Buying privilege. Come on, man.

Well that covers Jersey then. Wonder how many other states there are that have a provision like that. Given how frequently this bundled product issue comes up it appears to be more than a rare event elsewhere.

I'm guessing at the moment that wholesale distributors get away with linking special beers to general sales of stuff from a particular brewery because its conditional and treated as a "reward" for past sales rather than a direct tied purchase.

 

I'm not wild about the practice, but with eroding retail margins I won't demonize it. I f course if it were me I wouldn't require additional beer purchases, I require something like glasses. Way better margin.

 

Last year I got an email from a popular Austin-area bottle shop announcing a raffle for 1 Founders KBS & if you were the lucky winner, you got to purchase that one bottle!
B*tch please!
I'm sure it was a great promotional gimmick for both Founders & the bottle shop, but not worth my time!

 

As with other ABC regulations, if it is not tax related, legal hours or underage drinking, the question is not what states have those rules but how often they are enforced. Obviously with such a prohibition as "tied sales" the authorities would have to be alerted to it by consumers (or competitors) - not like they're sending out undercover agents for these sorts of purchases.

 

The OP implicated that the place required a GI purchase and down a couple of entries that they had old IPAs on the shelf. To be specific--did not say that the GI beer required was out of date/old.

I have no problems with stores requiring this as long as the beer isn't out of date. GI IPA certainly is one of those that doesn't fade right away. You can decide.

 

Retailers should comply with local laws no matter how "minor" the infraction would appear.

I wonder if those concerned about the legality of this are equally upset with those "undercounter" sales of non-distributed rarities from other states?

 

You have to take on a lot of stock to get an allocation. I had to do a 21 case buy of GI 12 packs just to get my hands ona few cases of regular bcbs.
Those Cali shops are ruthless though, I always see some shithole called Beverages 4 Less pulling that kind of shit with beers the employees trade for. "Buy 6 bottles for the chance to buy a single can of Heady for $8.99"

 

Here in Billings where I live our entire shipment got sent back for being over the 14% abv cap. Distributor ordered the 13.7% and they sent the 14.3%. One local grocery store received 25 cases... all sent back. Goose Island said they should have a replacement shipment out in a couple weeks... guess what NEVER showed up.

 

I had this happen recently when trying to buy some high end exclusive bourbon. This was worse though. They said I had to buy a bottle of Buffalo Trace products in order to even make the list to be eligible. They called it "supporting the brand". I'm supporting your store. Get a clue man. I've spent over $500 in the last six months for bourbon and beer there. So much for that place. Relationship (or lack there of) and my money are going elsewhere.

 

It's a great beer, but on principal alone your should have walked out and said you won't cave to beer extortion or BCBS terrorism....that's a dick move on the part of the owner, so give some other place your business unless this place has an unreal selection of hard to get brews.

 

I was contemplating posting to this thread with that word: "extortion". This situation sure does feel like "extortion" to me.

I would personally do exactly as you posted: I would have expressed my thoughts about "extortion" to the retail owner/manager and I would have promptly walked out the door. I may (or may not) have also stated something like: "you have now lost my business".

Cheers to you!

 

My local place was forced to do the same thing in order to get the privilege to offer KBS. Except instead of having the privilege to sell KBS he just gave one to anyone who bought a 12 pack of All Day IPA. It was in fact dictated to him by the distributor. He was told he didn't sell enough of the regular Founders offerings through out the year to get KBS but if he bought a shitload of All Day IPA he would get a case of KBS.

 

So they make us buy their shitty products (BCBS and the sisters are exceptions in the GI lineup) so we have the right to guy their premier products? If they would spend 1/10th the time they use in making BCBS and dedicate that to their normal lineup they wouldn't have this problem..

 

If you don't think Buffalo Trace sales are taken into consideration in the allocation of Van Winkle bottles, then you're just being silly.

 

I understand the stores allocation from Buffalo Trace might be dictated based on how much BT product they sell but I don't agree that I should have to buy an initial BT product before I'm even allowed the chance to by Van Winkle or the BT Antique Collection. Store sales should take precedent over specific brand sales. If the store can't sell other BT products without this policy then they have bigger problems to worry about.

 

This is when I'm glad that I like the beers that I like. The day that I have to jump through these hoops to buy some 5% hoppy lager...I'm done with beer.

 

Or you could buy Big Bad Baptist right now and not have to do anything extra to buy it, such as waiting in line in the cold, abandoning your family on Thanksgiving/Black Friday, or buying extra beer just for the rights to buy it.

This Bourbon County shit is insane. I don't understand why some of you people go such apeshit over it. Because it comes out once a year? There's like 50:1 bourbon country threads to other good BA stouts, such as BBB. Is it 50 times better? What makes it such a fascinating topic to you folks?

Ya'all are nuttier than squirrel poop.

 

Well, maybe not in the past, but now that you've got them thinking...

 

Pretty much why I stopped going to bottle shops. If I don't have a chance at ever getting the good stuff, I'll just buy my beer at the supermarkets which in my area have a fantastic craft selection, at lower prices I might add. If you own a bottle shop, just put the darn beers on the shelf and give equal opportunity to get them to all customers. Otherwise, no reason to go to your store.