close their tab every time. They aren’t paying for rounds for others. Every consumer is closing every drink every time. As stated in the article, the reasons for causing clunky bar ops are myriad:

  • “For a generation that consumes less alcohol than older drinkers, opening tabs can seem exorbitant. They have become accustomed to one-and-done transactions — usually with a simple tap of their phones — and consider purchasing drinks at a bar to be no different from, say, buying a coffee at a cafe. They can feel anxious about losing track of their spending by leaving their credit cards behind the bar.”
  • “It doesn’t save me anything if I keep a tab open,” said Nareg Haladjian, 27, who lives in California’s San Fernando Valley. “I’ll swipe my card again. It’s an extra 10 seconds.”
  • “It increases anxiety in me when I leave a tab open,” said Cameron Haluska, a 26-year-old beer sales representative from Walla Walla, Wash. “If we want to move somewhere else, it’s a lot harder to close out and then leave.”

    • The Corrosive Effect on the Industry

    What these Zoomers fail to realize is the average time it takes to close a tab is actually far more than 10 seconds. Most industry experts peg the actual time to close at tab at 2 to 5 minutes. This can be made worse during busy times, inefficient staff, old equipment and heaven protect us from the itemized tab splitters. “Who ordered root-beer schnapps?!” Multiply that time spent across 100 covers in a night and everyone loses. Bartenders serve fewer drinks and make fewer tips. Venues add additional costly staff. Customers wait while others argue about root beer schnapps. Making matters even worse is that most credit card companies charge a minimum transaction fee for every swipe – in the end, we all lose with higher costs.

    That’s Where Vēmos Comes In

    Well frankly we couldn’t have cued up a better article to back up our primary key brand benefit. This is our bread & butter. We allow guests to start, view, split, and pay their tabs from their phone – with Apple Pay & Google Pay natively built in (something that POS companies don’t even have for bar tabs). We integrate with the venue’s POS, ensuring that bartender operations stay exactly the same. Guests simply start their tab, order with the bartender, and walk out like a rideshare and the tab will close with gratuity. Bars win because they don’t have to close 100 tabs a night, bartenders keep doing what they do best, and it helps keep processing costs down. Consumers get transparency and control that they like with closing out each round. It’s a win-win.

    Cheers to good cocktails, excellent speed of service, and the elimination of the walk-of-shame next-day credit card retrieval. Contact us to get started with this free solution to meet your up & coming Gen Z guests with solutions they need.

    Related Posts

    Shaping Customer Experiences with Guest Intent

    Revolutionizing Dining: How Mobile Payment Options Save Time for Restaurants and Guests