Which generation is worse in a bar?

The Guardian -  Gen Z are used to headlines about the things they’ve “killed”: writing in cursive, getting their driver’s licenses, knowing how printers work, wearing skinny jeans. Their latest offense, according to a recent New York Times article: opening bar tabs.

Bartenders and drinkers alike spoke to the Times about young people’s hesitancy to leave their credit cards behind the bar, instead preferring to close out and pay after every single drink – no matter how many rounds they order.

The piece sparked conversations on TikTok and Reddit about gen Z bar etiquette, which some call nearly irredeemable. “Working a bar that is almost exclusively Gen Z, we stopped opening tabs altogether because they’re so bad at even remembering they have a card,” one person wrote on r/bartenders.

But does gen Z have the worst bar etiquette? The Guardian spoke to bartenders across the US about which generation behaves best and discovered that younger folks aren’t the horrible customers so many trend pieces set them up to be. Older drinkers often have worse manners – and they don’t have the excuse of inexperience to let them off the hook.