Abyss '13 (not PDX)

3 people sharing?

 

so i was there an hour ago (12:15 local), and yeah, it's gone.

whole foods Bellevue expects their shipment "within a week or two"

 

Just grabbed a bottle at PCC Fremont. $14+ tax. Had to ask.

 

That shit right there shows that the local shops don't have a leg to stand on when they shame people for going to the chain. I can understand an extra dollar or two markup, but when you have places charging as much as 30-40% more per bottle, it's pretty ridiculous.

 

They probably just mis-priced it, since they really don't have a clue about the product their pushing.

 

They must do that a lot, since this is far from the first special release I've seen that kind of price difference on.

 

So, to summarize for the Seattle market thus far:

Total Wine: $12.99
Whole Foods: $13.99
PCC: $13.99
Pear: $16.99
Bottleworks: $16.99
Chuck's: $17.50
Metropolitan: $17.99

 

For those wondering about pricing, I feel the need to comment that, due to our oddball POS back end, I have to manually figure costs and enter cost and price for each beer I carry, every time I receive it. Everything is at a standard margin, and since new beers and seasonals don't go on the shelf until I check the pricing, increases in cost are always reflected in my retail price.

I suspect that at Whole Foods and PCC the Abyss is being sold before their POA/Scanning departments have processed invoices or price increases, because I seriously doubt that they're intentionally selling it at such a small margin.

I won't give anyone crap for buying their beer at chains, just know that if there's such an incongruence in price, it's likely a mistake -- they're not just doing you a favor!

 

Got two bottles. Full Throttle was sold out immediately.

 

My suspicion is that as the big chains continue to get into the craft beer space, basic laws of supply and demand (and their effect on price) will follow thereafter. @draheim commented on something that I am sure has happened to all of us several times - seeing the price of a bottle at place x, then seeing it at place y at a higher price, and having a hard time justifying the purchase at the place y price point. No hard feelings, just tough to justify - basic consumer behavior.

 

Also, the post above about SKU's for reserve beers has a lot of merit. Some companies (New Belgium, Epic Ales) are pretty good about reusing UPC's only for beers at the same price point, but others (not pointing any fingers, ahem) don't seem to pay much attention to that.

 

You can add Super Deli Mart at $18.99

 

Haven't had a chance to try Abyss yet, so I'm still hoping I might be able to track down a bottle or two. What's the likelihood we'll get a second round of distro?

 

Full Theottle was $18. She said Deschutes upped their price by $25 a case.

 

Great discussion and good information.

So based on the current model, for every dollar in additional cost being added to the retailer price, it seems that this cost (plus a 30% to 50% markup) gets passed along directly to the consumer. It will be interesting to see if this practice continues as we see costs to bottle shops and other retailers continue to rise in the near future.

 

Big Star Beer (Seattle) has one case out @ $18.99
Lynnwood Whole Foods SOLD OUT (5 cases in 4hrs.)

 

So basically, regardless of price it sells out immediately. :-/