Craft Industry Experience and Consumer Perspective: Has It Changed You?

OK, here is the thing: if customers are not conscientiously checking dates and they purchase old/tired product they will formulate opinions. One opinion could be that Brewery X makes beers that suck; they will never buy beers from that brewery again. Or another opinion could relate to the retailer which may motivate them to shop elsewhere for future purchases. Or...

I am pretty confident that I need not 'educate' you fellows but when it comes to retail of packaged beers there is a systemic industry challenge for beer freshness. With the three tiers, brewery -> wholesale distributor (or importer for imported beers) -> retailer, there is the problem of 'finger pointing' with no single element of the supply chain being willing to 'step up to the plate' and fix the problem of old product on retailer shelves.

I have in the past in BA threads suggested that maybe it would be better for retailers to have a smaller/curated selection of products to better manage the situation of old beer but I get 'push back' from some (many?) BAs here since they seem to want a wide selection of brands to choose from. My opinion here, since I am a consumer who checks dates, is that having lots of brands to choose from but with the majority of those brands being old/tired, this is a false choice.

The beer retailer that often times gets discussed with having too much old product are the Total Wine & More stores but believe me, Total Wine & More is not the only retailer that is problematic in selling old beer.

Cheers!

 

As I opined above, for me this is a "false choice". But I would not be surprised that some (many?) retailers would state that most of their customers don't check dates so...

I have discussed that a number of times in several BA threads, and as I mentioned above I have consistently received 'push back' from BAs.

I personally haven't stopped 'fighting the fight' but it sure seems like for the beer industry writ large there is no 'appetite' to fix the 'age old' problem of too much old product on beer retailers shelves.

I am uncertain whether they still do it but AB would 'enforce' things here with direction to their Wholesale Distributors to remove old AB product (i.e., beers like Budweiser approaching their best by dates) from retailers shelves. Now that they are AB InBev this may no longer the case?

Cheers!

 

I have (small) two beer walls at this (relatively small) store, a refrigerated one and a dry one. I probably have around 150 different SKUs on the wall, give or take. I have my consistent best-sellers, but I rotate religiously, bringing in new/different types of beers/brands every single week. I am on top of this beer wall, and even so, sometimes customers will just not buy something. Even customers who ask for specific beers to be brought in, they will often just not get it.

What more can I do except take the loss and take the beer off the shelf when it's appropriate? I end up at a loss, my margins out of whack. The distributors/breweries don't care, they already made the sale. I've had *one* rep from a local brewery come by and offer to exchange beers on the wall that were hanging around a little too long.

Furthermore, if it was up to the majority of the consumers here (or management chasing "trends" for that matter), I would only carry THC seltzers, Athletic and Hazy IPAs. People who really love Craft beer wouldn't even get their needs met to begin with.

 

Do you mean beyond the best by date printed on the beer, or beyond what you personally feel is fresh? Sorry for being pedantic, but there can be big difference. I live north of Philly (Bucks County) and I don't have an issue finding craft beer within the BB date at my distributor (they are very diligent with checking dates of their product).

 

(Note: this is not beer specific)

This reminds me of times where I did lineups in stores, and they were all driven by who paid for how many faces on which shelf (eye-level being the obvious gold mine). And I, being in my little store, knew what actually sold. Luckily, perhaps, my stores were so small that my tweaks to the official lineup were never going to move a needle (and I did try to stay true to it).

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The thing that some have mentioned that pops to mind as an "experienced" beer consumer is that we are a niche community. We grew to a point, but we are also on a hopefully slow dip, but business-wise, a decline. Having 2-3-4-5x the options fighting for retail space assumes that is the model for success. I think the industry has changed or altered mindset to be more geared to local businesses that have modest business goals versus the concept of being local trying to be regional as a step to being national - a path that I don't really think exists any more. Does it? Should it?

 

THIS! I vote for THIS! If I walk into a store and I see a relatively small selection on top-notch names I will trust the proprietor and walk out with a purchase with few questions asked. If I go to a mega-mart like TotalWines&More where the shelves look like someone puked out every conceivable can/bottle you can bet I will be checking the dates and looking up BA reviews while I hinder traffic flow in the aisle.

(Sorry to divert focus from the original posted question, but I wanted to respond to Jack's comment, and I do think this is a really interesting discussion/education. I feel like I am peering into the guts of the industry reading these posts.)

 

I haven't worked in the industry, but I've had good friends who were craft nerds before me get into the business and quit being nerds entirely to the point where they had no interest in attending shares.

So, 'jaded' is an apt description.

I'm continually reminded how lucky I am that my attempts to get involved were unsuccessful.

 

Sometimes I think that a some or a lot of these people don't know any better and wouldn’t recognize that a beer tastes off because of something like age. I liken them to the type of ppl that continue to patron a local brewery that consistently makes mediocre beer because they like the idea of just simply liking beer if that makes sense.

 

Been in the industry for 13 years. It’s not fun anymore. I’m on the sales side of things and with the number of breweries the competion for shelve space is tough. Also the growing popularity of rtd and Thc and the high octane 19.2 format has made it tough to sell in cases to off premise accounts. The rtd has shrunk the window space for craft beers. It’s become what have you done for right now as opposed to what have you done lately. I have been looking to move on from the industry.