BA Beer Reviews With ASP

I'm not a founder or designer but I can safely say that IMO there's not a chance of that happening. If you look at the locations of posters, you will see that this is an international website. Selling price differs from state to state and even from store to store within a state and of course, from country to country. Besides, the average price will only tell you that you're paying either more or less than the "average" price from around the country. You would be better off to compare prices from store to store in your immediate area.

 

Sure. But the fact remains that prices vary from state to state and from store to store so an average price isn't going to do anything except make you realize you're paying more or less than the average. It's not like you can negotiate a price to pay with a store owner based on the average price. But if you should happen to find one who will negotiate the price let everybody know.

 

What about a beer with reviews from several serving types? 12oz, 22oz, draft etc?

 

Ahhh. You wanted average prices for trading purposes. Never mind my other comments. Now it kinda makes some sense.

 

While you cannot negotiate the price - if a store that inflates their price and begins to lose sales because the consumer is being educated on the fact that they are being ripped off, then that is a good thing in my opinion. The store owner has two options then - lose business but maintain a higher profit margin, or gain market share but lower the profit margin. Let the business owner decide their fate.

This site is all about beer advocacy - and educating the consumer as much as possible (including pricing) would be part of that as far as I'm concerned.

At least in my area of the country there is already a website out there that will list the "menu" of beers that a given store carries along with the price of that beer. The inventory and prices are maintained by each individual store. Store owners love it because people will know what they have to offer, and many people will make the trek to pick up a beer that only they have. And customers love it because they can shop around online first to find the beer they want at a price they are comfortable with.

As a result I've seen local shops that way over charge begin to lower their prices, and smaller lesser known shops begin to thrive because they keep their prices fair and are looking out for their customers. And the ones that refuse to adjust their pricing are beginning to fail.

 

I can see this being useful, in a very general sense, for trades. However, I think it will be easy to misinterpret exactly what a beer's average price means for day-to-day comparison shopping.

Average/mean can be skewed, both by a high frequency of a given value as well as a extreme value. And on a site where the quantity of reviews on a given beer is often in the <500 range and rarely (if ever) exceeds 8,000 total reviews, those traits can skew more heavily. And that doesn't even account for the fact that "fair" pricing on a given beer will vary from market to market.

To me a much more useful piece of information would be the manufacturer/brewer's suggested retail price. Then you can see directly how the vendor's expectation of the consumer varies from the brewer's expectation. Any further knowledge would come from knowing your own local market and how vendors tend to price.

 

What I do in my reviews is put in a line for Price Point and then list what size it was I paid for.
So, for example, take Edmund Fitzgerald, the end of my review would look something like:

Price Point - $8.99/6 12oz. bottles.

I'm sure this could easily be placed in a drop down box fashion into the review section of the site as far as package size goes.

 

Oh it can be programmed in...I just can't see how it would help much outside of trading but even then it would only matter with shelf stuff. (a one off beer might have cost $20 but that doesn't mean it goes equally for $20 worth of beer)

 

All well and good as long as the store keeps the list current - inventory and pricing. So many stores don't bother, they just throw up a list of what they have and never amend it when they run out of something or when they change a price. Of course, it always pays to call, but even that can be a throw of the dice, depending on who you get on the phone.

As far as pricing goes, some stores are competitive, some just charge what they think the market will bear. Another factor is the competition - how many other stores are there who carry the same thing. I try to spread my business around. I generally buy new releases at a store where I have faith they have the lowest price and buy old favorites at a store that refrigerates everything when it hits their door. And since I'm in NY and near the CT border, I frequently go beer shopping in CT where the beer is cheaper. Example - a 12 pk. of SNPA will cost me at least $18 in NY but in CT, I can get it for $15. I don't make any special trips but the wife and I go hunting and gathering at food stores in CT at least twice a month.

 

It's a US site with international following. Not the same thing. A bigger problem is that 1) not all beers are purchased, 2) price depends on quantity, 3) outliers would have a disproportional influence (unless there are very large numbers). These conditions make it virtually impossible to look for "average". Geographic distribution would make things more confusing (e.g., looking at Wisconsin prices in Boston), especially for drafts. So, as much I would like to see some form of price estimate with reviews, it does appear to be impractical, at least, at first pass.

 

Yeah, after thinking about it, MSRP would be the only option that makes sense.

 

Consider the story of Amazon. Someone had the bright idea that having a marketplace would be great for consumers (and it is). But people who thought that it "shames" sellers who inflate the price were wrong. Rather than lowering their prices, they gave those with lower prices bring theirs to the "average". Items sell at lower prices when demand drops, not when sellers get to see each other's hand. So, while "shaming" is a great idea in principle, the reality is that what you would see is regression to the mean.

 

How about on a BA beer review you have a tab for the price you paid. Remember if you control the mail, you control..... information!

 

If you wanna know what things cost for trading, just ask. If they won't tell you, don't trade. Why muck up the BA system with nearly-pointless and statistically-fuzzy information just because a trader is too lazy to ask a simple question?

 

I can only speak from experience and what I have seen in the shops around my house/office. Craft beer drinkers are an educated bunch. And while a small percentage of limited beers may sell at inflated prices, the Monday-Friday purchases of regular shelf beer are made at stores that have competitive pricing and a good selection. And many a craft drinker I know has shunned a store for having a crazy price and refuses to ever shop there again. (we've all seen the threads on this in here) Amazon is not an accurate comparison as I am not referencing one single source as the seller to a national market; but rather a single source of pricing and selection information that helps the consumer find what is a "fair price" in their area.

And if we were looking at is an Amazon situation, what you stated is not correct either. There has not been a regression to the mean price by way of stores raising their prices. Every brick and mortar store out there (Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc.) are price matching to adjust to the lowest common denominator. I'm sure the execs at the stores who's sales are regressing would love for what you said to be true and start getting larger profit margins, but that just isn't the case. Also, demand is not the only thing that drives price - supply does as well, and with so many craft breweries and craft beer stores popping up, the supply of craft beer is at an all time high and approaching saturation. (with the exception of some limited releases) So with so many alternatives and options to chose from, am I going to spend 20% more on a new beer of a similar style and rating? Nope. I'm going to go with the cheaper one. The same thing is true if I have two stores in the same market that have the same beer but one is 20% cheaper. The lower priced store is going to get all of my business, and the other store will have to adjust to compete.

Beer is not a necessity, and cannot support unbridled price increases. Educated owners know that while craft beer is popular at the moment, only about 6.5% of the market is buying craft beer vs BMC stuff. Yes the profit margins on craft are better, but the customer base is much smaller and far more informed - so they don't want to bite the hand that is feeding them this new source of profit increases.

All of this of course is just my opinion, and information I have gathered from talking to local store owners, other craft drinkers, and watching local stores thrive or struggle. (one in particular that I helped get started but then they got greedy and decided that the demand would support price gauging, so I bailed and they are slowly dying out to the competition in regards to craft beer) This site will do what it pleases, but I think allowing for average price would be beneficially for most and would not be any sort of hindrance.

 

i feel like even knowing the rough cost of a beer is important when critiquing it. Maybe it's not so useful for trading purposes, but average price - for me, anyway - is a significant factor when establishing an opinion on craft beer. A great $5 bomber trumps an excellent $11 bomber (In my worthless opinion).