Beer in grocery stores.

Ohio, South Carolina, New York, Kentucky, Florida, Michigan, California.

Eric

 

Not only can you buy it in MO but at Schnucks they have exclusive beers from 4 Hands, Schlafly, and now Perennial. Needless to say, I do all the grocery shopping.

 

Just bought a six pack of Grapefruit Sculpin (12.99?) and Allagash Curieux (12.99?) at the local Haggens or Higgins or whatever it's called, (use to be Vons) out here in beautiful San Diego. Not sure why the prices were so cheap.

 

One of the Remarkable Liquids guys posted on another site a question why his home area, Capital Region, N.Y., has fewer craft beer drinkers as a percentage of all drinkers than a similar area in another part of the state, Rochester, 12% to 25%. He invited us to speculate why.

Turns out the survey's figures he quoted were of percentage of craft beer sales in Supermarkets (bottle shops were not included), as this was thought to be a more fair way to judge.

It got me thinking what are the Supermarket craft beer selections like in your home areas?

Poor? Great? Have they improved? Recently? Long ago? Do you have growler fills in your Supermarkets? How do the craft beers there seem to sell? What percentage of your craft purchases are from Supermarkets? Are there any beers you thought you would never see for sale in your Supermarkets, but now are for sale there? Any other comments or observations?

Thanks. Inquiring minds want to know.

 

My area has seen a great increase in craft beer for sale at Supermarkets recently, during the last 2 years especially.

Never thought I would get fresh Two Hearted at my Supermarket, but it, and many others, more daily, now share the refrigerated section on equal footing with ABI and MC brands.

Yesterday I noticed the stock of craft had taken a serious hit and it looked like a lot more craft had left shelf than AAL's, folks around here are definitely buying much more craft than previously, no doubt about it.

None of my local Supermarkets have growler fills, though there is a chain of Supermarkets not too distant that have pubs and growler fills inside the store.

 

I am from Utah so the craft beer industry has developed around the archaic laws in the great Mormon Beehive state. Most of the beers in Utah supermarkets are 4% ABV and under and the majority are local craft (Uinta, Bohemian, Squatters, Wasatch, Unsacred/Epic, Moab, Shades of Pale, and a few others). There are no growlers at supermarkets, they are only at breweries. Some craft breweries outside of Utah are starting to brew special versions of their beers with 4% ABV to be sold in Utah markets (examples: Laughing Dog-Idaho, Payette Brewing-Idaho, etc.). From my perspective, craft beers are very popular in SLC and they sell quite well. I don't have any facts or figures to back this up, however.

 

I live in Pennsylvania so basically none existent. All some of the smaller none Walmart supermarket chains are getting away with selling it in a separate part of the store.
But the selection is usually pretty poor

 

I live near Kissimmee, FL and my local Publix has a decent Cigar City lineup - Jai Alai, Florida Cracker, Invasion and Maduro Brown. The Jai Alai is often less than two weeks in the can and the others not far behind. They also carry several other crafts including Fat Tire, SNPA, Torpedo and seasonal variety packs. No growlers but who knows? That may change with the new law allowing 64s that went into effect July 1. Oddly enough there is another Pulbix near me that has a very poor selection of craft. I guess they know their market demographics.

 

I' re noticed it's hit or miss. I do believe the timing is about the same for seeing an increase in the local grocery store, and that stock is usually the large local brewers (Flying Dog, DFH) and the top beers from across the U.S. (Sam, SN, Lagunitas). Certain larger stores other jumped on much earlier (ie, Whole Foods), or carry a much larger selection of local small brewers (ie, Wegmans). As for specific beers, the only one that jumps to mind was seeing Flower Power in the local grocery once, early in its distribution here.

I think the stores are probably hitting a good balance for the population at this point, even if it would interest me more for them to give up a bit more AAL space. So, I'd say a quite low percentage of beers is bought in groceries, with the GF grabbing an occasional IPA 6-pack, but that's partially b/c there are several bottle shops nearby that I can rotate in - I'll go with 15%.

(P.S this is speaking of the NoVa areas where I actually spend almost all my time)

 

I'm not sure which way the correlation would go, but it's probably related to how many other options (mainly bottle shops) are in the area. I don't live far from you, and if I want craft beer I can go to a huge bottle shop in Poughkeepsie and maximize my selection. But there are also supermarkets with small craft beer selections, and IF Poughkeepsie was more difficult for me to get to I'd probably buy more from those supermarkets simply because I've been exposed to craft beer now.

There's also a supermarket right near my job with a relatively small, but awesome, craft selection -- and they use beermenus, so anytime they post something new and interesting I immediately head over there. And I would say that just based on observation, I see a surprisingly even mix of folks browsing and buying craft and people just slowing down and grabbing a case or 30 pack of MBC stuff.

