Should Bottle Shops Allow Holds?

I have said it before and I will say it again, with as many people on here that are experts on how to run bottle shops, breweries and and beer bars it is surprising more of us are not in the business

 

I think if you call from the car and promise to come straight away it's fine. I also think if they have the ability to charge you in advance of showing up to pick it up aka binnys it's fine as well. I don't see the problem with it to be honest. If it's a guaranteed sell you'd be stupid not to do it for good customers.

 

Store owners should take care of their loyal customers however they choose to do so. It's how reputations are built, in my opinion. Whether that is when we walk in the door or when we contact them via social media. I fail to see anything wrong with this practice. Hopefully most of them are savvy enough to sort out the truck chasers, etc. I do get a lot of internet input but I certainly don't have the patience to know delivery schedules and be there when the trucks unload - I hear about releases, I can ask if the store will hold something, and if they do great. If not, so be it. Many times I have had a beer manager or store owner I at least recognize and converse with hand me a bottle of something "from the back". Lots of times I have gotten reponses via social media saying they won't hold anything for anybody, but by the way we also received Beer XYZ that you might want to try. Stores will also at least respond with "we got plenty - take your time" or "you better get your butt in here because we only got a case".

One of my locals sends out a newsletter - just got a recent one, in fact, of a store-only special beer - I don't remember exactly, but it is something like two barrels produced by a brewery exclusively for the store. The e-mail has a link to their web site where I can pre-purchase and pay for the beer and have them hold it for me. While I do know the manager and said manager has done me a good turn on occasion, the "buy it now, pick it up later" deal is pretty cool. All you need to do is be a loyal enough customer to subscribe to the e-mail newsletter. What's the big deal with that? No different than calling up, nagging the staff, and asking for them to hold a bottle or two for you. I can buy what I want, the store gets paid, it's on me to go fetch. Makes sense to me.

Web-based marketing, utilizing all of the social media outlets, is a reality that is here to stay. Utilizing those outlets as customers isn't "stalking" or being a "peeping Tom" - it's using the tools we have available. Yeah - for those of us with limited tolerance for the social media bullshit it is a pain in the ass. Store owners and managers treating their loyal customers might be old school and requires some effort from us as customers, but I'm glad it is a customary practice because I understand how that works. But as ignorant as I am about how it all works, I have to say that social media is effective. I've used Facebook Messenger quite a few times to contact my regular shops and those that are using these tools effectively always respond. I can't imagine the stores are happy about it either - somebody has to monitor and respond, but there's really no way to avoid it. To some extent, people treat social media interactions the same as we old farts treat face-to-face conversations. Social media is not going away any time soon, right or wrong.

But it isn't a one-way street no matter how you think about it. We have to make some effort as customers. It doesn't take a lot of sweat to chat a few minutes with the beer manager, store owner, or the kid stocking the shelves. Not hard to be a consistent customer in stores where we've had success finding what we want - guess what if you keep shopping there the success rate only increases. Or you hang out on whatever social media outlet you want and do it in a less personal way.

 

Hmm, the ones in back of line think it isn't fair that folks are in front of them, since those folks obviously have no jobs and nothing better to do that get in line for beer. The ones who got to buy that on line beer release obviously had a bunch of friends helping them and that is why I couldn't get through, and it isn't fair. The breweries that do the weekend releases just aren't fair to the locals since out of towners all show up. The breweries that do weekday releases aren't fair to out of towners since by the time they get there after work the bottles are all sold. The bottle shop that does a lottery isn't fair since it should be first come first served. The first come first served shop isn't fair because folks found out before I did that the shop had it. The limit 1 shop isn't fair because I was there earlier I deserve to be able to buy as many as I want.

Let's face it, I am more entitled to things than anyone else, and if they get it and I don't than it is unfair and I have every right to be upset about it.

 

"Should bottle shops allow holds?"

Should private American companies be allowed to determine their own policies? Yes. Just yes. I mean what type of governmental regulations are you advocating for? It's America. The market will decide if individual businesses made good or bad decisions.

 

I totally understand a business wanting to take care of their best customers but thats not what is happening at my particular local shop. Its pretty much the first handful of people who see their postings. For example, if today at noon they post they have 10 bottles of Vanilla BCBS within 5 minutes of the posting all 10 bottles are on reserve in the comments. So the advantage goes to the guy sitting there with nothing to do but watch social media. I guess I wouldn't mind it so much if they wouldn't allow their entire shipment be reserved. Set aside half of the shipment for holds and put the rest on the shelf for people walking in your front door. If I'm going to miss the opportunity to try something I'd rather it be because someone else got there first not because someone sat around waiting on a social media post. I'm a regular customer at The Veil and spend a shit ton of money there, should they hold or reserve beer for me because I'm a regular? Of course not so why should a bottle shop do it? I've always appreciated the first come, first served policy. I appreciate the feedback from everyone either way and for those who are complaining that this topic has been beaten to death keep in mind not everyone has been on beeradvocate the same amount of time. I looked and saw nothing posted on the subject. If you are bothered by the post simply keep it moving instead of stopping to drop some tears in the comments.

