ROUTINE ACTIVITIES AND ALCOHOL-USE - CONSTRAINTS ON OUTLET UTILIZATION

Studies of consumers' use of alcohol beverage outlets have provided a basis for understanding drinking behaviors in different drinking envir onments. These studies have shown that drinking environments are relat ed to both demographic and drinking pattern measures. Absent from thes e studies has been a theoretical basis on which to make predictions re garding drinking patterns and choices of drinking environments under t he various social, economic, and environmental constraints typically c onfronting alcohol consumers. This study presents one such theoretical approach. The approach assumes that, in the context of individual pre ferences for alcohol, drinking choices are constrained by consumers' e conomic and time-energy budgets for consumption. All other things bein g equal, it is suggested that greater budgets for consumption will be related to greater alcohol use, quality of beverages purchased, amenit y values of purchase locations, or all three. Because on-premise drink ing entails greater economic costs, greater drinking levels will be re lated to lower utilization of on-premise establishments. The predictio ns of this approach were tested using data obtained from telephone sur veys of consumers conducted in 1990 and 1991. The results showed that controlling for income, variables related to greater time-energy budge ts for consumption (i.e., marital status and household composition) we re related to greater consumption levels and greater utilization of on -premise establishments. Controlling for demographic measures, greater income was related to greater utilization of restaurants and increase d beverage quality. Controlling for all other measures, frequencies of consumption were inversely related to consumption at on-premise estab lishments, reflecting the expected moderation in costs for heavier con sumers on a limited alcohol budget.