Why are most craft brew prices set in stone?

Not sure what your state laws are, but in TN we have to set a price for the year and are not allowed to do any promotional pricing. I work for a distributor is how I know this. Whether you are a Wal Mart buying 1,500 cases, or an independent restaurant buying 15, your beer is always the same price by law. Even if I go to the warehouse, I pay the same price even though I'm an employee. Therefore it would be up to a store to lower that price and there really isn't that much room to budge because the margins aren't very high for beer.

 

Motoguitard nailed it. There is almost no margin with which to play around with the pricing, retail-side.
This is part of the reason that carrying craft beers is, at least partially, a labor of love. In Texas we are not locked into the pricing by law, but retailers have to contend with the craft consumer that only buys what he can afford. Even if increasing the price would allow us to discount occasionally, it isn't honest to go up most of the year just so you can go down once in a while (which is why we don't do this).
By all means, buy when you can catch stuff on sale, but be very cautious the rest of the year of that retailer.

 

Its probably not the brewery giving you a sale price in Ohio. Remember that the brewery sold the beer to a distributor who then sold it to the retailer where you buy it. So price along the way is set by brewery to distributor, by distributor to retailer, by retailer to you. All things considered its much more likely that its your retailer putting the beer on sale.

 

Actually, in Ohio at least, retailers have zero control over the price of beer, assuming they price at the state minimum markup (most grocery stores do this). Sales come down from the brewery, and are passed as is from them, to distributor, to retailer. If a retailer does not stick to state minimum(like many liquor stores and specialty shops do), they can play with pricing all the way down to the state minimum, but no further unless a sale comes down from the brewery.

Souce: Work in beer at a grocery store

 

Thanks for the new information about Ohio. Did not know that. Glad I don't work for a brewery and have to keep up with the difference in laws from state to state. :-)

 

As other posters mentioned, it varies depending on state laws. Here in NH there is no minimum margin and beer can be discounted by wholesalers (though they must post the discount with the state liquor commission). So you will frequently see $8.99 12-packs of out of season seasonals at certain accounts. Some places, like Walmart and Market Basket also sell below cost.

 

In GA, the distributors have a lot of play in price points. Some offer 'case deals', where they give a deeper discount the more you buy. This is true for several of them, so you're buying it for less, giving you a better margin. Others just offer a blanket deal, buy X amount of whatever beers and get the best price. Grocery stores and liquor stores mark up the beer less since they have better margins on other products, whereas craft only stores must charge a little more to make a profit. I hear this a lot, people saying Publix or Kroger has X Sweetwater beer for cheaper, they're also buying 100 cases a week while the craft store is buying 10, and they're making 30-50% on other products whereas the craft store only makes a profit on beer because that's all they sell. Also in GA, it's technically illegal to discount any alcoholic product, so beer on sale isn't really a sale price, it's just priced at a lower margin to move it faster. It's a gray area for sure but the DOR doesn't keep tabs on it much so retailers can do it once in a while to get older product moving. You can also shop around in the Atlanta market and see wildly different prices across craft only stores themselves, as some mark up the higher demand beers more while leaving lesser known stuff sit at a lower margin.

 

In PA, one of the strictest states for booze, we see the same as RDMII mentions in GA. Depending on where you go, prices could vary wildly. Bottle shops and distributors have very little wiggle room for margin, so the prices pretty much are what they are. There are some places that are trying to make 100% on craft beers, and others happy to make 30%, and one or two making about 15%. Because beer cannot be sold in a grocery store in PA unless they have a sit down restaurant, we don't have many options for cheap beer and quick finds. However, the one grocery store that does sell beer(Wegmans) does occasionally have beers on sale.

 

It's crazy that one state away and our laws couldn't be more different.