Calling bottle shops to ask for whales

I think it's best that they come into your shop and ask (and purchase) than going elsewhere? I mean, if they are coming in and asking you, that's a positive and I wouldn't think a negative. Sales keeps the doors open!

 

I don't know why anyone woukd lie in these situations. I adobted a "no holding, first come first served" policy. Someone calls and asks for a beer I have I tell them I do, when they ask if I can hold it I apologize and tell them I can't. It's fair and I've never had any issues with my regulars.

 

I call the store that I buy Pliny from and ask if the have any. Both of the guys know me and know that I waste alot of money there so they are cool....

 

My mother buys a car once a year, sometimes less. From the same dealership, from the same salesman. Even they are shocked at the frequency at which she upgrades vehicles. They wouldn't hold a thing for her.

 

Lying is a good way to lose my business, assuming I find out that I was lied to.


I understand that getting a bunch of calls asking for certain beers can get somewhat tiresome, but it's their job to answer the phone and answer questions. It isn't difficult to tell the truth. If you don't like the people that keep you in business asking if you have a beer in stock, why are you working that job in the first place?

 

Are they not making money on my purchase? I'm getting that deep of a discount that I'm generating no revenue when I want to buy a whale? Shit, I didn't realize that bottle shop owners sold whales at cost to non-regulars. These guys must be really confused, what with the hiding products that should be for sale and then not making money when they DO finally sell them.

Selling beer must be harder than I thought.

 

Yeah, I'm of the opinion that it's pretty harmless to say "yes, we have that in stock" over the phone. You don't need to qualify it (i.e. "we've got 3 cases of coffee BCBS"), but what's the point of even answering the phone, if you're going to pick and choose when to tell the truth.

Honestly, I'm even fine with holding a couple of bottles of the rarer finds in the back, in case a "good buddy" or "good customer" comes in asking; just don't hold it all, and don't play games. It's understandable that you'd want to take care of your best customers, but you should at least give random customers a chance, I would say.

 

Exactly. Nothing wrong with holding a few for good customers or whoever. By not selling to random customers, how are you going to get more repeat customers? Maybe you tell a new guy that you have what he wants, and then he ends up becoming a regular at the store.

 

Sometimes I just get the uncontrollable urge to call up my favorite store and ask: Where all the white whalez at?

Get hung up on every time. Sheesh.

 

grow a beard. beards always get the beer hook ups.

 

gasp, what if the shops didn't even have a phone (or published #)?!

(I have never and will never call a bottle shop looking for limited releases. unless you are a new resident in a area of town, you should probably already know your local shops delivery schedule anyways)

 

We're talking about beer. Not cars, fuel, pants, food or whatever other examples people are throwing out there. They're all apples to oranges.

But if you want to mention cars, there are plenty of examples that go against your point. Sure, the local Toyota dealership doesn't care who buys the Corolla.

But how much luck do you think you would have had buying a Ferrari FXX when it was originally released, even if you could have afforded it? Those were only offered to pre-selected customers who clearly met the criteria of "regular" and were given the chance to be allowed to spend millions of $s on a car. There are plenty of other examples of very limited, high performance cars only being sold to hand-picked customers.

 

How would you know a delivery schedule unless they tell you when it is? Is asking "when do you get deliveries?" really better than asking "do you have any BCBS in stock?" Also, delivery schedules aren't set in stone...one store I shop at normally gets things in on Thursday, but not always. Sometimes they get two deliveries in a week. If it's something special (BCBS, at least the first Enjoy By delivery, etc.) it might get it's own special delivery. Sometimes a Thursday delivery won't be for sale until Saturday...

 

After reading this thread I've just decided I'm going to feel and look like an asshole no matter what I do.

 

<post which means I get the bottles, rationalizing why this method is best in the face of scarcity>

 

I asked you if you were the person buying the cars weekly what do you think the dealer should do, not what you thought he would do.

I don't see a problem with rewarding repeat customers, that's my whole point. In fact I think shop owners should legally run their shops the way they see fit. If I don't agree with it I don't spend my money there.

And I should have probably just not even responded about the car analogy, it just doesn't fit and is filled with so much hyperbole it's not worth it. Now we're talking about "bidding" for something and selling to whomever pays the higher price which typically doesn't happen in a bottle shop.

 

That is established by the manufacturer, not the dealership. That would be analagous to saying Russian River Brewery told beer shops they need to interview "regulars" before they sell them any beer. That is not the case. Russian River does not give a flying Fudge who buys their beer, as long as they are bought.

It is extremely rare (to the point that it would be an overall non factor) when the dealership (beer store equivalency) is the one who hand picks the customers (regulars).

I agree that beer and cars is apples and oranges, but it doesn't have to be. If a car dealership has a car, limited or not, they sell it to anyone. Same should go for a beer store and limited beer.

 

The dealer will sell it to who asks for it first.

11 years of car sales experience to back that up.

 

Not really throwing out any opinions, just a couple things I saw recently.

1. Went to a local grocery store on BF to get BCBS. Liquor manager said she had to go get it in back. In the 10 minutes I waited there were 16 intercom pages for "liquor line 1/2/3." I consider myself part of the debacle and honestly felt kind of bad not only for the manager but the customers there looking for other stuff. I actually helped an older lady pick out a bottle of Bourbon since the liquor manager was going crazy fielding BCBS call/requests.

2. Was talking a bottle shop manager last week and he said they are already getting 5-6 calls a day for Hopslam and said once mid January hits they expect 40+ daily. Why don't people just do a quick net search and get an idea of when its coming out?

 

It is a lose lose situation. A zero sum game.

I call ahead? I may get lied to, or piss off the person on the phone.

I ask in person at the store and they dont have it? I may piss off the sales person for being the "n'th person who has asked for that"

What are we supposed to do? Hope they put it out? Most places that got a recent whale didn't even put it out, it was by request only. Well, if you are going to make it request only, don't cop an attitude if I A) Get there too late or B) Get there too early.

Actual comments I got 2 weeks ago to A&B (albiet, from stores i do not frequent)

A) "Haha that was gone in like, 10 minutes" Told to me 20 minutes after they tweeted it was in.
B) "No, its not here yet, and no I dont know when it will. You will just need to get lucky I guess." I got it at the same shop 30 minutes later after I got lunch across the street and saw a distro truck pull up.