Welcome Founders to Australia

From my perspective, you have to sell out of beer at some point. Beer sitting on shelves does not pay the bills ( and there are a LOT of them!). Platinum are practicing a safe strategy but they sound very frustrated. To be honest, beer geeks are very hard to satisfy, especially the box tickers, basically one hit wonders. You have to manage stock like a tightrope!! Especially when pre-ordering you have to read the market, and it can backfire very quickly... We have seen it here in Perth already, ie Mount Lawley Liquorbarons selling beer at -$20 the purchase value of some beers.

Many times I have regretted purchases that I have made on an emotional level, cause I have to drink them when they get old.....

 

and in all this - one does have to bear in mind that Adam's blog-writing persona is an extension (multi-fold) of his personality.

I mean, who on earth would waste their time, reading crap about beer, written by people who couldn't string two words together in an entertaining way?

oh, hang on......

 

This is the same for both store-owners and consumers

Drinking now: My first Founders of this shipment: Dry-Hopped Pale Ale

It's actually tasty.

 

I get the point about needing to run a business. I also take the point that Sydney is a weird market. As for places like Plonk, that is an error in absolutely refusing to cut your losses. At some point, you take that stock, discount it to cost and push it until its gone. If you leave it on the top shelf without explaining WHY someone should buy it it will not sell.

I get the strategy that Adam is playing at. I probably wouldn't care either if he didn't take to his blog to insult his customers but he has. That annoys me no end.

I suppose the bottom line is that I think that stores are in the business of selling. Their staff should try selling the product and explaining the benefits of products. I know when I've done that in the past it has seen customers look at new products that they would never have picked up themselves, they just needed to be told about it and have it sold to them.

 

Spent 30 mins in at Platinum tonight having a chat with Adam and grabbing a 6 pack of Centennial & 4 pack of Double Trouble. Pretty busy in there and I was the only one in that time that bought any craft beer. So I see where he is coming from.

 

Its such an easy thing to do when you have a good rapport with customers - perhaps this is Platinums problem?!

 

Platinum is both a mainstream and a craft store and gets a lot of business from people who aren't interested in craft, so I definitely see where Adam is coming from. I too have been there for 30 mins plus and seen people buy their 6 packs of VB and throw their money at him, so I can understand why he would get aggravated. Compare that to specialty beer stores in other states and I suspect they have a much higher percentage of customers who are interested in craft.

 

Sounds like a combo of this and not having the right market. To be honest though, it doesn't have to be long term customers. A quick walk of the floor asking if anyone needs help is a simple way to engage people. More than 1 in 10 will want help and it is too easy to get them interested in something they didn't know about (and their purchase normally increases by a fair bit to boot).

 

To be fair, doesn't Plonk have Cantillon and shit on the shelf?

 

Yeah. Plonk isn't perfect in this regard. For instance, they really need to discount their old Mikkeller stock to get rid of it. There isn't a lot of Cantillon. Surprising number of sour beer lovers going through there and any interesting Cantillon doesn't last long. Same for most of the other genuine lambics.

 

It's all the US phags wiping us out. That's why we need to emulate US gun policy. To protect our Cantillon.

 

Preaching to the converted on this one - we started as a 'mainstream' store and still have a % of it as such. Its amazing how easy it can be to convert mainstream into craft consumers if you just pay attention to them, and a little bit of extra effort...

 

Anyone know when the next shipment is coming and what it will contain?

 

http://platinumliquor.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/food-for-thought-trying-to-be-grown-up.html?m=1

Might be good to read this one too

 

I repeat my previous comments. Try selling them to your customers. Sure, you aren't going to move from 25% craft to 95% craft overnight but if you actively discourage people from trying new things (and forcing people to buy multi-packs to get a reasonable price is exactly that), you will not convert anyone.

Further, no one will ever discover something new and great. I simply will not buy a 4 or 6 pack of something I've never tried unless I know from a number of reliable sources that it is great. I'll risk $5 on a potentially interesting bottle but not $25 on a six pack of potentially interesting beer.

All I can say is thank goodness the shops I deal with in Canberra, Melbourne and Perth have all figured out that you can make money without being vitriolic towards your customers.

 

Wow. Maybe a career change may help?

 

I've never claimed Plonk is perfect. I happen to think they have a better model for customers than Platinum but that is all. The fact that the Viktoria is still still there plays testament to that. In any case, Plonk has a bigger and broader range of craft beer than Platinum so my support is justified.

 

Aluminium Liquors clearly has the best model for customers charging $10 a single? Plonk's hours aren't an issue given that most 9-5 workers (viz Canberra) shop on the weekend anyway.

I'll say it again, I would prefer to shop at a store that take my custom (whatever that may be) seriously rather than a shop that wants me to conform to their idiosyncratic view of the model customer. Stores are there to serve me not the other way around.