 

What is happening at every shop in existence is that the people who make decisions made them. ALL the rest is just different degrees of entitlement-fueled disappointment. If you will hang here for a while you will get to see the futile, and sometimes pathetic, complaints from people who feel wronged by EVERY way possible to sell beer.

 

[QUOTE="JrGtr, post: 6290947, member: 74434]:
Another place I shop may have gotten the best of both worlds, inasmuch as it's possible. They issue hold cards. You can earn then a few ways, but mostly by purchases. Spend X amount, get a tick on the card. Fill that up, and you get a card you fill out with whatever you want them to hold for you. Once that release comes in, you have a set time, usually a week, to pick it up. If you can't make it, as long as you let them know, they'll extend it (they are pretty lenient about it.)
Anyways, this lets the actual regulars get their shot at limited beers, but also allows amounts on the floor for walk-ins and such.[/QUOTE]
This! This right here! I could absolutely get behind a policy like this.

 

Yes, I see it as a service to their most favored customers.

 

I know I've seen that avatar somewhere but I can't remember for the life of me....

 

Things can turn out differently than expected ... i only got my hands on rare Bourbon County Stout a few years ago thanks to a hold. I didn't have a hold but someone else did who failed to pick it up.

If offered, holds should have limits. I'm in favor both limiting the amount per customer and limiting the quantity held to less than 100% of what's available.

 

Meh! I've never tried to call or e-mail about holding beer, but I have stopped by the local stop to see if stuff that they've announced via e-mail was in. If it wasn't, I've asked if they could hold a bottle of whatever I was interested in. So far, on these limited occasions, they have and I've been happy.

I figure that I can "chase the truck" when I retire. It'll get me out of the house and only piss my wife off when I come home with a case of Unobtainium Barleywine.

 

Unless you tell the manager or owner of that bottle shop. You're not being pro-active. You're just yelling at clouds. The advantage goes to the person who sets up their phone to alert them, so they can take the minute it takes to respond and say, set one aside. It's not a matter of sitting around at this point. I mean, if you could take the time it took for you to type all of this up. I'm sure you could take the time to figure out how to set it up so that you are receiving this particular shops updates as well.

 

Think of these smaller bottle shops...they are required to purchase a good amount of year round or shelf turd products in order to even be considered to get a case of the allocated products. Then there’s people that just want to purchase the one and done beers that don’t even support certain shops. From a business aspect, is it wise to just sell to someone that doesn’t support your shop? Or offer it to someone that supports your business on the daily and make them feel appreciated.

 

My personal policy is as follows. I set a bottle aside for any customer who shops with me frequently AND expresses interest in that beer. The rest are available on a first come first serve basis. I set out the number of bottles that I determine to be the limit and refill that limit as it sells. Phone calls and social media requests get the response “We have a limited number of bottles available on a first come first serve basis. Due to the popularity of XXXX, we would already be out if sold on a reserve basis. I recommend getting here as soon as possible to maximize your chances of getting this beer.” Bottom line. Shop at my store, talk to me regularly in a friendly manner and let me know what you like and you’ll probably get some hard to get beers. I have no patience for cherry pickers though.

 

This.

Funny when people never visit your store and expect you to have all the rare bottles for them at near cost price. I understand people want to try harder-to-get bottles but bottle shops are not charities.

 

As long as limited beers have a 1 bottle limit, I don't care how the beers get distributed. Every person gets 1....local area is served and distributed to.

 

Exactly right. You don't make money on special releases, you make your livelihood on every week sales and loyal customers.

 

Lol /thread

The only thing I really have a problem with is the social media shit. I stopped going to one local because I felt (whether it’s a fair thought or not) I was getting shafted because so many people were getting holds through Facebook instead of being “loyal” customers. Because I didn’t see a Facebook post (something I’m not a member of even though I’m in the store at least once a week) within (sometimes) a few hours, I don’t get the beer? I said something to an employee I’m friendly with (he basically told me to call, but if I’m not on FB, how the hell do I know?) but it still felt like horseshit to me, so I stopped going there.