New Year's Eve Bar Business

New Year’s Eve is one of the few occasions when even teetotalers might go visit a local watering hole.

So, how did this year go for bar owners?

If Flanigans Bar in Marquette is any indication, New Year’s Eve was a bit less festive this year than usual.

Flanigans owner Don Marple says the bar’s receipts were about a thousand dollars lower this year than the year before.

But he says it still could have been worse — the band that played Saturday night brought in quite a bit of business and many longtime customers stopped by to party as well.

He says although the take for the night was a decline, it wasn’t down by a lot.

TheDailyMeal.com is a food and beverage website.

It claims New Year’s Eve is the second-busiest bar night of the year in the U.S. — only the night before Thanksgiving is more hectic.

Marple says New Year’s Eve gave the bar’s bottom line a much-needed boost; revenue has fallen significantly in the last year or so.

The Michigan Liquor Control Commission claims that on–premises alcohol sales from last April were down more than 20% from what they had been a year earlier.