Shangy's hopslam thread

Hi Jack,
Great questions. First and foremost, freshness is very important to us. We are consistingly upgrading our infrastructure. And with that we have upgraded our software systems and added additional staff. That topped with a huge increase in craft/specialty beer distribution-with new accounts opening constantly, we feel we have a very "liquid" rotation.

Our upgraded software system now documents date of production, time of arrival, average days on hand, distribution reports by style and category, just to name a few of the many new reporting capabilities. Further, we are in constant contact with over 250 breweries and importers on a weekly basis. Regarding how we monitor dates on brands with no date coding...we ask, we look, we drink, and finally we determine.

An lastly, regarding your question about when we know a product should go in to our "discount/clearance" section of our retail floor. There are many variables. With aging beers we generally discount them before they are 30 days to best before. We also discount at times when we need space, want to release an early seasonal item (discount in season brand), and at times we do it just to get consumers to try something new.

 

Yes we have more!

 

That's exactly right. You haven't realized that Shangy's in Emmaus has such a large metropolis of craft beer lovers. The facts are the facts. Supply, demand, and support.

 

The allocation policy described for Shangys is generally the allocation practice followed by most importing distributors throughout PA. Both those who have a retail distributorship and those who do not.

 

I'm scrolling past hopslam this year in favor of NN and Sucks. Twice the value and half the hassel. Enjoy the Hopslam folks more for ya!

 

Sucks is a different animal, but just as good and better bang for the buck.
Not only a Brown Shugga Substitute, but a Hopslam Substitute too.

 

Nima,

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my query. One of my questions was: when do you decide to place a beer that has a bottled on date on your discount rack? For example, I have a case of beer in my basement (an IPA ) that has a date on the case box of: bottled on 11/27/12. At Shangy’s retail store, when would you decide that this beer should be placed on the discount rack? Is it 3 months after the bottle date? Or is it 6 months after the bottle date?

Permit me to opine on the topic of Shangy’s retail store allocation of Hopslam. I have no information to doubt that Shangy’s retail is the top seller of Bell’s products. I also have no information to doubt that Shangy’s retail deserves an allocation consistent with “9 x more Bell's beer than the second runner up.” In corporate America they make employees take all sorts of compliance training including ethics. They teach employees that you need to be conscious of even the appearance of a conflict of interest in their ethical dealings. I am confident that you can appreciate that Shangy’s wholesaler allocating more Hopslam by a large margin to Shangy’s retail has the appearance of a conflict of interest. It is not my intention to suggest you change your business practices but hopefully you have an understanding on why beer customers have certain feelings about Hopslam and Shangy’s.

Cheers!

Jack

 

Thanks for the response Jack. To answer your question about the IPA with a late 11/12 bottling date. It depends on the brewery, that particular IPA (hops and alcohol), and the way it was handled and stored. Generally speaking, an IPA brewed in late 11/12 should be perfectly fine today.

I appreciate your comments about Hopslam allocations. Please remember that Shangy's retail is a customer of Shangy's wholesale. It shouldn't matter, what if Shangy's was owned by a separate entity? Numbers are numbers.

 

“Generally speaking, an IPA brewed in late 11/12 should be perfectly fine today.” So, would you put that case on discount 5/12/13 (6 months from bottling)?

“It shouldn't matter, what if Shangy's was owned by a separate entity?” If the wholesaler of Bell’s for Eastern PA was Origlio and they allocated the majority of Hopslam to Shangy’s retail store then there would be no conflict of interest (either via appearance or otherwise).

“Numbers are numbers.” I can’t dispute that. I think I have been clear in trying to explain to you that there is an appearance of a conflict of interest in Shangy’s wholesaler allocating the lion share of Hopslam to Shangy’s retailer. If this concept is not getting across then either I am a poor communicator or this is a topic you wish to not acknowledge. I will repeat what I posted previously: “It is not my intention to suggest you change your business practices but hopefully you have an understanding on why beer customers have certain feelings about Hopslam and Shangy’s.”

The bottom line is that as a business owner you can choose to try and understand your customers or you can just operate like you will do things the way you want and the customers be damned. Hopefully you would prefer to try and understand your customers; providing good customer service along with an understanding ear leads to business success (or further business success).

Cheers!

Jack

 

If I walk to Shangy's can I get Hopsam since I am not in a car? If so,load up the car and each person walk down the street for a block and then get back into the car. I love this thread, there is a lot going on here.

 

Thanks Jack. Point taken. At the end of the day I wish we received 50,000 cases of Hopslam, instead of 1,000.
We want to be as transparent as possible. We ask retailers to support great breweries. If they do that they receive these very rare seasonals and limited offerings. Our message is is simple to our wholesale customers:

Support our breweries and they shall do the same.

 

Haha. No walkers allowed ;-)

What's funnier is why no one has wondered why they can't simply come in separately from the same car? Shh...

 

I can vouch for this.

 

It's obviously a lot easier to get people to mule for you if you drive them there. I could probably easily get my wife and a few friends to drive up there in my car with me and come home with 4 cases. But I'd be SOL if I asked all of them to drive their own cars up there. I suspect that's a lot of the reason for the "one case per car" rule.

As far as Shangy's retailer being Shangy's wholesale's biggest customer, we'll have to accept Nima's word, but it's not hard to see why a.) people would wonder if that's true and b.) wonder if that's by design. Just based how much Hopslam gets allocated to Shangy's retail (which appears to be hundreds of cases), it would seem hardly anyone in the area is selling Bells throughout the year. Again, it's entirely possible, but I wonder if the retail outlet sells more than anyone else because it never makes it out of the store.

 

I suspect a big reason why they'd sell more is that they sell by the case. If I walk into a bottle shop I'll get a couple Two Hearteds or a 6er, but if someone walks in there, they're getting a whole case.

 

Shangy's customers also include other retail distributors, who sell by the case.

 

Way to much negativity in this thread. Seems to me Nima has gone out of his way to be as cordial as he can and answer everyone's questions. Given some of the nasty comments, I am surprised he even took the time.
Why should anyone be surprised Shangy's Retail gets a big allotment of Hopslam from Shangy's Wholesale? Would anyone making that decision do anything differently. If you would then you aren't a very good businessman.
It's not everyone's god given right to have their favorite beers delivered to their local bottle shop. Whether it's Hopslam or anything else, if you can't find it, drive to where it is, or trade for it. I live in NJ where Bell's, Deschutes, Russian River, Cigar City and many other great breweries are not even distributed. So I make the drive to PA, or trade for what i want. The fact that games may be played between breweries, distributors, wholesalers, or retailers should come as no surprise to any of us. And sometimes the chase can make the catch that much more enjoyable when you finally sit down to enjoy that hard to find beer.

 

If it was one of your allocated sites that was coming up to buy extra cases, would they really want to do that if it was only one per customer? Who would they get to go do it with them? The employees? Would it be worth their the business owners money to pay employees to pile in a van and make a trek there, only to make a few bucks after they would pay for Brew and the employees time? I don't know, it's your business and that's the bottom line. I just feel like i am being punished for carpooling and saving a couple buck in a hard economy(not to mention doing some good for the eviroment), just to get a case of great beer! But, Like you said, there are many ways around this cheers

 

This popcorn is delicious!