Shape of things to come?

No. The selection keeps getting bigger and better at the stores I go to. I was thoroughly impressed with the beers available at Whole Foods in University Heights, Ohio (Cleveland) last week. There were a bunch of breweries, even some localish ones, that I had never heard of, which is no small feat considering how much time I spend browsing this site and reading/talking about beer.
I think it I simply depends on a particular store's beer buyer.

 

I concur about the buyer and it seems like the selection is getting better not worse. The whole foods by my house had a great selection with special releases all the time. When that particular buyer left it's gone down hill. I actually started shopping at a WF that is farther away because the buyer there always gets good stuff and always takes the time to chat and tell me what is coming and when.

 

I'll admit I don't know much about PA and their distrobution. With that said, I would guess they lost their beer buyer who knew what to look for and bring in. They probably had someone who was a beer geek who moved on and replaced them with someone who only knows the bigger brands.

 

If the small breweries' beers sold well, the store would probably still be carrying them - an outfit like Whole Foods would have computerized sales records from UPC scanned purchases that the new "non-geek" buyer would review and/or the local distributors of those beers would "remind" them of their success with certain local brands.

Anyone who has been buying beer during the last decade or so of this "craft beer boom" has seen numerous stores' inventory explode with new craft beer choices, new brands hitting the shelves weekly, etc. And they have also seen many of those same stores "fizzle out" - transform from a "98 - World Class" establishments to "Beer Museums" * - shelves now half-stocked with dusty bottles of "non-whales", the non-popular beers from "hot" breweries sitting past their Best By dates, etc. (You can actually trace the evolution of such stores here on BA in the "Places" section - going from 2.5 reviews to 5's and slowly back to under 3).

The "tickers" and "beer geekster" segments of the craft beer market are hard ones to please, the people who only buy singles, who brag about never buying the same beer twice, etc. If a store's initial success as a craft beer oasis is based on a large percentage of that sort of customer, then last month's hot beers pile up unsold, distributors become reluctant to sell that retailer every new beer that comes out since it could mean they'll want it returned in six months, etc.

The demand by the geeksters to sell singles means a retailer needs at least 24 such customers to sell one case of beer. And should they re-order that beer (often in greater quantities than one case because that first one sold out quickly), they find it now undesired. The problem compounded by the geeks who request the same beer at numerous retailers in the same area, but when every store buys a case (because "...everyone's been asking for it...") but only buy one bottle or, at best, one sixpack at only one of those retailers.

* For some examples of such retailers, read the recent reviews of "World Class" retailers like Oak Tree or Cranbury BuyRite here in NJ.

 

You are right that they can probably look at past records and figure out what sold well or not. I sold beer/wine for Trader Joe's for 2 years and from what I've heard from Whole Foods employees it's pretty similar. Yes they can order a lot more and have more freedom, but the point is they are similar set ups for "health" grocery stores.

For all we know they are having a manager fill in with the beer ordering while they look to hire someone else. Besides that, there are many other variables or reasons for someone with lack of experience/education to take over a section at a national chain grocery store.

 

Your problem has to do with avaliabilty and ability to keep those desired beers on the shelf more than it does Whole Foods only stocking big craft brewery options.

RR, Alpine, Kern River, and Cantillon were on shelfs all the time with no limits 5 years ago. I havent seen a bottle from any of them on the shelf in the last two years, but i know it has nothing to do with my stores not ordering or trying to get them in.

 

The shape of things to come; the stately dodecahedron, buddy. ​

 

I would disagree with the statement that PA is a beer wasteland. We have a ton of well respected, sought after breweries. Our distributors in any mid size town have a great variety, albeit in case and keg format. To solve the problem of buying a variety of beers in smaller quantities without getting ripped of I often split cases with friends. For example I split a case of Duvel with a buddy. It cost us each about 45 bucks. That saved us about 20 bucks each compared to buying four packs at wegmans. Split with a few friends after Internet searching inventory at a few distro's. PA has a great set up compared to a lot of states. Competition between distro's for variety is working in our favor.

 

Agree with most all you say here.

BTW, One way to save yourself some searching/driving around is to find yourself a retail distributor who will order that case for you. The guy who runs the place where I get most of my cases prides himself on being able to get anything that comes into PA in bottles and I know of at least two other places (a bit further away from me in driving time) that publicize online they can/will do that.

 

Not sure if it makes a difference in how that all would work out, but one big difference (from a legal perspective) is that in PA the beer sales can only take place in a "separate" facility that serves both food and beer for on-site consumption. This operation is distinct from the Grocery section in that there is a different register and beer must be purchased at that register only and many grocery items can not be purchased there.

So in effect the person doing the beer management is working for a "different" business operation. Not sure, however, if that prevents regular store employees from stepping in to fill a gap. But would not be surprised to find that the beer manager has to be someone employed only at managing the beer for the "eatery." (I do know that the clerk running the beer register is legally required to be 21 or over to handle beer sales so....)

