Enjoy By at Costco

I don't know one person who's trying to argue against the idea that a brewery makes more sold in house versus distribution..

 

Let's look at the $6/22oz bottle.

Say it cost the brewery 75 cents to make the beer and 25 cents for packaging. Thus cost $1.

Sold in house they make $5/bottle profit.

Sold into 3 tier distribution they sell to the distributor at $2.50. Making $1.50/bottle.
Distributor takes their cut for shipping/handlings/sales and sells to retail for $4.
Retail sells for $6. Brewery already made their cut at the first sale. $5>$1.50.
Wholesale (Costco) sells for $5.25. Supermarkets are the same, they demand high volume at rock bottom pricesso they can out it on sale, so the brewery signing a contract with cCostco/Safeway may have to sell at $2/bottle.
If the law allows self distribution the brewery might be able to sell for $4/bottle.

Regardless of size of the brewery they will always make more selling in house.

 

You sound like a broken record..

 

Yeah, so support your local brewery by buying directly from them.

 

I give up. Whatever.

 

Every level? Many, many businesses will disagree. I don't have an MBA, but obviously neither do you. Just curious what retail/wholesale experience do you have? In your very example a brewery doesn't make close to $5 a bottle after all their expenses. You do know the difference between gross and net profits, right?

You are the one showing true ignorance and even worse, a lack of willing to learn. I first posted wanting to learn more about your opinion and thought it might have some weight, but you have shown zero credibility or knowledge.

 

i only have myself to blame for reading this thread

 

Which breweries? I dont work for one so I can't use hard numbers and neither can you. Any brewery will make more by selling their product in house vs distribution on a per unit basis. If you want to support your local brewery more, buy direct. A brewery making profit by sell I g only into distribution has to make a lot more and sell a lot more since the return is much much lower. To expand rapidly in brewhouse terms means a lot of debt, which not everyone is willing to take on.

My point still stands.

 

WTF? Sorry, but that is complete horsehit. Completely disregarding that what you said is scientifically BS, anecdotally (from myself and others) Enjoy By kept even at fridge temps doesn't taste the same after 30 days.
To veteran BAs with discerning Hop Sensors, clean, hoppy, west coast IPAs have a known decrease in stability after a month.

 

Nobody's arguing against your point. I thought you were done?

 

lol.

 

I tried.

 

I can't tell if you're just obstinate and single-minded, or an excellent troll. If the latter, well good work.

Someday I'd be curious to hear why you equate being a beer advocate with being a brewery advocate. I mean, I'd understand if you lived in a beer wasteland, and wanted to show support to any new brewery in the hopes that a few of them ended up awesome. But if you're in San Diego right now, I think you're kinda hoping that some of the shittier breweries just die out and let the better ones thrive, no?

Plus, you're completely ignoring the human element here, which is crazy. My whole life doesn't revolve around beer (though my girlfriend probably wouldn't agree with that statement). If I buy a beer from Costco, the choice isn't between me buying the beer from Costco or from the brewery, it's me buying the beer or not getting it at all. So encouraging people to not buy the beer at the retail outlet is just going to result in fewer overall sales. That's definitely not going to help your buddies at Rip Current, or any of the small breweries out there succeed.

 

Except you're missing g the bigger picture. 1 you're not.local to stone so I'm not saying someone shouldn't buy the beer if the brewery is too far away. 2. On Ba we are the educated bunch so we should support our breweries as much as possible. If we live the beer we should do everything g we can to put cash into the brewers pocket.

Shitty breweries will fail, that's how the market works.

 

Here's the odd thing, DttyBvr. Here are the breweries I've seen products from at Costco:

1. Stone
2. Ballast Point
3. Alesmith (only this summer, only Speedway)
4. Mission (those 32 oz cans of their Shipwrecked DIPA)

I've never, ever, seen you being a big fan boy of any of these breweries. I think even you would argue that none of them are hurting for business. I've talked to people from all four of them, in two cases the people that are at the top of the organization, and they all seemed proud to be in Costco. It is publicity, reaching out to a larger market.

I'm trying to figure out why Costco has anything to do with your "support your brewery" point. I don't think it does. I think you went off on a tangent, and it has little to do with the original thread topic.

If your point is that Enjoy By isn't as good once it is stored at room temperature for extended amounts of time, I think there is actually space for an interesting discussion there. This support your local brewer thing, though, has nothing to do with Costco. Or anything, really. This is all just one big convulsion because people can't admit they were wrong on the Internet - even when anonymous.

 

Especially when other places like Trader Joe's and some Bevmo's... shit, I even saw Beverly Hills Vendome store Enjoy By just on the shelf.

Costco is a fucking cold place, man. Unless the bearded one himself demanded that it was stored cold, places are going to do what they please in storing this sucker.

 

Ok...I am not afraid to admit being wrong. I sent an email to Mitch Steele, and I asked him the following...

This was his reply...

 

I get Enjoy Kirkland at Costco but that's about it.

 

This is such Beer Basics 101 I didn't think it even needed responding to. Professor Krispy was right.

For anyone else unaware you shouldn't be 'cellaring' beer in a closet. Even at cold temps beer is slowly degrading. Some beers withstand this better than others (high abv stouts/porters/malty beers) but all beer is slowly degrading. In some cases its desirable, others its not.

 

Likewise shipping light body beers or hoppy beers during high heat months (also think where the beer will be traveling through) will completely impact the flavor of the beer by the time it hits its destination. It may be cool on the coasts but if sitting in a 120F warehouse in buttfuck nowhere USA will damage the beer. Seems counter intuitive to want hoppy beers during the coldest periods of the winter, but they'll survive the journey better.