Craft Beer Cellar - Braintree

Every single person that will be opening a Craft Beer Cellar is an awesome, passionate, beer & life-loving human being, that cares about good beer, customer service & hospitality, education, and enjoying what they do, every single day. Kate & I couldn't be more excited for you to meet them. They will represent the Craft Beer Cellar Brand well, and add personal flare to each of their stores in a way that will only contribute to the continued growth of craft beer.

We have been looking at a map of the state of MA for well over a year, highlighting potential areas that we have felt were most in need of a better and varied selection of craft beer. We wanted to spread the love, if you will, to a greater reach in the Boston-area. We have ultimate respect for what others are already doing in the industry and have never had any intentions of taking away someone else's business or customers. Craft Beer Cellar is a distinct concept and not a competitor to liquor stores. Eighty percent of what we sell every single day is beer . . . we're just not sure how could that offend anyone who has a store with eighty percent liquor & wine. It rather seems like an economic compliment to us.

Yes, we know allocations on 'high demand' beers are slim and we know that our new stores will have to work their collective butts off to earn their stripes. We work with fair distributor partners that do the very best they can when it comes to limited supplies of beers that everyone wants. Despite the work that the breweries and distributors do to make the allocations to each state and distributor as fair as possible, not everyone is going to be happy, all the time. And it may just get worse, but for us, this is part of the fun. We work like crazy to be as fair as possible with these products, every time. We run lists, we respond to customers on Twitter & Facebook, and run raffles, etc.; ultimately we do every thing in our power to be as fair as possible with these products and so will everyone of our stores.

Our prices are not high - they are what they should be, and we don't deviate from our mark-up. Larger liquor stores that sell liquor, wine, & beer (and BMC, as it's fondly called) have been undercutting prices or floating their bottom line with high(er) margins on wine and liquor, than should be. This is part of the mentality change around good beer and it's part of something that will will continue to push for, until we can no longer speak. Good beer should not be cheap. If it's cheap, there may be reason to question it, and as we've long said, "sale beer is stale beer" . . . if it's on-sale, it's probably old or out of code! Yes, we offer 5 and 10% discounts on large bottles - six and twelve respectively and yes, you can take it on anything in the store, including a bottle of wine. No, we don't offer a 10% discounts on mixed six-packs because we don't mark them up, higher than they should be, so we can give you what looks like a discount. And no, discounts are not "illegal" in off-premise liquor or beer & wine stores, as they are in on-premise restaurants and bars.

While we both wish we had more time to contribute to and participate in these forums, it's just not currently feasible. We spend our days between two stores, working hard with our franchise partners, on everything from licensing to store layout, and on education. If you ever have a question for either of us, feel free to reach us via email: [email protected] / [email protected] or you can always find me on Twitter: @SuzanneSchalow.

Cheers,


Suzanne & Kate
*nocrapbeer.com = agreed! It's a part of our past, now.*

 

Very fair response.

I do disagree vehemently on the pricing thing - as a consumer it is *our job* to push stores to keep prices as low as we possibly can. If a store can undercut on craft beer and make up that money elsewhere, then that's a good thing for craft beer drinkers. In the end the free market will dictate what works best. Bad for stores like Craft Beer Cellar, yes, but good for consumers. Stores like Julio's and Granite seem to have no problem stocking everything and offering knowledgable service.

Best of luck on the franchises. As I said earlier, I'm fully willing to give the Braintree store a fair shake. I just think setting up 5 minutes from Granite, one of the few stores in the state who really does craft beer right, was a poor choice.

 

Thank you Suzanne for the replies, this is exactly what the forums can be about ... clearing the air, thwarting misconceptions, etc. All the best.

Cheers!!