 

Then I'd say you are definetly observing the effects of the former manager moving on. Which I'm personally sorry to hear because while not often in that neighborhood I enjoyed being able to stop at Plymouth Meeting and pick up a few of the things that hard to find anywhere else.

 

Whole Foods isn't representative, at least not here, because along with their food they have a big "support local" philosophy that they transfer into the beer section, whether the beers are worthy of shelf space or not. Our WF have bars in them with about 30-35 taps, growlers to go, etc. so sometimes you can get some of the employees' honest opinions about the local offerings vs. the best of what is available in the market on the whole.

@jesskidden and @drtth made a lot of good points above that I won't necessarily repeat, but I would add that I think the ticking is far more common that many of us realize, so long as ticking is understood across the spectrum of ticking behaviors. The hardcore ticker with thousands of ticks might be a minority, but I think there's a substantial majority of craft beer consumers who make a conscious effort to try many new beers in their market. So, I think there's quite a lot of first time "buy to try" behavior going on, whether it deserves the label of "ticking" or not. Accordingly, I think the problems with new beers taking shelf space, only selling well at first, then going stale won't go away soon.

A trend that I am seeing and very, very happy about is some of the better brewers expanding. Stone. Founders. Bell's. Southern Tier. Victory Brewing, to name just a few recent examples. We have all of them in Arizona now and never before has Arizona had such an amazing selection of American craft beers to choose from (because of increased distribution from other states). I think this is a good thing. They're also usually fresh if you shop intelligently. They're often reasonably affordable. I think it helps to set the bar appropriately high for quality too, because the flipside of the current situation is too much mediocrity on the shelves, especially from new breweries. While this may not be a bubble, I think we're due for some thinning out of the mediocre places (most notably new, small local breweries). There will be local places that exist nonetheless for a variety of reasons, but I hope that in the future they will exist because they can reasonably compete with the above expansion of top notch breweries.

Maybe I'm naively optimistic for consumer behavior but I hope people will start to wonder why they're drinking local option X when they could have a Bell's Two Hearted instead, or Founders Centennial, or Union Jack or Racer 5 for the same price. Or why have local option Y when they could have a Founders Breakfast Stout, KBS, Bell's Black Note or Expedition Stout, or Southern Tier Mokah. But let's make it more realistic - the list of options I could list for those styles is actually much larger than that. I could list 20+ American IPAs that are very highly rated on the shelves here, thanks to increased expansion and distribution. The bar is getting set really high, and I think that is a good thing. We benefit more from increased range of options of really good stuff, not just increased options per se.

 

This isn't the case. Anyone in a PA grocery store can come and work in the bar section, they just have to go through RAMP training in a reasonable amount of time. That is of course assuming that the PLCB does regular checks (which they do not). The 21+ rule for the cashier is also not true. Lots of loopholes and legal mumbo jumbo to go through.

And to reiterate, the beer buyer has a lot to do with it. Not only their knowledge of what's available, but their relationship with the vendor. And also a lot of wholesalers try to get their products passed around to different places, because you would not believe the amount of badgering people get about beers (maybe you would actually).

 

Well I was basing that part of my comment about being 21 on what I was specifically told by the manager of a locally owned and recently licensed/opened "eatery" with take out beer and food, who particularly singled out that if I bought beer in the shop, "X" could not sell it to me, being under 21, and someone else would have to do the duty at the register. So you're saying that he misunderstood the law?

BTW: note that I didn't claim other employees at the store could not step in and indicated that I didn't know one way or the other. So it helps that you are able to clarify that for me. Thanks.

Edit: Actually I personally would believe the badgering as I have a pretty good relationships with the owner of the retail distributorship where I buy most of my cases. Some of the things I've see/heard him put up with would try the patience of a saint. :-)

 

Hahaha. Who knows whose interpretations of PA laws are correct. All I know is that at my store we can grab cashiers from the other part of the store, no matter what age, to work the register.

 

:-)

Well at least we can console ourselves with the thought that PA laws are no more convoluted than those of most other states....

 

Glen Mills/Chadds Ford Whole Foods is iffy depending on what week it is. Sometimes they just have PBR, SN and SA. Sometimes they have a large assortment...I just found a Lager from Oregon I tried 18 months or so ago. All depends??

 

In SEPA we have had this saturated IPA market for a few years now and while it is cool to have variety I would be happier with 5 or less that were consistently fresh as opposed to 20+ world class.

And as far as Founders and Bells go it is nice when people want the beer they are selling it is very different when the people don't want whatever new quirky and seasonal concoctions they have put out in recent times.

The Glen Mills location is interesting. They only have 8 or so taps and their growler prices have increased sharply in recent weeks. If you know what to look for they get some cool stuff from week to week but they suffer from shelf clutter of a bunch of "meh" beer. Could be they support too many local options many of whom just cause clutter and mess it up for the tasty beers.