Enjoy By at Costco

I don't shop at Costco because I have no need to buy in bulk. If the sold 50lbs sacks of grain then I'd buy a membership. I don't need to buy in bulk. And I'mnot going in to save 50cents on a bottle of beer.

I don't shop at Whole foods because their crap is over hyped organic hippy crap.

Most of the new breweries I support with passion don't bottle. The ones that do have a high turnover, not low and slow. I'd much prefer to buy from the brewery where I know 100% it was stored properly and is fresh and where my bucks support the brewery the most. I expect Ba's to be better advocates in helping our local breweries make more $ per oz so they can expend faster. Thus make more beer. Pretty simple concept. I just expect Ba's to be better consumers. We are such a small fraction of buyers that a store isn't going to hurt because we didn't buy there.

Unless you guys are buying it by the pallet...then I stand corrected.

 

Expand to what, hoping more people come into the tasting room? Or perhaps...a strong retail and distribution presence that allows them to scale the number of people who see their product far, far faster? I understand your point, but I'm honestly baffled why you're plugging your ears to any argument about the fact that buying from retail and buying direct both benefit breweries in different ways.

 

I'll ask you this question again, Drty, in a slightly different and more direct manner.

A few of our small local breweries do bottle, and I've not see their bottles within 10 miles of my home, save for the Whole Foods that is about a 1/2 mile away. Should I buy their bottles at Whole Foods, or should I let them sit in the fridge and only buy their beer the once every three months I am in the North County for a beer drinking run?

 

There's so much wrong with this post, but I'll just focus on one thing to avoid drawing this out too long. I would define being a better consumer to be a consumer that is smart--meaning one that understands how to gain the most for his or her money. Everyone has a limited budget for expenditures so in order to get the biggest bang for your dollar, one must know where to shop to get the best product for the lowest price. If I can get three bottles of Enjoy By at Costco for around the price of two bottles of Enjoy By at the brewery, guess what? I'm going to buy my bottles at Costco. You make this argument that it's our duty to support the breweries when our only duty as consumers is to make the most out of our limited budgets.

 

This thread would end very quickly if DtrBvrJuce simply admitted that he has a problem with retail (much less big box) stores, and that he is biased because of that. Bang - done! But, that would violate the old rule that admitting you are wrong on the Internet, even with an anonymous ID, is a cardinal sin.

 

Also, no one has compared anyone to ****** yet so we still have a ways to go.

 

It generally takes an Alpine rant to get that going.

 

@DrtyBvrJuce:

Let's take Stone for example...In your opinion, how close (driving time) does someone have to live to Stone's brewery in order for you to to consider them a "true BA" because they only purchase Stone beers at the brewery?

I live about 2 hours drive time with no traffic from Stone. Surely you don't expect me to drive to the brewery to buy bottles, do you? I'd be spending $15 in gas round trip, not to mention the cost of eating out on the trip. Then there is the $2 price increase per bottle of Enjoy By at the brewery over the Costco price. If I buy 5 bottles of Enjoy By at the Costco 2 blocks from where I work, my cost is roughly $28. If I were to buy 5 bottles of Enjoy By at the brewery, my cost would be roughly $60.

What about the people that live 30 minutes from a brewery? Should they be driving there to purchase bottles? 20 mins? 10 mins?

What is the cutoff time for you?


Your argument of buying from the brewery is only valid for those that probably live within a 5-10 minute drive radius. Not many people live within that kind of radius of any brewery in the first place.

In any case, if I lived 5 minutes from both Costco and Stone, I'd buy my Stone bottles every time at Costco. The invisible hand forces me so.

 

Not only that, if Stone sells out at Costco then Costco will buy more Stone next time and lead to more Stone being brewed. No matter how much beer individuals buy from their local brewery it will never match the amount that is sold to retailers. This is at least true for breweries that bottle.

If you are advocating only drinking local breweries that don't bottle then I guess there is nothing to discuss. I want to drink beers outside Orange County because they are better. If my local breweries want my support they should make better beer. Isn't advocating for better beer the point of BA?

 

Actually I covered the distance thing earlier. Doesn't really apply to you since you're not local. You may cease being butthurt.

 

Good job at not answering my question. I only post in this thread to kill some office time, not because i'm "butthurt." lol.

 

You still haven't answered my question on how much profit does Stone make selling pallets to Costco vs, selling an equivalent number of pallets their retail spot. After taking into account, rent, wages, time it takes to sell that many pallets, other overhead, etc? Not that I don't believe you but many other business make a lot more brought distribution and their own retail spots are more of showrooms and not moneymakers.

 

come on guys, you're trying to use logic here. That's your first mistake.

 

Only a Stone rep can answer that and I'm not sure they would since its industry info.

I do know local breweries are making 50%+ of their sales via their tasting rooms. When sold into distribution they make a fraction the profits as they do in house. This is the Production facility making money on volume vs brewpub model of sellj g only in house. The new market allows tasting rooms to sell a bulk of their product in house. Which allows them to start up with a smaller cellar (fermentation tanks) than if they had to sell 100% into distribution.

So yes Stone probably can and it doesn't hurt their bottom line as much. BUT many consumers have no idea about production capacity and should be encouraged to buy direct from the brewery when available. If you live in a craft beer less shithole, then you buy when and where you can. If you live in craft beer heaven then a good Ba will buy directly from the brewery to support them as much as possible.

 

Ok, and I agree when it comes to small brewers but earlier you were ripping BAs for buying stone at costco and saying they make more money if you buy from them directly.

Lets take their Pasadena store. A comparable place cost probably $10k per month to rent and another $15k + to staff it for 10 hours a day. How much beer do they sell out of the place, and how much net profit are they making (yes we dont know). Add in insurance and other overhead, etc. divided by the number of beers they sell out of hat store each month, their profit/bottle might be a lot less than sending that bottle to Costco. But as long as there is some profit the shop makes sense to get people to visit and be interested in the brand. So it's probably still profitable but not as big a $$ maker and sending the pallet to Costco and not having to unpack/display/market/sell a couple bottles at a time. So as BAs, should we support their advertising efforts, or something that puts more $$ into their accounts quicker?

Small breweries have to sell from their tasting rooms because eiher they dont want to grow, or they can't produce, nor sell that much beer if they wanted to. And if they could do both (and they wanted to just make $$), they'd turn into stone or green flash and flood bevmo, and eventually Costco. If your goal is to make as much profit as possible, getting your products into whole foods, bevmo, or Costco is a good thing.

 

As an ex-Californian who now lives in Colorado - where big box stores/supermarkets can't sell alcohol in more than one store in the entire state - this thread just makes me chuckle. The arguments posted here are the exact same arguments small liquor stores (and some famous Colorado breweries) use to prevent legislation from passing that would allow stores like Costco to sell beer in every store.

Next time you pick up an Enjoy By at Costco, say a little prayer. Be grateful. My jealousy runs deep.

 

This is fundamental wrong at every level.

This is the ignorance I'm trying to change.

 

Explain yourself

 

If it was fundamentally wrong at every level, Alchemist wouldn't have just ceased all sales from the brewery directly. You now have to buy Heady Topper through retail channels only because of their overhead costs of running a retail operation out of the brewery.

 

Uh...their problem was traffic and pissed off neighbors who were filing complaints. Their problem was they were too popular and their location was chosen poorly. Maybe they couldn't for see their future traffic problems but they became a vicitim of theirown success.

AAny brewery, regardless of size, realizes more profit when sold in house vs. Distribution.

Not all breweries want to go into massive debt off the bat to produce stone or green flash level of production. Even those 2 breweries didn't hit that scale over night.