VIP membership & other deplorable practices...

The individuals that show up and want to pay for it. Why would stuck-at-work club members "deserve" beer? Because they're presumably geekier about it?

I don't feel entitled to every beer. I feel that I should be able to purchase anything in a store that's for sale, which, as I stated before, is hardly indicative of some ridiculous inflated sense of entitlement.

If it's something that the store only has a case or whatever of, I'll gladly go along with a one or two bottle limit so that other people are able to buy some. Being told that I can't buy any at all because I'm not in some club would be bullshit.

 

Amen!!!!!!
For the love of God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

So if you are not a member do you call up AAA when you breakdown and ask them for help?

 

a lot of medical mary jane shops have vip and non vip pricing. if I were using that bottle shop all the time I would pay.

 

I'm pretty new to this whole scene, but it seems to me that a $35 VIP membership fee is a common sense way to standardize who gets first crack at limited releases. I'd rather pay a stated, reasonable fee than 'hope' that I was spending enough (i.e. arbitrarily subjective) amount of money to put me on the proprietor's 'Good' list. Plus, no one is being held hostage here or being asked to surrender their first-born. Is this a perfect system? Probably not. But, I've read enough on these boards to realize that there is no perfect system...

 

A club you have to pay to get into evens the field for those of us who work 9-5 and can't be there when the truck shows up. I can't take time off from work easily, I can't chase trucks (it does happen in CA too) and I really don't want to. Thus, I'm willing to pay the fee to have my RS membership and be able to buy beers that others can't on my own time.

 

As a matter of personal dignity, I wouldnt give that guy a dime. I also dont wait in line or camp out overnight for beers either. But, I also am lucky enough to live in Portland where there are 20 bottle shops, infinite breweries, and enough options that this type of thing would never fly.

 

I wasn't clear enough in my initial response. I am not saying that there aren't plenty of affordable quality craft beers out there. There are. Nevertheless, my concern with the VIP stuff is that it won't stop with the $20 rare bomber. What happens when you need a VIP pass to not only buy the $20 bomber, but to even enter the store? That is my concern with this, as I say, "sign of the times."

 

my bottle shop does something similar. $20 a year. This gets you 10% off all beer purchases, a weekly e-mail with new releases, the ability to put your name in a raffle for small allotment beer (Cantillon, cellared beer, etc), first dibs on new releases, able to hold shelf beers that might sell out quickly (ex: PtE, Blind Pig), plus there are usually a few member only tastings a year. I love it. It is a great way to make sure I can get a bottle of most of the stuff I am interested in without having to drive around town.

 

That's sensationalism. No shop is going to make you be a VIP member to grab a sixer of SNPA.

 

I'd def pay 35 $ a year if it gauranteed that you would get the opportunity to purchase some of the rarer release's.

 

And gas stations will never make you pay to put air in your tires.

 

Let me get this straight. There's a mediocre brewery in California making profoundly subpar beer at a high price solely in the most inefficient and expensive bottle format available (single 750ml bottles, which is only acceptable in corked form for highly carbonated beers) who charge outrageous $100+ yearly fees purely for the chance to try their only decent beers for a measly $5 off only if you drive or fly to California to pick them up, and you're wining about a nearby store charging $35 a year to guarantee you access to all the limited beers from every brewery? When I lived in Illinois I would have leaped at the opportunity to try not only limited/off the shelf Founders beer but also limited/off the shelf Goose Island, Dark Horse, Pipeworks, Three Floyds...35 is nothing. More stores should do this.

 

The ones around me dont. They charge if you didn't get gas, but if you paid for a fill they give you tokens for the air.

 

Sure, that's a possibility. Hell I was pissed when Green Flash went from 6 pks. to 4 pks; then more did so. But there are still plenty of beer in 6 packs and as long as there are enough stores that will not require a VIP pass just to get in, the ones that do so will hopefully suffer. I sure can't see a supermarket charging to walk down a beer aisle. I sure can't see a large store charging to enter the store either. I'm cynical as well but I do draw the line somewhere.

 

Well some are still free, but besides that compressors cost money to buy/repair/replace so I don't see how that applies.

Anywho...there is a problem, you get a case of a beer in that hundreds of people want. There are only a few ways to handle it and all the ways end up with at least some people butt hurt, so why not do it a way that allows for some organization and puts a little cash on the shops P&L sheet?

 

Totally different concept as being a VIP(caregiver) at a medical shop means that shop can produce plants in your name. You can't be VIP elsewhere, very illlegal.

 

Hope that was sarcasm....

 

I don't know why people argue about this.There is no perfect way to handle limited releases. As long as they aren't gouging, there isn't really anything to get mad about.

 

It wasn't.