Alesmith to NC

Alesmith only has distribution in the following counties (theoretically, don't know if Mims has -actually- distributed Alesmith to which counties)
Chatham
Durham
Franklin
Granville
Orange
Person
Vance
Wake
Warren

The only two that are east of Raleigh are Warren and Franklin and I don't know of any decent bottle shops in either county. If you want Alesmith, you'll more than likely need to drive the hour or so from 95 to Raleigh to get some. If you do, I'd probably call the shops first to make sure they have it since I don't know if shops are getting all the Alesmith they want yet.

 

Good to hear. I don't make it to Raleigh more than a couple times a year, sticking mostly to Asheville/Hickory/Charlotte (plenty of beer in the region already!). Maybe one of these days I'll make it up to Raleigh again to pick up some Alesmith. So annoying when places distribute to only one of the metro areas in the state.

 

I'm surprised to hear that the Triangle is approximately equal to the rest of NC. Charlotte is a larger city and while not quite as beer crazy as Raleigh there is still a significant demand in the market, as there is in the Triad (though less people and less demand than both the Triangle and Charlotte). Asheville certainly is crazy about beer, but I don't think they care as much about out-of-town beer (much less out-of-state beer).

I guess what I'm getting at is that I would be surprised to hear that the Triangle is 25% of the total beer demand in NC and 50% -really- makes me raise my eyebrows. I can understand in New York where NYC almost certainly is more than 50% of the total beer demand of the state all in one place, it just irks me that breweries do this in NC as well.

Clown Shoes did the same thing (though I don't know if I've actually seen them around in Raleigh or not). They went with Empire which, even though it is more of a statewide distributor, they only have distribution rights for Clown Shoes in the Triangle area. Honestly, I'm more upset about Clown Shoes than I am Alesmith as we almost certainly are never going to see BA Speedway in NC (would LOVE to be proven wrong on that one!), much less variants, and the standard lineup of Clown Shoes I like better than the standard lineup of Alesmith.

 

I guess I could see that. Based on my working with high test companies and finance companies I'm not sure if I agree with those generalizations 100% though

For pure income per capita, Mecklenburg is basically tied at the top with Orange and Wake, with Durham being only a couple spots down. However, median family income is a decent bit higher for Orange and Wake, which tells me that there are more DINKs/smaller families in Orange/Wake, which could definitely affect beer demand. Then, as you say, you have the fact that in the Triangle you have Orange, Wake, and Durham all near the top of the income list with at least Wake almost the size of Mecklenburg, whereas Mecklenburg's surrounding counties (Iredell, Gaston, Catawba, etc) are all a decent bit further down the list except for Cabarrus, which is still fairly high up. Plus I guess you have the problem that a decent bit of Charlotte metro's population is actually not in NC, being in SC, and thus would have to have another set of distributors.

I guess I get now why if you're going to try ONE market first it would be the Triangle. I just wish they'd hurry up and expand to the rest of the state Plus, it'd be nice if everyone that expanding in this way didn't choose the Triangle. Someone could mix it up and try the Triad or Charlotte. Hell, I'd be really happy if they picked Hickory first

 

Our goal is to open NC for full distro sometime in 2015, hopefully early 2015

 

Woohoo! Great to hear! I drink it all the time when I'm in Minneapolis and really enjoy your stuff!

 

Though I guess one question is: Are you going to do actual full NC distro, or just all Total Wine stores? Have to drive at least an hour to Total Wine and would much, MUCH prefer to frequent my local bottle shops.

 

Full distribution to stores and bars/restaurants. We're currently evaluating distributors and should be set for launch in early 2015.

 

Good to know! Now back to our originally scheduled topic regarding Alesmith. Sorry for the threadjack!

 

The 2010 population of the Triad was around 1.6 million and it has grown significantly since then. At that point it was 31st largest statistical area in the US. There is a big difference in income versus Charlotte and The Triangle.