Goose Island Bourbon County Stout - Coffee and Cherry Rye '12

My apologies. I forgot that we weren't supposed to post this sort of information until long after the stuff was gone, and then I was supposed to take a picture of my haul and tell people how easy it was to obtain.

 

You think $18.99 for coffee is fair? I paid $10.99 for mine. I might pay that for the cherry since it was harder to find, but not for coffee. Ok, maybe I would since that's pretty much my favorite beer of all time, but still, you got robbed.

 

Pretty sure the list price for Coffee increased significantly this year -- the bottle you bought may well have been sold at a loss by a retailer who didn't update the price. I paid $19.99 for mine at both Binny's and an independent shop.

 

So, it rewards those with the ability to go visit the store at random times of day, i.e., those with non-standard jobs?

My favorite method is still as follows:
1. Have a well-maintained, well-publicized social media presence.
2. Announce as soon as possible when you expect to get stuff in and the time/date you plan to sell it. Generally, specified time is "when we open".
3. Hold product after receipt until specified time.
4. Release at specified time.
5. Happy people.

That's it. No drama. No fuss. Everyone knows the date/time to be there. The information is equally available to everyone. Most people can arrange their schedule a week in advance to make the product release.

The only advantage to leaking product out bit by bit at random times is that it rewards frequent shoppers and gives people who aren't "plugged in" a shot at something.

That last point isn't too big an issue, though. I've seen plenty of significant others, grandparents, aunts/uncles, (adult) children, and other non-BA types show up at bottle shops and score limited releases. I've talked with a few of them, and they all that they're buying it for so-and-so for Xmas/birthday/whatever, and the person they're buying it for said it's coming out soon, and they just made the effort to call around. These are the same people who always score the hottest Christmas toys for their kids, so they're experts at tracking these things down.

 

$18.99 is very fair this year. Others didn't get robbed, you got a steal. $10.99 is even a steal for last year's pricing.

 

I think you're assuming a bottle is placed on the shelf between 9am-5pm. What if the bottle is placed on the shelf at 9pm, then you start browsing the aisles at 9:01pm?

Armanetti's has done this before. Earlier this year, I found a bottle of KBS in the mix-six aisle several weeks after its release.

 

I'm assuming the potential exists for it to be placed there between 9-5. It still rewards browsing the store often at non-standard times. Or loitering.

I'm just a big fan of taking luck out of the equation.

 

I understand what you mean about loitering. The Wine/Cheese Shop idea seems to work in St. Louis, but will it work in Chicago? (Rhetorical question)

You want to be in control of your destiny. I totally understand.

 

On the contrary, I find that letting it all boil down to luck is the ONLY way to distribute if your goal is to do it "fairly." It is almost impossible (and certainly unprofitable) to come up with some sort of perfect merit-based system to distribute with.

And saying this, I should mention that the ability to have flexible beer store availability, having lots of disposable income, and tons of free time are not "merits" in this sense if you ask me.

 

No, they're always a lot lower than the prices people post on here. They don't mess up the price on all their beers. $18.99 just seems like a hell of a lot.

 

Dood you got yours at Kenwood Liquors in Oak Lawn, so did I, they messed up their price, they didn't pay attention to the invoice and didn't update their prices from last year.

 

Nope, not there. If the place I got mine at screwed up, they let it go for a couple of weeks. Bought 2 more bottles a couple of weeks later for the same price.

 

Cost in IL was more than $11/bottle. I can't remember exactly, but I think cost was around $168/case. You got a great deal.

 

Yeah mine was $20.99 at a place where the beer buyer is my best friend, and a VERY detail-oriented guy. Their markup may be slightly higher due to it being a very small beer section, but that's the ballpark.

I just got two Big Johns for $9.99 -- is that what others are seeing?

 

Yep I just saw big john and night stalker at mchenry binnys for 9.99 each

 

Yeah, that's pretty much it. I'm not a big fan of leaving things to luck. Even in casinos, I tend to like games where my decisions mitigate luck (poker, blackjack, etc.). The post a time, show up then, FCFS thing rewards a bit of research and effort, but shuts out anyone with an inflexible schedule.

That was the theory behind Vav's Black Friday cellar shindig, and that worked pretty well. I heard some grumbling about putting the numbers back in the hat, but that was the only way to make sure that everyone had an equal chance in every single drawing. Otherwise, people's odds would increase as the raffle proceeded.

I just see releases and events like that as two separate things. I guess the difference is that most releases are received at arbitrary times midweek, whereas the Vav event was scheduled for a day many people have as a holiday.

I guess the way to be totally fair about this is to have a window where everyone can pick up a ticket for a lottery, then have a public drawing at a certain time, with the winning numbers listed on Facebook or something. Of course, you could have a situation even then where one person hits every time and another misses every time, and someone feels cheated still. Plus, you have people who wouldn't necessarily take time to show up for a timed release (or may not even care!) who put numbers in just because.

I think we all agree that either method is better than lists.

 

There is no way to make everyone happy. The end.

 

Meh...I'm thinking, 100 m dash.. 12 bottles at the end, 2 each - for the fast 6 sprinters...

 

that idea is horrible...whine whine, moan moan...it should be a 200m hurdles...24 bottles at the end, 1/2 each for the 46 fastest and a whole bottle for me.

 

I prefer a mad max cage match, two men enter, one man leave with Cherry Rye. Lets us fatties stand a chance dammit!