Business
Online grocer Thrive Market bails on booze, bets big on alcohol-free boom
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 more than 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,” Green said. “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 past 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,” Green said. “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,” Green said. “We can focus on being that place that they go for innovation.”
India’s budget focuses on infrastructure and defence spending and tax breaks for data-centre investments.
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Business
New Income Tax Act 2025 to come into effect from April 1, key reliefs announced in Budget 2026
New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said that the Income Tax Act 2025 will come into effect from April 1, 2026, and the I-T forms have been redesigned such that ordinary citizens can comply without difficulty for ease of living.
The new measures include exemption on insurance interest awards, nil deduction certificates for small taxpayers, and extension of the ITR filing deadline for non-audit cases to August 31.
Individuals with ITR 1 and ITR 2 will continue to file I-T returns till July 31.
“In July 2024, I announced a comprehensive review of the Income Tax Act 1961. This was completed in record time, and the Income Tax Act 2025 will come into effect from April 1, 2026. The forms have been redesigned such that ordinary citizens can comply without difficulty, for) ease of living,” she said while presenting the Budget 2026-27
In a move that directly eases cash-flow pressure on individuals making overseas payments, the Union Budget announced lower tax collection at source across key categories.
“I propose to reduce the TCS rate on the sale of overseas tour programme packages from the current 5 per cent and 20 per cent to 2 per cent without any stipulation of amount. I propose to reduce the TCS rate for pursuing education and for medical purposes from 5 per cent to 2 per cent,” said Sitharaman.
She clarified withholding on services, adding that “supply of manpower services is proposed to be specifically brought within the ambit of payment contractors for the purpose of TDS to avoid ambiguity”.
“Thus, TDS on these services will be at the rate of either 1 per cent or 2 per cent only,” she mentioned during her Budget speech.
The Budget also proposes a tax holiday for foreign cloud companies using data centres in India till 2047.
Business
Budget 2026 Live Updates: TCS On Overseas Tour Packages Slashed To 2%; TDS On Education LRS Eased
Union Budget 2026 Live Updates: Union Budget 2026 Live Updates: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is presenting the Union Budget 2026-27 in Parliament, her record ninth budget speech. During her Budget Speech, the FM will detail budgetary allocations and revenue projections for the upcoming financial year 2026-27. Sitharaman is notably dressed in a Kanjeevaram Silk saree, a nod to the traditional weaving sector in poll-bound Tamil Nadu.
The budget comes at a time when there is geopolitical turmoil, economic volatility and trade war. Different sectors are looking to get some support with new measures and relaxations ahead of the budget, especially export-oriented industries, which have borne the brunt of the higher US tariffs being imposed last year by the Trump administration.
On January 29, 2026, Sitharaman tabled the Economic Survey 2025-26, a comprehensive snapshot of the country’s macro-economic situation, in Parliament, setting the stage for the budget and showing the government’s roadmap. The survey projected that India’s economy is expected to grow 6.8%-7.2% in FY27, underscoring resilience even as global economic uncertainty persists.
Budget 2026 Expectations
Expectations across key sectors are taking shape as stakeholders look to the Budget for support that sustains growth, strengthens jobs and eases financial pressures:
Taxpayers & Households: Many taxpayers want practical improvements to the income tax structure that preserve simplicity while supporting long-term financial planning — including broader deductions for home loan interest and diversified retirement savings options.
New Tax Regime vs Old Tax Regime | New Income Tax Rules | Income Tax 2026
Businesses & Industry: With industrial output and investment showing resilience, firms are looking for policies that bolster capital formation, ease compliance, and expand infrastructure spending — especially in manufacturing and technology-driven sectors that promise jobs and exports.
Startups & Innovation: The startup ecosystem expects incentives around employee stock options and capital access, along with regulatory tweaks that encourage risk capital and talent retention without increasing compliance burdens.
Also See: Stock Market Updates Today
The Budget speech will be broadcast live here and on all other news channels. You can also catch all the updates about Budget 2026 on News18.com. News18 will provide detailed live blog updates on the Budget speech, and political, industry, and market reactions.
We are providing a full, detailed coverage of the union budget 2026 here, with a lot of insights, experts’ views and analyses. Stay tuned with us to get latest updates.
Also Read: Budget 2026 Live Streaming
Here are the Live Updates of Union Budget 2026:
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