Retail Madness

Last time I was in Marty's in Newton, there were 6 week old Trillium ipas in the cooler. My theory was that the price point was too high and format annoying. Move to $15 4-packs and it will fly, and put Night Shift, Castle Island and Lord Hobo out of business.

 

The one thing Pretty Things taught me was don't take anybody for granted. Support who you like and spread the word.

 

For sure. 6 weeks might not be "fresh" to you up on your throne but I've had plenty of 6+ week of Trillium and it tasted just fine to me. I will say that I've had some "fallen off" ipas but 6 weeks isn't that bad, you're just probably used to hyper fresh releases. For the normal consumer who buys from a 6 pack shop, 6 isn't bad at all.

 

Asinine post?? Where is this straw man you are referring to? The initial poster just noted the abundance of options and paralysis in choosing one, then @EnronCFO just noted 6 week old Trilliums were available on the shelf. Not a mention of the quality of product vs. age mentioned in this thread.

Hate to be the thread police here, but try actually reading the topic before going on a rant...

 

Thanks. Weird irony in that I've stated many times on here and untappd that Trillium's DDH IPAs need to settle for a few weeks since they come out too raw when released. 6 week old Trillium bottles at steep premiums versus 3 month old Lord Hobo or two week old Night Shift IPA isn't that tough of a call. But I stand by comment that if Trillium packaged Fort Point and Congress St in 4-packs at the same price as other Boston area brewers they'd take market share quickly.

 

Totally agreed on the format. Trillium beers would be selling almost as quickly ounce to ounce as TH if they changed format, that's what the 6-week age on bottles is reflective of.

 

Yeah, I'm used to high craft prices and have started to balk at Trillium's bottle prices. And I work a 5 mins walk from the Boston location. They need to recognize that their competition will catch them on quality soon and they will lose a format war to anyone canning. Move to cans soon like Night Shift did and they'll dominate Boston.

 

Seems like everyone overestimated how well Trillium would do at retail, which has the added problem of removing any aura of scarcity from their beers. People are more motivated to buy things when they think they won't be able to buy them later. I know this in part because I'm highly susceptible to it; I'm actually buying less Trillium now that it's ubiquitously available to me. I'm sure a format change could help, and I'd certainly like to see it happen, but on the other hand MBC has apparently proven that you can get away with a crappy format for a good long while.

As far as retail as a whole goes, someone has to start getting squeezed pretty hard soon, right? The market is growing but I can't imagine it's growing fast enough to keep pace with the proliferation of new options.

 

I can't make heads or tails of MBC. Old bottles in every market they sell into, but massive lines when they do a release. Has to be a happy medium with stable margins, you'd think. But hey, do what's right (for you the brewer and your friends, not the consumer)

 

Forget about the freshness debate for a second: Did OP just say Rare Barrel is distributed to MA? Is that accurate?

 

As a craft beer lover in New England we have access to some of the most sought after IPAs in the game. This is a good thing, and an opportunity that I take full advantage of. I think its safe to say many of us have the ability to drink these IPAs days, not weeks, after they are packaged. However, given the strength of the market we are being forced to make a choice while other top tier brands are left on the shelf.

As this market gets flooded with these brews we will see more A+, A-, and B+ brews sit on the shelf. My hope is that the format of some of these top tier breweries coming into NE (or from my perspective, Massachusetts) change over time and react to the market. Im fairly certain that we all agree that reasonably priced 4 packs of tall boys sell will sell much better than than the 500mL or 750mL bottles.

The real question is, who is going to be the new brewery with a business model that capitalizes on these market trends.

 

The notion that Night Shift would go from expansion to out of business because of one competitor is laughable. What's next, distroed TH putting JC and Esther on the street?

 

This thread hurts my brain. Distributors do not care about the freshness of your beer. And 90% of the stores don't either.

Just chill out, it's getting old

 

From someone who works in sales in the industry , Im starting to see this everyday. A gluttony of breweries, options and formats are crowding shelves at a rapid rate. There are certain stores that no matter what can move product at a great pace. In my opinion this is attributed to a few factors: customer service, price, merchandising and sometimes even having a social media presence. Some stores that lack these things have a tough moving some of the hotter breweries out there (Trillium for instance) It seems like every week more breweries are coming into the state and can't see this slowing down anytime soon. Its great from a consumer stand point, as someone said above if you like something make it known.

 

I haven't yet seen any Trillium IPAs on the shelf more than a couple days later. Maybe the farmhouse ones a few days, but everyone I've yet seen they all go very quickly.

 

I believe this was the whole point of the Lord Hobo brewery. Most people think the execution never got there, but they're still well set to do so.

If I owned a brewery, I wouldn't enter the MA market if I could be anywhere else at all. There's a lot of educated and affluent consumers, but man the competition is nuts, especially for draft. VT and ME seem impossible for out of state breweries, too, just based on people drinking local.

NH on the other hand... if you are organized enough to get through the hoops NH presents, there's a big opportunity there. Two Roads just entered the market a bit ago and Road 2 Ruin is crushing it. If you can get a year-round double IPA of Road 2 Ruin quality or better, the market is there for the taking.

 

I love what Stoneface is doing to, their IPA is amazing.

As far as Trillium I buy it a lot more now that I can get it in shops. If you live north of the city fort point can be a pain and Canton is even further. I work near NS so I buy from the tap room on weekdays, wouldnt go on the weekend anymore but used to when you didnt have to wait...

Dont underestimate the large group of craft beer drinkers who refuse to wait in line but love good beer. They also probably dont write on forums so are underepresented here.