5 things: The rise of non-alcoholic beer

It just keeps growing: Sales of non-alcoholic beer are soaring in the U.S., due to a diverse array of offerings with improved quality and taste, as well as shifts in drinking culture. In the U.S., overall sales of beer, hard seltzer and alcoholic cider spiked during the first year of the pandemic but have largely stagnated since then. By contrast, U.S. sales of non-alcoholic beer were up 32% from a year earlier in the 52 weeks through Sept. 9, and averaged 31% growth over four years, according to data from NielsenIQ. Heineken 0.0 is now the top-selling non-alcoholic beer in the U.S. with around 20% market share. And young people like Gen Z make up the biggest group of consumers for the stuff. The decline in youth drinking is a long-term trend, writes the Wall Street Journal — one to be contended with, especially if it sticks as Gen Z ages. —Chloe Riley

Puck pranks: NHL players do more than just cross check and score goals. They’re also pretty good at winning faceoffs with customers. Toronto Maple Leafs players Auston Matthews and Mitchell Marner went face-to-face with Sobeys shoppers and pulled off some pranks that should have landed them in the penalty box. The two puck-handlers dressed up as Sobeys employees and messed with the grocery store crowd. Matthews had shoppers do some crazy things for free gift cards, like chug apple juice and do 10 pushups. Adding difficulty to the pushup challenge was the fact that the shopper was pregnant. Marner sampled purchased or soon-to-be purchased food items at the checkout line. Teammates Morgan Rielly and William Nylander also got in the act working mission control. The two spoke to Marner and Matthews through an earpiece and told them how to prank. Let’s hope the Maple Leafs’ season is not a joke. —Bill Wilson

Chick-fil-A copycat: Chick-fil-A nuggets are about as popular as it gets at the chicken chain. And recently, the famous bite-sized nuggets have been feeling the heat from an unexpected source: Costco. Last month, Costco introduced brand-new chicken nuggets under its Kirkland Signature house brand. One customer described the new Kirkland Signature Lightly Breaded Chicken Breast Chunks as “dupes” for Chick-fil-A’s famous nuggets. So do Costco’s live up to the hype? They’re close, but no cigar, reports an Eat This, Not That contributor. However, she writes, at $13.99 per 64-ounce bag, shoppers will definitely get more bang for their buck on the Costco nuggets. —CR 

But the sign says…: Canadian grocers are taking heat for just about anything they put on a sign these days. Recently shoppers came down on No Frills for a sign in the employee break room, which partly read: “Poverty is not a choice.” Many workers at No Frills earn minimum wage, which does not go very far in cities like Toronto. A photo of the sign made it on Reddit and readers were not happy about it. “No Frills says ‘Poverty is not a choice’ while paying minimum wage, found it a bit ironic,” one person posted. “If it was legal to pay you any less, we would,” said another post. Obviously the grocer was trying to get the word out on poverty in an effort to help workers, but perhaps they should try a little harder when it comes to sending the message that they are behind their employees. —BW

Who loves Costco? Well, plenty of people! But more specifically, according to recent articles: the Amish, and this couple who just wrote a book about the joys of Costco. According to the couple, David and Susan Schwartz, during a visit to Lancaster, Pennsylvania (the center of Amish country) while researching their book, the couple found that Amish people love Costco for two reasons: a shed in the retailer’s parking lot specifically designed for stowing horses and buggies, and (like many other non-Amish) the ability to buy in bulk. And the Schwartzes love Costco because of the way they treat their employees. “If the book doesn’t work out,” says David Schwartz, “we’re both going to get jobs at Costco.” —CR