Russian River available in Dupont Circle (DC)

Those prices lol

 

What's even crazier about the prices is that Pliny is more than the -tions.

 

....

 

That pliny is far from fresh if it's the same one that's been sitting there.

 

old news... Same thing is happening at Barmy... and yeah don't shop there either.

 

Since Russian River doesn't distribute those beers to DC, how do you suppose they got them?

 

You can do this in DC, they allow self importation. You can buy just about anything not distributed in DC, pay excise, and then sell it.

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/...port-regulations-made-d-c-a-craft-beer-haven/

 

Thanks, I realize its legal. I'm actually more curious about what they had to do to physically acquire them in the first place since that will have some impact on the pricing structure. For example I could imagine them driving to Philly area and buying cases of the Wild Ales, but the bottled Pliny doesn't get shipped east beyond Denver.

 

Pretty much they just go out and... get em.. where they can.

Haven't seen too many non distributed items though lately in DC, we used to have a bit more than usual.

 

That might explain the Pliny pricing relative to the Wild Ales, since they would have to order them online or have a connection in Denver or CA where they could fly out and pick them up.

 

You can order them online for $6-7, so $40 is still insane.

 

Call a friend in CA. Have friend ship things. (Just speculation.)

Freaking expensive and quantity-prohibitive, hence the $40 a bottle price.

 

1 West Dupont is the worst bottle shop in DC. Don't buy beer there. It's not only the grey market stuff they have marked up like this, but just about everything is 50% more than what you can find right around the corner.

 

Can you DCers point me in the direction of a good bottle shop? Preferably accessible by metro? Last time I went down I looked at the BA reviews for places and ended up going to Connecticut Wine and Liquor which had the highest reviews. Turned out to be a waste of time as they had nothing interesting. Looking to stock up on Bell's and Founder's.

 

P Street Whole Foods.

 

Or Rodman's.

 

Everyone complains about "price gouging" but if they charged a normal price for these beers they wouldn't last 5 seconds on the shelf because they aren't available anywhere else in the area. This is the one shop in DC when you can get Russian River beers, they price it so you actually can get these beers if you really want them, and they get labeled as "the worst bottle shop in DC". LOL. I don't shop here because I don't think these beers are worth that premium, but at least they are available, and they only reason they are available is the price.

As somebody else mentioned, if these bottles aren't shipped east of Denver, there was obviously some expense involved in getting them. Think about the bigger picture here. Its not just some capitalist fat cat shamelessly exploiting your love of beer to make the big bucks.

If you are coming from Maryland and just want to stock up on Bells and Founders, go to one of the shops in Chevy Chase village. Magruders and Rodmans are both great.

 

People can obviously do what they want. It's a free market. However, Connecticut sold Pliny for a much more realistic price 14 dollars a bottle NOT 40... and it flew off the shelves. There's things that cost more in DC which are within reason (yup I know there's people out there reading this already saying 14 dollars for PLINY THATS INSANE [16 with 10% sales tax] ), but 40? come on... I can buy a 12 year Weller bourbon for 30 dollars.

1 West and and others like it as others have posted already, jack up the price on EVERYTHING... and as someone said you can go a few blocks, find the same stuff... for less... they had DC Brau six packs of Corruption for 16 dollars... its 13 elsewhere in the city... and 10 if you buy it at the brewery.

Nit picking over a few dollars... fine no big deal.. but if you could walk one block and wanted a case where would you go?

If you came from out of town and dropped 40 dollars out of excitement of seeing Pliny there, and then walked out the door and didn't realize the bottle is 6 months old how would you feel? Then when you called the owners up out on it they couldn't care less, what then?

Honestly those guys don't care about what they are selling, and are out to just make a fast buck. The pricing in that store reflects that they have absolutely NO KNOWLEDGE of the product they are selling, and that's more than the reason it gets that rep.

 

Bells and Founders is all over DC, aside from the other places mentioned:

Cairo Liquor (small selection)
Whole Foods Foggy Bottom
D'Vines
many others...