Have You Ever Told Off a Beer Store?

Told off a beer store.. Hmmmm, I can't say I've done that one, yet. Dare I say it, but it almost sounds like sacrilege. lol. I've told off a few bars for one reason or another. Normally I'm not known for chatting with sales help and even less so knowing their end game. It's easy for me to log the prices down into memory and when I see a sale I buy it. They might have a-deal-of-the-day that's recommended but I'll be the judge of that one. The saying gets passed around, "that a fool and his money are easily parted," this could not be further than the true. When I run into people that have gouged me, I'll no longer trust them. Mistrust says alot about their character and is a condescending manner of doing good business. Honest people need my coin and I should do more to encourage the patronage of local businesses.

 

Colorado man...Colorado.
I can also buy it in a variety of mix-six locations for 8.99 too. (No limit)

Not a big fan of it unless I'm trying to get sloshed.

 

Ask Arbitrator about Perry's Liquor.

 

Retail is tough. Retailers price items the way they do for many reasons, and customers aren't aware of the majority of those reasons. Overhead, deals with reps and distributors, supply and demand, loss leads--there are lots of reasons to charge more than you think is fair.

If you don't want to pay that much, don't buy it. But don't assume others won't, because either someone is buying it at that price, or the store will go out of business.

IMHO, telling off anyone never worked, except as maybe an ego boost. If you want to change his prices, read Dale Carnegie, don't engage in debate when someone's livelihood depends on him disagreeing with you.

 

It's an interesting question--"have you ever told off a beer store?"--because on the one hand, the idea of telling someone about a problem you have so that they might fix it is a good one in principle. On the other hand, there are certain things that, no matter how good your intentions, will not be listened to one bit by a business owner.

And typically, pricing is one of those topics on which a business owner isn't going to give the time of day to someone--especially a customer--offering a suggestion. Retail pricing is a complicated matter, and even moreso in an industry where the markets are so fragmented from the variance in liquor laws from state to state and how those laws impact distribution. Most customers only see one side of the coin, the side that affects them, and never see the model that any given business owner has chosen to be successful. Low pricing is not the only way to keep customers coming back (especially in a premium goods industry like craft beer) and some stores have chosen to generate and grow their business in SPITE of having slightly higher prices because they've decided that it's easier to hit their margins at higher prices, in spite of the fact that some people will refuse to buy at those margins. To me, talking to a bottle shop owner about pricing is an exercise in futility and I have never dreamed of offering my input on how a given shop should be pricing their goods. If pricing is your problem, then literally the best thing you can do is shop somewhere that pricing is not prohibitive. When it comes to prices, an owner will pay far more attention to the volume of goods he is moving than a customer, even a loyal one, offering advice on the need to lower price points.

That being said, there are plenty of instances where talking to/"telling off" a shop owner is a good idea, especially in situations where an employee is doing something that seems shady, perhaps without the knowledge of the owner. One such example was mentioned earlier in this thread: a store employee telling a customer that in order to purchase things like Parabola and Pliny, he needed to buy another bottle in the store first. Now *that* is some shady bullshit, especially if there are no signs in the store noting that policy. Not sure if that particular salesman gets incentive to increase the volume on his shift, or if he's just taking it upon himself to move product and has a tragic misunderstanding of the appropriate way to do this, but that's terrible. I would definitely mention something to ownership about that.

Another example might be the store with a bottle limit on certain products refusing to sell a bottle to a girlfriend. I've been places where the staff reluctantly sells a second bottle to my wife, because they have a pretty good idea that it's a bottle she won't drink, and for that reason I don't mind the reluctance. But refusal is pretty crappy, since the store ultimately doesn't really know what the plans for that second bottle are. Maybe my wife is as big a beer nerd as I am. Maybe she wants to buy it as a gift for a family member or friend. Sometimes, the way beer stores act like they are the arbiters of who "deserves" to purchase a given limited bottle is obnoxious. I appreciate the attempt to keep the truck chasers from buying out the entire stock, but some good judgement would be nice.

 

Sorry but I cant believe that Golden Monkey is that cheap because its Colorado. Like I said before your shop must be priced wrong. The beer is brewed down the road from me and its much more than $7.99 a six everywhere around here.

Enjoy

 

If a customer starts telling me off and gets too aggressive and loud, under our liquor laws, I don't have to serve him

 

I agree.

I get customers come in all the time and tell me off that you're more expensive on everything compared to this other liquor store down the road. They probably think that all beer should cost the same no matter which liquor store you go to but this other liquor store I speak of is 5 times as big as our store and therefore can hold a lot more beer and charge lower prices when you factor in the bulk discounts they receive on ordering so much beer.

It is pretty simple supply and demand economics at play...

 

I think people might find me a little nuts if I were telling off the store. Now the owner or staff on the other hand...

Nah, I've never done that yet. If there was a practice I didn't like and they repeated it, I've just moved on. But I certainly don't have a problem with it if you find it justified.

 

The guy that runs my favorite bottle shop is a stand up great guy. His prices are fair and he has a devoted following. He does what he does for a reason and what he charges is his business. Perhaps once I have brought to his attention something that I thought was priced wrong (it was obvious) and he HAD priced it wrong and he was glad I mentioned it. Otherwise, I really don't care what if his prices are--if I think it is too much (which is uncommon) I don't get it. I value the service and the fact that he goes out of his way to please customers.

 

No but I feel like telling him off when I see the Stone Pale Ale with the BBD of June '12 still on the shelves.

 

You sound like tons of fun. Sheesh.

 

& in bloomington, i think retail at at least 1x location in town was @ 25.99

 

There's a liquor store in Tampa that really pisses me off sometimes... The owner of the liquor store has a gratuitous amount of rare and aged beers in the back that he is hoarding and just sitting on. One of these rare beers happens to be Cigar City Moat Water, and a case of it to boot. Yes- it's a great beer, Yes- it was a rare one-off, however; the beer is made with coffee and vanilla beans, so basically those flavor profiles aren't gonna stick around forever. So why not release some of them to loyal customers who would pay good money for a bottle? I don't get the logic in why he refuses to sell them. Anyway, not quite the same situation as the OP but annoying nonetheless. Maybe I'm just an asshole?

On a positive note, I bought a can of '09 TenFidy there yesterday and it was HEAVEN.

 

Wasn't simply saying because it was in Colorado. It's surprising some of the beers I can find inexpensively.

I did ask about the Golden Monkey's in the mix six, and they come from breaking down Victory variety packs?

 

craftbeerkings.com or Plaza Market - assholes who overcharge for shipping. I wrote them a really great tell you off email for charging $8/bottle for Pliny and $53 (you're reading that correctly) for shipping, and they didn't respond.

 

It's easy, see ya. If you feel like this your not the only one I guarantee that.

 

Only one. Walked into a shop this spring in search of KBS. Found it shrink wrapped with random old shelf turds they were trying to get rid of from an entirely different brewery, with a hand written price sticker, for something like 29 dollars a pair for each bottle of KBS plus shelf turd. I asked if they had any seperated bottles, and was told "they came that way" which is clearly a boldface lie. I literally laughed at the guy, told him how absurd that was, and left the store, never to return.

 

More like 230 lbs.