Beer Battle Erupts in Missouri Senate...

Do distributors / wholesalers not distribute the craft beer to convenience stores and grocery stores in Missouri? In Maine, a distributor with a bud account could easily be the distributor for Sam, Troegs and Stone as well and they obviously won't try to cannibalize products.
Obviously all states are different. Such as in Massachusetts I know some liquor stores suck for craft beer and others are awesome. I feel like if your law passes there will still be places that work primarily with craft beer.

 

You are combining/confusing two different aspects of this set of bills:

 

Oh ok, that makes more sense. Well now that you mention it, there is a Goose Island branded cooler full of Goose Island regulars that suddenly popped up in my local bottle shop.

 

I remember a mid-sized Coors wholesaler that kept cartons of small keg boxes stacked up against the back wall, hidden in plain sight, which would be given to customers that promised to use them for Coors, Blatz, etc. It was tacitly illegal, everyone knew about the program. People talk. As far as I know he was never charged with anything.

 

They do. For instance the local Bud distributor here also handles Perennial/SP. Abita, Urban Chestnut, Deschutes, and others. Same for the Miller distributor

 

My interpretation:

The first sentence is complaining about nothing, since AB can do a lot of things that small brewers cannot afford. I can't imagine that having a Bud logo on the cooler is any more damaging than having a Bud neon sign in the window.

The second sentence needs more clarity of what the heck they are talking about. As it stands, it is merely that they are afraid / suspicious of AB-Inbev and so are against anything AB is for.

What am I missing here?

 

Maybe contact:


Jeff Schrag
Mother's Brewing Co.
President, Missouri Small Brewer's Guild

 

If you do, ask him to send you some MILF, the stuff is awesome.

While I can't see much to get upset about, I am positive that Mr. Schrag knows much more about the behind the scenes beer market in Missouri than I do.

 

FWIW I reached that same 'conclusion' as well. If I were a resident of Missouri I would write my representatives as requested in that letter.

Cheers!

 

So in Missouri they will allow growler fills at stores now? If that's the case I'm pumped. Even if the big breweries will put some coolers in that won't do anything except maybe now can get Sculpin growlers and some of the others that weren't possible before. They can't force you to only keep their beers in them but most will only put in what they distribute which is pretty good in Missouri. AB carries Bells, Green Flash, Urban Chestnutt and several others.

 

This seems like the first step to distributors telling stores, ”hey, why provide space for beer at all? You can put other products there, we will provide the beer coolers for 100% of your beer." Not at all unlike how BMC distributors draw the sets and restock shelves in grocery stores...a seemingly innocuous, helpful offering that freezes out smaller craft brands who are only stocking a handful of facings and this cannot afford to be in every store several times a week.

 

In California, distributors can "sell" coolers and refrigerators to customers but the customer then fills out a rebate form and they are given a full refund of the purchase price. But there is also a contract that the retailer will use the cooler or refrigerator for our product and if the contract is broken then the fridge is forfeited. That's how my distributor deals with coolers and refrigerators.

 

The AB Marketing & Sales folks along with their Wholesale Distributors know how to 'operate'.

Cheers!

 

Another cunning move by the AB Marketing & Sales folks and their associated Wholesale Distributors.

Cheers!

 

And one available to any craft brewery out there, considering in my area they have no trouble getting 8 figures in bank financing for vague brewery expansion plans, a few branded mini fridges is rounding error.

I have some in laws who were approached to invest in a new craft brewery at a five million dollar valuation before they have brewed a drop. If you can't get trade marketing support as a craft brewery, you're not looking too hard. So, seems like we should be seeing some 4 Hands and Perennial mini fridges soon...

 

I work for Pepsi in the state of Wisconsin. What I see in the grocery stores is that AB has their bud light lime-Arita coolers in the front of many liquor sections to push that brand. It does not decrease the amount of shelf space that they hold in the regular cold vaults. As I've seen in some cases that there is product of that brand line also located there. The only craft that is able to get into some of these cold vaults in the stores that do not have a specific craft cold vaults are of the major regional craft brewers that those AB and Miller distributors carry. Leaving most of the smaller craft brands to compete for limited space on the smaller warm shelf section .

 

I once went shopping at a store in PA. Most of the beer was stored in chilled cases or cold cases. I'm looking at a 24oz can of the Lime-a-Rita since I was thinking of trying it (never had it and didn't think it could possibly be as bad as people on this site make it out to be). Asked the manager if he had it in a smaller can. His response was that they didn't but from their perspective it's not a problem since when the weather got warmer they would have trouble keeping it in stock no matter the can size.

Your observations got me to thinking about that experience. In all my days of shopping for beer in PA (where most of our retailers still can only sell beer by the case and typically have cold box in back filled with BMC beers) I've seen/heard lots of BMC drinkers walk in specifically wanting to buy a case of cold X (some variety of BMC beer) but I've never heard or seen any craft beer customer refuse to purchase a case of a flavorful beer because it wasn't stored in the cold box.

So I'm wondering, how much of what we've observed with space allocations in the cold boxes and shelves is driven by customer demand? I mean, if the largest identifiable segment of your customers insists the beer be cold when they purchase it, wouldn't we expect the retailers to respond by keeping it in the cold box?

 

Maybe @KOP_Beer_OUtlet will respond to your queries?

Cheers!

 

Good thought. That would be useful input. Even though from things both you and he have both said they're not the typical PA retail distrubutor (e.g., checking on deliveries ) it would be a start and he may have observed things going on elsewhere.

 

Thanks guys....while maintaining a fresh inventory of craft is our biggest struggle keeping it cold is our second...but it's really a concern from April to October because our building is naturally about 10 degrees cooler than it is outside...but during the summer it can be very hot inside the store and the store is just too large to put in temp controls...so of course we have a cold section....

Our set up works this way...we have glass doors with 40 roller racks...and then a separate walk in section which is behind the racks...the rollers hold almost all BMC, two are just for Miller Lite 30 packs (combined they hold eighteen 30 packs which will be refilled twice a day on slower days and three or four on busier days), Corona and Corona Lite each get one, one is Heineken, Modelo btls and cans each get a rack, one Sam BL, one SN Pale Ale, one All Day 15 pack cans, and one for Fat Tire...those decisions are made using sales figures...

The walk in consists of misc AAL (mil best, High Life...), then the rest is craft, imports and malt beverages (Twisted Tea, Bud aritas, Mike's)...Craft beers are mostly IPA's because of their sensitivity...I decide based on popularity and sensitivity...in other words a more sensitive beer may be in the walk in right next to a popular IPA...But I can not keep all of our craft beer cool in the summer...it's just not feasible short of turning the whole store into a temp controlled environment which would be costly to install and operate (we have 20 foot ceiling)...and most case stores in this area are big warehouse like buildings and the ones that aren't I will guarantee their storage areas are not temp controlled

That being said we have never received a complaint about a bad beer that I can attribute to improper storage...

This summer we will be working on our ordering to make sure we can keep as much beer cold as possible given our space...but we can only improve it a bit...if we want to keep prices low by buying in bulk and a well balanced variety there will be warm beer

 

Joe (@KOP_Beer_OUtlet) thank you for taking the time to construct that thoughtful post.

I know that when I stop in to chat I always see a lot of traffic where folks purchase AAL beers cold from your refrigerated section. My supposition is that those customers enjoy the fact the beers are chilled and thereby ready for quick consumption.

Cheers!

 

[QUOTE="My supposition is that those customers enjoy the fact the beers are chilled and thereby ready for quick consumption.

Cheers![/QUOTE]

Your supposition is correct...