Black Friday Bourbon County: Orlando

Not for any Heat fans. Jk, last year VR made an appearance around Orlando at some Total Wines but was sold out in minutes. The WOBs in the area will have BCBS and some variants on tap the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. All I know as of now.

 

Anything happening in Tampa?

 

best bet is to hit up an ABC that has had it in years past. Honestly, many people go to Total Wines but ABC is probably the path of least resistance regarding this release.

 

Just any ABC stores?

 

I heard last year some ABC stores said they were getting VR before the release then ended up not getting any.

 

Last year City Bev published a document on their site that detailed each account in Orlando that they distributed Bourbon County to. It included the lists of variants. It had many of the ABC locations listed as receiving VR but they ended up getting allocated to 0.

 

Yes, that sucked since I decided to skip TW and focus on ABC's

 

Not much so far. Typical shop posturing and lots of 'we should be getting xxxx and xxxxx but don't know exact numbers or what we are going to do with limits or pricing.'

 

Does regular usually sell out on Black Friday? I'll be in town the following Tuesday and was curious if there was a chance that some would still be around, I'm assuming not, but you never know!

 

with more stores in the area then last year, inventory will likely be spread out a bit more (and with GI getting BC into more markets this year) so I'm sure a lot of places will sell out of Regular BCBS by the end of the weekend. Not to mention the new format change/pricing might change how this year's release will go as compared to the last few.

 

TW Colonial got a case of VR. I was number 11 in line but the guy selling them bought one, and another bottle was "dropped" so I was out of luck. So glad I woke up early for that one.

 

my brother was just ahead of you in line and confirmed this story. I was at an ABC that was suppose to get it and they got none.

I never understand why a store can't walk out early and be very honest and specific with regards to quantity available. "Hey large line, just so you know, we only have 10 bottles of VR available and will be selling the other versions with a limit of xxxx."

 

I lined up at Leukens in Dunedin last year and got there 2 hours before they opened and was Number 23 in Line...they had the regular...coffee..and Barleywine Varieties...they got no Vanilla in The Bay Area last year...only the first 8 people in line got to buy a 4 pack of coffee cause that's all they got...I was able to get the limit of 2 4 Packs of Regular and 1 4 pack of Barleywine(highly underrated) by the way...who knows what to expect this year with the new bottles..new distro areas..and continued explosion of interest in craft beers..I always have the attitude of being happy what I can get

 

How exactly do certain retailers get allocated these special releases? Do they have to sell a certain amount of beers throughout the year? Or does it just depend on where they are located or just a random thing?

 

I heard from a TW manager down here, that Orlando will get the best allocation in the whole state so hopefully that will translate into tons of BC for you guys. No specific info though

 

What time did you happen to line up?

 

I would imagine that each Distributor has their own way of splitting up inventory amongst their on premise and off premise accounts. I'm sure sales volume plays into who gets a more favorable amount. Sales volume of skus that are not directly GI/BC would likely be fair game. Reps do use high demand inventory (BCBS or rare whiskey) as a way to entice shops into ordering things that they don't normally want so they have a better chance of getting the good stuff when it comes time to order. It is ugly. I don't work in the business but this situation is not unique to beer/spirits.

 

JDub I know The Bells Rep in NW Florida and Bells has a Matrix on how they allocate Hopslam based on Sales Volume...last year anyway every store got one case of Hopslam for very 12 cases of Bells they sold during the year...it's the reason you see stores often selling Bells Two Hearted below cost and Bars having Bells Two Hearted Pints on Sale often so they can get The Kegs of Hopslam in Jan/Feb..I would imagine GI does something similar with BC Releases