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TORONTO — Canadians still like to drink, but it seems the days of whiling away free time Cheers-style at a neighbourhood pub are long gone.

Sales at bars fell 13.1 per cent between 2010 and 2015, while overall foodservice sales grew 24.8 per cent over the same period, according to data from restaurant industry association Restaurants Canada. For the year ending August 2015, sales at drinking establishments were down 6.6 per cent from the year ago period, to $2.2 billion; overall industry sales grew 4.3 per cent to $59.2 billion.

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“People don’t sit around in bars the way they used to,” said Jamie Rilett, vice-president of Ontario Operations at Restaurants Canada. “It’s not the big meeting place it used to be.”

Not only are bar sales down overall, the industry itself is shrinking: the number of drinking establishments across the country fell to 5,377 in the second quarter of this year from 5,973 in the same period of 2010, Restaurants Canada said, citing Statistics Canada data. (In 2000, there were 9,259 establishments classified as bars in Canada). Same-store sales, which strips out the effects of sales lost when restaurants close down, fell four per cent in the five-year period.