Oppermanns vs. Tippins vs. Brass Mug

Other stores are butthurt that they didn't get an opportunity to purchase or sell is what I'm hearing.

 

yeah, just called and found out the same BS....im pissed. Glad i called before driving up there!

 

yeah, sucks

 

This is all just a ruse to keep us FIBs away right?

 

haha!

 

Are we sure that the 45 cases supposed to come today (not anymore) are Pt5 and not the 3 barrels of DCT Nolan mentioned last week? I'm confused.

 

positive...it was plead

 

Anyone know which stores?

 

Cool. When's the last someone called to ask?

 

i called around noon, said they dont know if they will be getting it... didnt go into much detail. didn't ask about dct tho.

 

I was in the store yesterday when he told me

 

when i called this morning, the guy told me the state (mich) stepped in regarding this...not really sure how. Supposedly other places were bitching because they didn't get any ba plead to sell to their customers.

 

If the state of MI stepped in that doesn't bode well. I'm sure Brass Mug will be pissed if they split it up too... maybe they'll give them 50-60% of the cases and spread the others out. Just speculating.

 

Typical ass hurt party stores bitching cause they did not get a chance to try and rip their customers off by selling it for $10....

 

Just stopped in to BM, they don't sound optimistic that it'll be distributed anywhere or at all. Maybe at the brewery?

 

Is beer distro a right in MI or is this a three tier distro issue?

 

3 tier

 

If the state got involved that means someone was probably selling illegally, ie. not going through the distributor which in turn will piss off a lot of people and get the state involved.

 

It sounds like Dark Horse was selling/delivering directly to these three retailers, essentially bypassing the distribution tier. Pretty sure that's illegal in Michigan, with I think some exceptions for small breweries/wineries to self-distribute, but Dark Horse is too large to qualify for that. If they did go through distributors (which it doesn't sound like they did), then they could also be in trouble for having a product only available to certain stores (and also being directed by Dark Horse which stores those are), which might be illegal but is at least questionable.

In my amateur legal opinion, it seems like the law makes no distinction between what happened here (a one-off beer done in collaboration with the involved stores) and the extreme situation, i.e. Dark Horse sells all their beers directly to whichever stores they decide, essentially self-distributing. The intent of the law was to prevent the latter and more extreme situation. But by the way it's written, I think it prevents just about any direct interaction between a larger brewery and a retailer, no matter how small or limited the interaction is.

I also wouldn't be surprised if it was the wholesalers/distributors who complained, or at least complained the loudest and most effectively. The distribution tier also has more lobbying influence in Lansing compared to the retail tier as a whole, and even more so compared to just the independent liquor/beer stores.

tl;dr Assuming the problem is that Dark Horse sold the beer directly to retail stores, bypassing the distribution tier. This is a slippery slope and I think the state decided not to allow a precedent to be set of larger breweries self-distributing under any circumstances, probably with a little nudging from the Michigan Beer & Wine Wholesalers Association.

 

Good break down, makes sense. Question now is, what happens to all that beer?