Heady Topper in Santee CA

Freddy only store that carry "Madern Times". Why you all be so jealous.

 

I don't actually have a problem with buying out of distribution beer, not entirely sure why I should? I'm not going to buy from Freddy though, because he seems to run a generally shady business.

Your main concerns with reselling seem to be that it deprives locals, drives up the price and goes against the wishes of the brewers. I don't really care about the wishes of brewers, so maybe that's where we don't see eye-to-eye, but I think that trading drives up prices and deprives locals as much, if not more, of the beer than reselling. Is trading OK because you partake? I just don't get the blind hate for reselling, care to expound?

 

If Freddy's mark up was comparable to his mark up on regularly priced beers I don't think people would have nearly as big of a problem with it. It just makes him come off as a thief. I also think if he waited a significant amount of time before putting these rare beers out (with the exception of the stuff that can't age) people would dislike it a whole lot more. It comes off as more of a service to the customer if they can walk into a store and buy a properly stored 2009 Black Tuesday for $$$ instead of buying it off of someone that could have potentially not given a fuck about storage conditions (not that Freddy cares about how beers are stored).

 

This conversation has been had...and had...and had, but I'll sum it up quickly.

1) As a consumer, I'm generally happy for the opportunity to buy something locally that isn't distributed here. If the seller is asking more than I'm willing to pay for whatever that something is, I don't have to buy it. No skin off my ass.

2) If I were a store owner/manager playing by the rules, I would hate that other stores put me in a situation where I either had to do something illegal to compete or, alternatively, risk losing some portion of my business.

 

Are you sure that is true?

 

Maybe Freddy moved to Alpine to get on his good side?

 

^^^^ THIS.

I feel like I'm the poster child for this. Years ago when I was new and naive to the craft beer scene, I'd heard all about many great beers from all over the country that I could not obtain. Trading seemed like such a foreign concept to me at that time, so I thought I'd never get to try many out-of-state "wants". When I found myself in Santee for work, I went to Freddy's place because I'd heard a lot about it. I was immediately struck that he carried Southern Tier! It may seem funny now, but in 2008 Pumking, Choklat and Creme Brulee were pretty incredible finds. I asked Freddy why he was the only store who could get these and he cryptically said "connections". Then he proceeded to boast that he always got hooked up because of his passion for beer... yada, yada, yada. I happily bought two bottles of each... at $17.99 or $18.99 a bottle. Shortly thereafter I found out that retail price at that time was around $7.99. I was conflicted. I got what I wanted, but felt really gouged and taken advantage of. The weird thing is that if I had traded for those beers, it probably would have cost about the same due to shipping, extras, shipping supplies, etc. I think if you're going in there and you aren't naive like I was, you may be perfectly fine paying a premium for non-distributed beers. My overall impression was that he was a little dishonest, shady, and disingenuous on his "passion" for beer. I wouldn't buy from him again.

 

Well said. I imagine there are a lot of other people with a similar story.

 

The blind hate?

I gave you a reason.

You don't think reselling beers at 2x the normal price isn't driving up the price and doesn't deprive locals. I do. Obviously we disagree. But hey I'll trade $4$ and you'll pay more. I'm cool with that.

 

Go read the links in my post. I put them there on purpose .

 

Sorry, but even as a consumer I think he'd be a fool to only put a regular mark-up on these. Especially if he's going to the trouble of employing mules, or having beer shipped across the country to him, or paying his "connections" to get these beers.


heatwaves had a good point about taking advantage of naive customers who don't realize just HOW MUCH MORE they are paying, but I don't fall into that category and I'd be more than happy to spend 2x the regular price for for something I couldn't normally get, maybe even 3x for a can of Heady or a Jai Alai or something else off my top 10 want list.

ISO: Someone nearby to take too much of my $ for Heady, Jai Alai, Wet, or Furious.

 

Beer idiots keep Freddy in business.

 

You've been one of the Freddy protagonists, so I am going to ask this once again, as nicely as I can:

Have you shopped there for beer. Simple question, so answer it.

 

Not this one...never been there and not planning on changing that.

 

there's always "best damn beer shop" that charges 50$ for bottleworks xii

 

Isn't the grey market wine busts related more to counterfeit wine as opposed to dancing around the legal system in place? For me, I am not concerned with all the idiosyncrasies of legality drawn up on outdated laws (growler, three tier, etc). I am concerned that if I bought a bottle for X amount assuming it was Y product and it turned out to be a fake. As far as I know, this doesnt happen in the beer industry, but I fear that this could be a problem in the future.

 

Freddy would have no problem selling bootleg beer. I guarantee it.

 

The way he spells beers make them sound bootleg enough.

 

Simple answer is no, I've not. Never been to the store, never even been to the website.

And I haven't been a protagonist for him, I think that in general it sounds like he runs a pretty shady business, which I have no interest in supporting.

I am a protagonist for places bootlegging beer from out of state for me in general though. And I don't really mind places marking beer way up from special releases. I'm of the general opinion that special releases are severely underpriced, by and large, which is why that happens.

 

Ok, let me try again. I agree that reselling drives the price up and diminishes supply for locals. But trading does the same thing. And way more people trade than resell beer. So why are you ok with trading but not with reselling? Because you're a trader?