Jack's Abby (2021)

With the move to 4 packs it looks like I'll be priced out of yet another brewer's wares. Unfortunate.

 

Quoted for emphasis. This is such a bummer.

 

This will affect me minimally with House and Copper Legend, as I am a 15/12-pack consumer with regularity. Let’s just hope they’re going to put Sunny Ridge in 12-packs. That would complete this move as “fine by me.” I think their stuff is great for bulk-buying.

 

I agree, but with most of their beers being so easy to drink and low on alcohol, it's nice to have a 16 ounce can (compared to some of the IPA factories, whose beers I would often be happy to limit to 12 ounces). 6x16 was just a great format for their beers and it helped distinguish them in a world full of four packs. Seems like folly to me to give up that competitive advantage.

 

100%.

 

Hi Everyone!

Just wanted to let you know what is going on with our format change and pricing for 2021. Feel free to ask more questions!

Regarding pricing, I can tell you what we are doing here at the brewery with pricing- we only have so much control over what retailers will do with it. The 6-pack of House Lager which we currently sell for $10, will be an $8 4-pack. That $8 price will be for all core/seasonal brands. This will be pretty typical of what you will see out in the marketplace too if retailers take the same markups on the 4-packs as they have been taking on the 6-packs, so some of the big box retailers who price extremely aggressively may have 4-packs on the shelf for $7 or even less on occasion.

Bottom line, yes for the first time in nearly ten years in business, we are taking a price increase. We decided that instead of an $11-12 6-pack, we'd prefer to see a $7-8 4pk. The good news is that pricing will be essentially unchanged on all of our 12/15 pks, so if you are looking for the best price per ounce, those will be your best bet.

We will miss the six packs too, but the realities of running a business in these times is what it is and we are committed to making the best of it. We have taken every cost savings and efficiency gained over the last ten years and passed that on to the consumer. Even with this increase, the price per oz will be lower for some brands than they were relatively recently (for example $8/4 pk of 16 oz cans for Hoponius is cheaper per oz than Hoponius Union bottles were in 2018 when we discontinued them $10/6 pk 12 oz bttl).

The biggest challenge from a marketplace perspective is that with so many different brands on the shelf, we never get a full facing (consumer sees 3 cans) on the shelves. Really, no one does in today's craft beer world. You get a side facing (consumer sees 2 cans). While many of you know the brand and know that there are 6 cans in the pack, many other people don't know or don't remember that. They see 2 cans and a $10 price point and it doesn't stand out at all among a sea of 4 packs at similar price points (you still see the same 2 cans with the 4-pack). Now we will actually stand out a bit better to those consumers as the price point ($7-8) will be significantly lower than the vast majority of the competition in the shelf set. Well, that's the theory anyway.

We are value driven consumers ourselves and are proud to stand by our new pricing and still confidently say that it is one of the best values you will be able to find in the store.

Happy New Year!!

 

Thanks for the clarification.

 

Despite being a highly skilled (I know I have some stiff competition on here, but possibly the best?) armchair hypothetical brewery owner, this is something that's never crossed my mind and is a really interesting point. Your logic makes total sense to me. Good luck with the changes and for 2021 in general - seems like a reasonable/needed price increase.

 

Interesting insight and something I never considered in terms of shelf real estate. Curious to see how this plays out for you. Your beer is worth the price increase, that's for sure.

 

Make mine a House Lager whatever the size of the pack. That being said, where can I find these 15 packs everyone is talking about? I live in CT and I don't think I have ever seen one of these either in a packy or supermarket.

 

Where in CT are you?

 

Cheshire

 

Looks like at the moment the closest would be Ives Rd Wines and Spirits in Wallingford. That said, Cheshire Wine and Spirits is a good account and if you requested them they would likely stock them. We will also send a sales rep to follow up.

 

Can we get the 40s back from a few years ago?

 

There are no shortage of breweries whose lagers are *literally* twice as expensive as the $8 4-packs Jacks Abby is moving to while being nowhere even close to JA's quality.

So if I see anyone complaining about their price points I'm gonna throw a brick at your head.

 

This is my local so I will make sure to ask. Thanks for the response!

 

Any word on pride and parquet yet? When should I go hunting for it?

 

It was packaged today so it should start hitting shelves by the end of the week.