Alcohol Consumption at Home: Very Cheap, Increasingly Common, Harmful – Case Study from Australia

The pandemic was (and is) a challenging time for most people. The anxiety of contracting the coronavirus and its variants was compounded by other stressors including changes in workplaces, pay cuts, job insecurity or even unemployment, and added childcare, and/or eldercare responsibilities.
In Australia, Big Alcohol exploited people’s vulnerabilities during the public health crisis ruthlessly with a barrage of pandemic-centric marketing, including promoting alcohol as a coping mechanism. Meanwhile, on-demand alcohol delivery services expanded rapidly across the country. The increasing availability of cheap alcohol led increasing alcohol consumption and a growing number of people who use alcohol as a coping tool.
These developments have brought at home alcohol use in the focus of community concern.