Ballatine IPA old Vs New

Ballantine, of course, self-distributed in NJ and NYC metro area but so did many other large local brewers (Pabst and AB, in NJ's northeastern urban region, anyway). I've always assumed part of Ballantine's financial problems was their huge local delivery department (in the 50's, said to be over 800 vehicles) - cost of owning and maintaining the trucks, probably the brewery workers Teamster local had higher wages than even unionized distributors and maybe stricter rules on helpers, hours, etc.

Anyway, according to legal documents, Ballantine serviced over 8-10,000 independent retail licensees in NJ (and another 15-17k in NY) at the time of their closing and sale to Falstaff in April, 1972. As I remember it, most every bar and liquor store had, at least, Ballantine Ale in stock. Even as they continued to collapsed under IFC ownership ('69-'72), they were still a 2 million barrel brewery (1.7-2% of the total US market at the time), with half their sales in the NY-NJ-CT-PA region.

EDIT- Sorry for all the stats above and discussion of distribution - I misread your post and thought you were saying your NJ A&P didn't carry any Ballantine products...​

The major hit to Ballantine sales came after Falstaff's purchase (and, primarily, due to Falstaff/S&P decisions)- 5 years after the purchase, the Ballantine brands were in the 500k range for Falstaff - so, about 1/6 of their total barrelage of about 3 million, which had also took a big hit during the same time period (they were selling 6 million barrels the year they bought Ballantine).