Hopefully that makes sense -- I'm not sure if I can clarify easily without typing a LOT more.

 

I live in Maryland so we are still under some antiquated liquor laws..which translates to large grocery stores in Maryland do not sell beer or wine or liquor. You have to go to an ABC store to get liquor (and some wine and beer) and a beer/wineshop to get beer or wine. The basic beer shops carry most of the local Maryland breweries main lines but very few other true craft beers mostly just the macro brew owned craft brewery stuff. But you can find an odd beer/wine shop that actually has a pretty decent craft selection from time to time. One place I stumbled on near my house actually has a random ass selection of good craft beers and actually from time to time has some rarities.

 

In MA there are very few supermarkets that carry beer. Whole Foods near me has a beer section with excellent selection, and a local supermarket called Roche Brothers has a decent beer section. But by and large, Shaw's, Stop 'n Shop and Hannaford's never carry beer.

 

That's not true for the Philadelphia area. I live in the Philly burbs and within 10 miles of my house I can buy beer at 2 Wegmans, 1 Whole Foods, 1 Acme, and 1 Weis grocery stores. They all have a pretty good selection too, but you have to keep an eye on the bottle/can dates. Many Wegman's stores even have a pub with full-sized bars with draft craft beer.

 

Very few supermarkets in NJ sell beer. I doubt that will change any time soon. You need a full retail license to do so. A license can be costly, but you get to sell wine and liquor also. There maybe a few exceptions but I don't no any.

 

I'm in SW GA & our Publix has a decent selection of Craft Beers. Sam Adams, Two Hearted Ale, Sweetwater products, Sierra Nevada, Victory, Lagunitas, DFH plus others. Could be alot worse....

 

I can't complain here in Charleston, SC. Every grocery store has at least some craft, with a few carrying a rather large variety (Whole foods, Earth Fare, and some of the Harris Teeters). Most have some of the local brews, like Westbrook, COAST, and Palmetto. I do miss the 2 Piggly Wiggly stores that had a huge tap list for growler fills (100+). A few years ago, many of the local PW were sold off and bought by competitors. These 2 particular stores had tap systems that were created (and patented) by the beer manager. He has since opened up his own store with his wife. One of those Piggly Wigglys was near me and I enjoyed seeing the rotating tap list, along with the many great bottles in that store.

 

NYC

Depends on whether you include Whole Foods or not. The WFs in NYC tend to range from having good to excellent beer selections. Including them, I'd say probably 50% of my purchasing is done at supermarkets.

Taking them out of the picture, and it's a different story. There are a few outliers and the occasional surprise, but generally the selection is pretty uninspiring - these other supermarkets probably account for 1-2% of my purchases.

 

Here in St. Augustine it is getting better and better. It went from nothing, to stuff like Sam Adams, SNPA and some New Belgium stuff. Now I go to the publix about a half mile down the road and they have the Cigar City year round lineup(fresh Jai Alai for like $8.99 a sixer so I drink a lot of it lol), some Intuition and Veteren's United stuff, Ruination 2.0 and Arrogant Bastard bombers, and more getting added all the time. All of this is in the last few years so I hope it keeps growing like this. No rare stuff or growlers yet, but who knows, could be coming.

 

In NH they have a good supply of craft beers. All/most of the local and VT, ME breweries including Harpoon, Long Trail, Baxter, Otter Creek, Rock Art, Switchback, etc. Also carry Lagunitas, stone, DFH, ballast point, sierra Nevada, founders and some of the other out of state breweries with wide distribution. My most local grocery is a small Co-op chain. They carry a wide selection of craft beers in many formats (bomber, bottles, cans, 750ml, etc.)

The co-op locations in NH can't offer growlers (state law) but the location over the border in VT does have 2 or 3 local kegs available for growler fills.

The co-op locations also have little flags on the shelf showing "craft/limited production" options (although I preferred it before they starting using those, makes them move off the shelves quicker).

 

Grocery store selection near me is pretty good and there are at least two smaller "market" style grocery stores where craft dominates the cooler and there is either little to no BMC options.

At Meijer (midwest chain) it varies but is still really good. One Meijer has a great beer guy, i talk with him from time to time, and he keeps that place stocked and often gets special releases in. Lots of craft, some singles, and a small bomber area. The other location near me isn't as good, smaller, but still has enough mainstays for craft. Their prices are usually really good, and bounce back and forth with $1 here, $1 there between what my favorite bottle shop prices at.

No growlers in grocery stores, anywhere as far as I know, I don't think it is a Michigan thing.

I bought KBS from 2 local grocery stores, and almost got it at a third. Saw 6 packs of Jupiter and Uranus on the shelf when bottle shops were only selling singles w/ limit 2. The good Meijer was placing Abyss on the shelf when I was there one time and gets other occasional special release stuff that you would think only a bottle shop would have.