How Cut Throat is Craft Beer

And many people can't just say no thanks - especially when the rep has done something beneficial [to both parties, of course] or has befriended the owner in some way, like becoming a customer.

 

This is what keeps the douchebags at bay mostly. Not so much that small businesses are "sticking together" but more that craft bar owners have a tendency to tell pushy reps to go fuck themselves.

Most of the bars serving craft around here have ownership that clearly doesn't cave to this sort of behavior. I'm sure some shenanigans go on at other less craft-centric places, but who cares about them anyway?

 

Ah, I misread it, probably helped by the (numerous) comments about pay-to-play.

 

I would say it's pretty cut throat when you sue another brewer because their 6 resembles an upside down 9 and their can has a symbol on it and your can has a symbol on it too. Then you sue them again because their fans said mean things on your Facebook page.

 

I remember seeing this posted by someone on Twitter:



(Devil's Backbone is a brewery out of VA)

 

Honestly I have no issue with this. It's up to the bar owner to recognize bullshit and deal with it accordingly.

Also, in any industry where sales professionals are necessary, I am a big fan of generous incentives for sales people vs a non-commissioned sales force. This model actually distributes an organization's income more equitably, where your front-line employees are making as much as many of the accountants & middle leadership. This can, of course, lead to questionable behavior by some sales people, but that sort of behavior is found out and eliminated in quality organizations.

 

Craft beer is THIS cutthroat. FTW.

 

sounds like how the distros around here give bars money to put shock top on instead of blue moon ha

 

AB and Miller distributors are always at odds with each other and definitely trying to kill any draft lines that are deemed competition.

 

Not enough - given the overpriced garbage I see routinely rotting on the shelves near me. If more reasonably priced it would definitely move...though newer breweries seem to want to "train" everyone to pay more for their expensive sub-par beer.

 

Well- it does have the added bit of nastiness concerning the targeting of a particular brewer. I read it as the salesperson not only has to get a new tap handle for the distributor but also must remove one of Marble's in the process- all of that or no $300. They are definitely not just looking out for themselves, but gunning for somebody else in the process.

 

Pay to play is pretty rampant. The guys at Marble are equally ugly, if not way uglier. Well, I've pissed myself all over again about this.....

http://www.metropulse.com/news/2011/mar/02/marble-city-brewing-company-stalled-trademark-laws/

 

That is distributors, some are good and some suck. those tap handles are valuable realist ate. it happens to retailers to they aren't the only one playing favorites. Ultimately your retailer is at the whims of their distributors.

 

As others have pointed out, it's mainly the distributorships that are cut throat. For the most part, the craft brewers seem to be of the "one happy family, working together to promote great beer and to give people a better beer drinking experience than the BMC can offer" mentality.

However, I see this changing in the next few years. As new breweries continue to open, the market is going to get saturated, and, in a scene where there is very little brand loyalty, it's going to get to be a tough business. And these are businesses that need to turn a profit or at the very least break even if they want to stay open. Places that see some growth are going to start seeing dollar signs and fighting for more market share. Many breweries aren't going to make it, and, for those who want to stay open, certain "gentleman's agreements" that have existed are going to break down as breweries become more competitive.

Things that start off as causes tend to become businesses in time, and then, eventually, rackets. That's just the natural order of things. Budweiser, Miller, and Coors were all small breweries started by one man with a passion for beer at one point, too.

 

I for the most part like my reps. I understand that they make alot of their money off placement bonuses and try to help them out whenever I can. If they ask me to buy a couple cases of something I will eventually need anyways, then Im happy to buy it. If they want me to carry something I dont want (Redd's Apple Ale, for example), I buy the case and throw it strait on the discount shelf and sell it at my cost. Its a new loose situation for me, and since Im doing them a favor I get alot of more limited stuff that comes around.

 

The small brewers use the same tactics as distributorships do. There are plenty of smaller breweries that will go in and tell the bar owner that they will buy the rest of a certain keg to put their beer on to see how it does. Granted, its not as big as what distributorships do, but its soemthing that causes the change in that bars rotation of tap handles.

Breweries are businesses, and the only way for businesses to grow is to sell more beer and make more money. Its on the bar owner or the store owner to go with them or without them. You really think Coors is going to let Blue Moon be on the back burner to all the hot craft brands that are coming out? Of course not ... they are going to offer up a ton of money to there distributors to make sure Blue Moon stays in these accounts that it was in for the past 10 years.

I work for a distributor, and while not in sales, I work with the sales team. I have no issues with it if a bar wants to replace a certain beer with Blue Moon. Probably not a bar Im going to go drink at. And for anyone in California that says its wrong, well you probably wouldnt have had any BCBS in any of the bars this year when it was tapped, because the only way alot fo those accounts got a keg of it was to buy the BCBS keg and put on a keg of Budweiser or Shock Top. I talked to one fo the salesmen for Bud out here and he said alot of craft bars were bending over backwards for it and buying that keg of Bud. Same thing as replacing a keg with another bigger brand.