Thrive Market headquarters at Fast Company Creativity Counter-Conference in Los Angeles.
Araya Doheny | Getty Images
Thrive Market is officially going dry.
The online health and grocery marketplace will become the first major online grocer to remove all alcohol products when it takes them off its subscription service. The company plans to replace the category entirely with a lineup of over 20 brands and 100 products spanning nonalcoholic beer, wine and mocktails.
“It’s time to really double down on nonalcohol and take a stand that is aligned with where science and where we think attitudes among health and wellness consumers is shifting,” Thrive CEO Nick Green told CNBC. “Alcohol is not the future.”
The company said the move reflects shifting consumer preferences and the growing popularity of “Dry January,” when people abstain from drinking as the new year begins. Thrive first entered the wine market seven years ago because it saw an opportunity to “raise health standards in the category,” according to Green, but in recent years has seen the category’s decline as a reason to exit.
“What surprised me is how fast that shift has seemed to happen with alcohol,” said Green. “There’s a whole attitude shift, kind of paradigm shift, in the way alcohol is viewed similar frankly, to tobacco where I think that at one time smoking was very socially acceptable.”
A recent Gallup report found only 54% of U.S. adults now consume alcohol, one of the lowest levels in decades. Meantime, the latest Nielsen beer scanner data shows U.S. beer volumes have been falling by a mid-single digit percentage year over year since June.
Research firm Bernstein said the data underscore a deeper consumer pivot away from traditional beer, especially as drinkers explore everything from spirits-based ready-to-drink cocktails to nonalcoholic alternatives.
“It’s becoming clearer that we are seeing a broad-based reduction in US alcohol consumption,” said Bernstein analyst Nadine Sarwat in a recent research note.
At the same time, the nonalcoholic drinks sector is booming, with sales projected to reach $5 billion by 2028, according to alcohol data firm IWSR. More brands like AB InBev, Molson Coors and Heineken have entered the market.
Nonalcoholic beers photographed for Food in Washington, March 11, 2024.
Scott Suchman | The Washington Post | Getty Images
Thrive said its own data mirrors the national shift, too. Searches for nonalcoholic options on ThriveMarket.com have climbed steadily and accelerated over the last three months.
Thrive, a CNBC Disruptor 50 company in both 2024 and 2025, has more than 1.7 million paying members nationwide and brought in over $700 million in sales last year. As its average shopper loads up on 15 items per basket, the company is betting a growing share of those items will be alcohol-free.
“People aren’t shopping on Thrive Market the way they might shop on Amazon, where they order one thing and it ships separately,” said Green. “People are getting big boxes of stuff, they’re looking to us for their pantry staples similar to what businesses like Costco see.”
The company also cites logistics as motivation for the move. While alcohol can ship to only 39 states, most nonalcoholic beverages can ship across all of the U.S.
“People are basically trading to a healthier alternative,” said Green. “We can focus on being that place that they go for innovation.”
