Bathhouses are ending the bar culture: how new "third places" are disrupting the alcohol market

Generation Z is rapidly leaving traditional pubs, and the reasons are not related to healthy lifestyle trends but entirely different causes. According to Bloomberg, young people are shifting their focus to bathhouses and thermal complexes, where a completely different atmosphere prevails — free of alcoholic beverages, mobile phones, and noisy crowds. This phenomenon is gradually the nail in the coffin of the old bar culture and simultaneously the starting point of a multi-billion dollar business.

Zoomers are changing leisure: why people are leaving bars for saunas

Young people are seeking genuine communication and positive energy, not a healthy lifestyle. Saunas, ice pools, and steam rooms have become new meeting spaces where people can relax and connect with each other without the usual alcohol attributes. This is not just a trend — it’s a fundamental shift in how youth view social leisure and meeting places. The simplicity of the offering: hot steam, cold water, private space, and company — proved to be more attractive than cocktail menus and loud bar music.

From bathhouses to thermal parks: how investors profit from the new trend

Investors have already spotted a gold mine in this trend. Large thermal complexes are opening around the world — from Europe and the United States to South Korea. In January, Lore Bathing Club launched in New York, which is simply a sauna with an adjacent ice pool, but it quickly became popular. The key to success lies in economics: instead of the cocktail business with its complexities, owners sell steam and ice. The profitability of such a business reaches up to 60%, significantly higher than the typical margin in the bar sector.

Major alcohol producers in crisis: $22 billion losses

Meanwhile, the alcohol industry is experiencing its most challenging times in history. The five leading global manufacturers are facing a truly archaic problem: they are sitting on $22 billion worth of unsold alcohol. Demand has plummeted so catastrophically that even legendary companies like Jim Beam and Diageo have been forced to shut down production facilities. This is not a temporary sales decline — it’s a systemic crisis reflecting a fundamental change in consumer preferences. Bathhouses are destroying the very culture on which Western social leisure has been built for centuries.