Beer in grocery stores.

You are correct sir, The grocery stores you mentioned have a good craft selection. I can go to twenty grocery stores in a five mile radius of my house and purchase craft beer at grocery stores.

 

You are right, and our discussion wasn't about the numbers themselves, but the disparity between one area and another area in the same state. And Remarkable wasn't using their own IRI data, one of the principals used data from an industry article about Rochester area that he knew to be well researched, and his own hands on from 20 years working the Capital district for a "fudged" number that likely is spot on or close.

Many good self awareness answers were given by the Capital Region responders about that disparity. Hard to think of Rochester as being a hotbed of craft for many years and the Capital region, with rich brewing tradition back to the 1630's, as being so far behind much of the state, but there it is, that is the situation.

This thread was intended to be a chance to update the state of American Supermarket beer sales 2015. The sub theme was how far have we come from Beer Wars, which was about the merciless tactics Big Beer uses, especially to keep all the good shelf space for themselves in Supermarkets (and everywhere).

 

It really depends on the specific store. Some of the higher end stores for example Whole Foods have a great selection including various FFF beers that can be elusive. Generally speaking, I still have to go to a liquor store to find the variety I'm looking for.

 

My super market is where I am buying the most beer. They have a very nice selection that literally goes cross country and also includes many imports. We have many regional brewers that all are brewing unique beer and we have a good chocie in shops that get many things the wegmans does not. What I want is for instance if you carry stone you need also to carry the enjoy by. This last time s they did. Some times they don't. I feel the same for other larger breweries like southern tier and victory. I want to seethe seasonal bombers and the six packs.

 

Hyvee is the go to! Plus Iowa just passed the new law allowing growler fills

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/st...iowa-beer-growlers-filling-stations/70395910/

 

I loved Fred Meyer when I lived in Anchorage. They were like Wal Mart but without the shame.

 

The Whole Foods has a decent selection, and they do growler fills...the other stores (BiLo, Publix, etc) have improved their inventory tremendously over the past few years, I think sales are still lag far behing BMC

 

Located in Boise, Idaho. Availability has gotten miles better than it had been. My personal favorite locations to go for selections or to find more elusive beers are the Boise Co-op, Whole Foods and Brewer's Haven. (the latter has an excellent selection on tap and bottled, as well as providing good education/materials for those of all abilities who wish to homebrew.) More and more chain grocery stores have gotten solid cold cases in, and that has only been helped by most of them having the build your own six pack option. The liquor stores around the area have left much to be desired, however. There's also a ton of to-go craft beer Growler Stations set up around some of the gas stations and in a few Albertsons locations. (standard is 8 rotating taps available at any given time.)

 

Hy-Vee in Iowa is hit/miss. If you find one where the liquor manager is an enthusiast, they have great selection. We have 3 or 4 Hy-Vee's in the Des Moines metro that have an amazing selection. Their selection is so good that we really don't have any great liquor stores with as good of selection.

 

most around here have a decent to great selection of craft beer and it's usually slightly cheaper than most bottle shops

 

I'm excited for growler fills. Depending on the selection, of course!

 

Supermarkets in Fairfield Co. CT have a fair amount of craft beer. I am sure more than some other places in the state. It extends beyond beer. If a supermarket has a solid craft beer selection (and I am not talking about whalez, but higher end beers) they most likely have better product all around.

 

I'm out on the eastern end of the state, just across the river from Jersey. And I'd say that since they won the right to carry beer, I've been pretty impressed with the selection being offered. It's not what I would consider top-end bottle shop breadth, but then again, there are very few top-end bottle shops in PA. The two supermarkets across the street from one another that are currently selling beer (a Weis and an Acme) both stock a reasonable selection of "standards" (Stone, Lagunitas, Founders, Ithaca, etc) and throw in some surprising buys once in a while (for instance I'd never seen much Deschuttes around here before, and now they both carry the full line). They also have a decent selection of bombers.

It could be better, but it could be a lot worse. Their selections are comparable to or better than most Jersey liquor stores that don't specifically focus on craft beer.

 

Hy Vee Foods based in IA but in other Midwestern States has probably increased their craft beer offerings in their Wine & Spirits depts by 5-10,000% easily over the last 5 years.....what used to be shit is now better than most bottle shops around! Varies a little by store but the larger metro Hy Vees are knocking it outta the park!!!!

 

Here in SD, they're great. Von's (Safeway), Ralph's (Kroger) and Haggen (formerly Albertson's) actually carry a wide variety of craft beers (local). Then you Whole Foods which carries a lot of craft from local and some from other states that allow distribution. Smaller markets like Trader Joe's and Sprouts also carry a wide variety of craft locally. I'm pretty happy with these selections we have at our stores.

 

Don't you wish all Supermarkets had one of these inside? This is DeCicco's Brewster location's pub, with counter pressure growler station. Photos below are some of the beer aisles.

 

Holy smokes!

 

Live in NY but while visiting the Portland area last fall, I was astonished. Seems like the place to pick up the run of the mill, find everywhere craft beer is in the supermarket. One supermarket [Fred's?] had an entire cooler aisle of craft beer. When I visited a few [small] stores, I realized the reason. The small stores sell the better stuff, the supermarkets sell the regular stuff. Then again, I was only there for 3 days so I may be totally wrong but this is what I saw.

 

We have two types of supermarkets on LI - common, like Stop n Shop, Waldbaums, and Pathmark, and then the organic/healthy food type like Whole Foods, Trader Joe, and Fairway.

The common supermarket has started stocking craft beer slowly over time, but even at best, their selection is not noteworthy, though it allows you to pick up a decent beer from the craft set. Now these other stores, with the whole natural/organic vibe, have some surprisingly good selections of craft beer. Nothing rare or elite, but the breadth and depth of their selections is surprising in some cases.

 

There's two grocery stores in my area that are worth a darn for good craft. One is a Giant Food which is the only place I can get Sixpoint around here. The other is a Safeway which has the absolute best selection of local brews that I've seen in these parts. Whatever folks that do the buying for these shops are OK in my book :-)