Bushwick's Fine Fare Market

Blocked on instragram and comment deleted. Cowards

 

I'm surprised at the level of effort they are taking to so callously flout the law.

To publicly advertise that they ship beers (which I'm skeptical they are authorized to do) and to resell beers clearly not for resale.

 

Imagine a store in VT saying they would ship Heady anywhere. There is no way they are authorized to ship to all 50 states.

 

(These 10 states* - typo on the page)
http://winefolly.com/update/whats-deal-wine-shipping-laws/

 

They can face hefty fines for selling out of market beers. Looks like they are just doing damage control to clean up the evidence.

But lets be honest here, many stores in NY Metro area pull the same shit.

There's a small package store in Carle Place that routinely gets cases of Heady and charges $48 a four pack. They even advertise it beermenus and put a poster on the front window, but at least they aren't dumb enough to advertise it all over facebook and instagram.

And the beer manager at Fine Fare should have no problem shipping/trading across state lines, just as long as he or she isn't affiliated with Fine Fare, and is doing it on their own accord.

 

I don't get the level of vitriol here. It may be illegal and uncool, but we're still just talking about selling beer. Are they including rhino horn too? All of the traders on this site aren't shipping peanut butter. Maybe it's favoritism because it's Other Half... I doubt there'd be a Yelp campaign if they were shipping cans of Broken Bow for double the price. I'm not trying to sound rude, sorry if it's coming across that way.

 

Hopefully OH can complain to their distributor about this bad/illegal behavior. I'd hate to see more stores think they can do this and get away with it and send even more mules to brewery releases. This deserves the level of backlash it's getting. I'd recommend people mark the 1 star yelp reviews as Useful as it may help to surface them to the top.

 

This wouldn't be happening if it was Broken Bow, because the interest obviously isn't there, but that's besides the point. You've got a business buying beer under false pretenses, selling it (and potentially shipping it) illegally at a ridiculous markup and there's absolutely no guarantee that the beer was handled appropriately (refrigerated, etc...).

It's shitty and needs to be singled out. If more people think they can get away with this all kinds of sketchy package stores will be doing this and that's bad for everyone. The vitriol is completely justified, otherwise there's every chance this gets out of control.

Of course we're not talking about blood diamonds here, but it should be pretty simple to see why this is a bad thing, for everyone.

 

I am certainly not down with this, I think its rather strange that a brewery would be unaware or unable to do something about it.

I get some of the vitriol, but lets not forget/lose perspective about what city were talking about people. This is Brooklyn, NY, not Charleston, SC.

 

I don't want to rub anyone the wrong way, but I'm respectfully standing by my post. I don't expect people to agree with me.

On the scale of:
Not buying product - Not shopping at store - Spreading the word on BeerAdvocate - Spaming through social media - Protesting with signs on the street... I wouldn't be at level 4 here. I know that makes me look apathetic to some. It's a beer nerd website and I guess there's limited opportunities for beer nerds to get angry. If the store was poking holes in the can to drain and refill with High Life, then engaging in a social media campaign would seem on the mark.

I think the response is certainly related to Other Half fandom (that's not necessarily a bad thing).

 

This is why OH self distributes. They want strict quality control on what's released to the public.

I know OH will take kegs back from bars if the bar holds onto them for too long.

 

Not to mention how a rogue store selling a $24.99 4 pack of their beer reflects poorly on the brand.

 

FWIW, this might be the reason BFF's practice is "legal." Since they self distribute, BFF technically did no wrongdoing as they bought the beer direct from the brewer. I have no real knowledge on whether this is still legal, but figured I'd throw it out there.

Either way, it's terrible and should be stopped.

 

I backup your post. Its a bullshit store - anyone going in there and seeing those prices will realize this. Unless they are the type of person I mentioned in my earlier post. Its Brooklyn, people get upset about things like this. There are much bigger things to be upset about. There are tons of predatory shops out there capitalizing on a trend - I can find you many more in the NY area. As I said earlier - if the market will bear it and ppl will pay those prices - someone will try and capitalize on it. They must be reading the breathless anticipation about OH can releases on BA and know there's a market for it. Its just beer.

Don't forget - there was probably a bodega in that location selling overpriced rotten produce to working families before Bushwick was gentrified.

 

This sort of thing is legal in Washington DC, and I have noticed 2 things.

1. The beer world has not gone up in flames

2. Very few retailers do this because very few customers are actually willing to pay the prices they have to charge. Business owners can't just send a bunch of mules to every beer release to scoop up all the beer. They are shop owners, not slave owners. If they want to send mules, they have to pay the mules travel expenses and time wages. You could conservatively estimate that at $60-$100 per person, who will then only be able to purchase 1 bottle limit. That's why you see outrageous prices on brewery only special release beers at these places. Its not a sustainable business model, and its really no threat to run rampant and ruin the beer world. As far as simply selling easier to get out of market beers like Great Lakes Chillwave - who gives a shit? Its not hurting anyone and you should appreciate the opportunity to buy beer that you otherwise could not. Believe me, there is no shortage of these beers in their intended markets, these stores are not spreading it thin. And you never have any guarantee that beer was handled properly, even in legit markets, so that is an irrelevant point.

I am not trying to be antagonistic here, I just generally don't see this as the big problem that some people make it out to be.

 

This line of thought will lead to the beer scene becoming even more of a shit show than it is.

"And you never have any guarantee that beer was handled properly, even in legit markets, so that is an irrelevant point."

They self distribute for this very reason, so it is very relevant.

We're calling out a shitty business, not picketing and lobbying local government. The examples you give aren't applicable in this situation.

 

Agree your post and it is a bit Opie and Anthony-ish to go out of the way and slam this store. I don't think anyone would shop there except an uninformed person thinking they stumbled upon something rare. Maybe some people are pissed because they went to OH and missed out on cans because some store was muling cases just to make $9 a four pack.

 

It's about respecting the brewery which BFFM does not:

"Just to be clear... We do not condone or endorse the resale of any of our beer that is released in cans. We sell direct from the brewery so our supporters can enjoy the freshest beer possible at a fair price. When cans are released to retailers, we will announce it and will inform you where to find it. Any mark up on our beer is negotiated between Other Half and the retailer to come up with a fair price. Do not overpay for our beer. We will always make more. Thank you all for your support!"

 

Solution seems to be cut down on case limits. Being able to walk out of OH with 2 total cases is a lot, especially for an IPA that is best fresh, and it makes resale a lot easier. With that said, for various reasons, I think it's a tremendous benefit for a young brewery like OH to be able to sell $36K+ in product in a day, and I suspect it outweighs whatever minor reputational harm there is from some store selling a few cases of warm IPA with a heavy markup. Not condoning this at all, but I don't view this as a huge problem for OH.

 

Maybe those that need to buy OH cans should go early and wait in line, because you know BFF must have had their people in line early.