Too Much Inventory?

Good question - I had exactly the same experience last night. Stopped at a local specialty store that has a relatively small (one 20 foot long isle) but very well chosen craft selection. Grabbed some Zombie Dust that was fresh, but the Dreadnought bombers 6 or 8 weeks old, and something as basic as Dogfish 90 was over 4 months old.

I was in the store when the Pipeworks rep took some stuff off the shelf that wasn't shifting, but sitting right next to it was Stone Enjoy By 10/31/14 on sale - it was November 3rd...

Both of these places had specialty beer employees and there was good stuff just sitting on shelves that was stale. I think the problem is that most dabblers in craft beer don't actually check dates so the stores don't have an incentive to manage stock more carefully and reject old shipments from the distributors.

I do wonder how much of this stuff gets delivered already old because it sits in the warehouse at the distributor for ages

 

I think the price increase over the last handful of years is do to supply and demand, as well as a abundance of new breweries opening up causing shortage of key ingredients (such as certain hops) allowing the hop farmers/ distributors to in fact raise there prices

 

It's crazy, one store I frequent has the new beers FLY off the shelf, while I see YEAR OLD IPA's continue to just sit. It works so that they age my stouts for me, but I see a future of them not purchasing IPA's any longer.

 

I've seen the same myself, not only with beer but with anything perishable in a supermarket. There's so much meat in the coolers, I don't think it could ever be sold fresh. But back to the beer question. If the stores you are going to have ever increasing inventory and they have some idea of how to run a business, something tells me they are selling more. But if they are just buying because a distributor is telling them it will sell, or they are speculating it will sell, they may not be around too much longer.

To address your pricing question, I believe price increases have little to do with unsold inventory. When demand goes up, price goes up and sometimes the increase has nothing to do with supply. To a retailer, increased traffic in a certain item or items mean he or she can up the price. And of course, raw material costs, labor costs, transportation costs, among others have an effect on prices.

 

Has anyone ever seen distributors pulling old stuff off retail shelves much?

I know Firestone has a link on their website to report old beer, but it doesn't seem like the distributors give a damn.

 

I think a lot of stores over buy and then the beer unfortunately sits and never sells. Luckily, the bottle shop I go to gets just the right amount so it sells quickly and then can reorder for another fresh batch. They also reject old shipments.

 

Here in florida I have seen the rep for the local distributor at the same store numerous times but not doing anything about the old stuff IPAs from june/july and other beer just OLD I struggle to find and will not buy IPAs over 1 month I will actually leave and not buy anything. Because I tell you fresh Jai Alai is one of the best things in the world so why get older stuff when new will show up soon

 

One store by me is constantly rotating older beers to a discount shelf (I pillage these weekly!). Another near me literally has all shelfs FULL, plus stacks of new cases all over the place. Way to much inventory, but if its a desired beer, it sells out FAST!

 

I always check the dates but rarely even buy Jai Alai at my favorite local shop anymore. Publix usually has it way fresher due to the higher turnover.

 

It depends on the distributor/retailer relationship. Some distributors will take out of date product back, while others will not. Retailers can get stuck with product that no one wants because it gets too dated.

 

The Heady Topper is really starting to stack up here!

 

I can't speak for all distributors, but I think you would be SHOCKED at how much old beer gets dumped, most all of which is product taken back from retailers and not stuff that that went bad while in inventory. I'm talking both craft and Miller/Bud type stuff.

Funny you mentioned Firestone, I've contacted them twice in the past regarding very old product sitting on shelves around here and nobody ever got back to me.

 

It's always a juggling act between offering a decent selection and maintaining a steady turnover of each to ensure freshness. This is a problem with cask ale pubs, when the lifespan of the beer is three or four days you have to be sure of selling it by then.Put too many beers on the bar and quality may suffer. One stratagem is to have more on at busy times (weekends and holidays) and when they run out not to replace them all until the next busy period.

 

Hype machine meet reality. Sites like this are the creators of this problem.

 

I totally disagree. I don't think sites like BeerAdvocate are the problem - I think BAs are better consumers of beer, because they help move the stuff that is actually good. I think the problem more lies with the breweries who are releasing bad product, and too much product, flooding the market with beer that is mediocre or worse.

And also the three tier system is a problem.

 

I saw a bomber of Sculpin in a hole in the wall liquor store in Hollywood. I've been seeing it in supermarkets as well. It's always two months old. Guess it's not moving.

Same with the Stone and Firestone stuff I see. Two months to three months old.

 

BAs are not necessarily better consumers of beer. I have seen BAs complain about IPA's from across the country less than a month old on store shelves or in coolers. It is completely unreasonable to everyone from the brewer to the retailer to think it is possible to maintain a wonderful stock of beer two weeks old or less on the shelves. Especially when I have seen the same people drink the same beer out of kegs that are six months old or more without being able to tell the difference.