My local grocery store keeps getting pallets of Founder's Red's Rye Pale Ale and Centennial IPA and charging $3.99 a 6-pack. They have said it's past it's prime so they need to turn their stock, but I was just there on Tuesday and another pallet arrived. The bottling dates are usually from the June-ish ballpark. Hell, for that price I can deal with a four month old beer. I'm definitely not complaining, but my questions are...how and why does this keep happening? And does this happen at anyone else's local store?
Usually it's a fault of the distributor for (A. not getting it out quickly from their stock and (B. stores not being able to push craft as fast as other locations. Rather odd thing to not be able to move Founders in Ames, IA though. Pretty reasonably priced for great craft for a big college town. Have you had it fresh though? I'm guessing Hy-vee, which part of town are you getting this from?
Wish more stores would do this with old stock. I cant count how many times ive seen Founders and others with bottling dates of 6 months to a year old on the shelf, full price.
Nice price-Chicones? Before i checked dates, I had purchased Reds Rye that was almost a year old, at full price.
Lincoln Center HyVee. It'll take a week or so before it's gone, but at that price, you can't beat it. I have had both fresh, and I like Red's Rye better. I enjoy seeing the display there. When I'm being indecisive, it's an easy no-brainer go-to.
I'm in Michigan and my Founders beers have been all very fresh. The only one that hasn't been is the Dirty Bastard in my fridge that was bottled June 10th or something like that.
Central Iowa is still very uneducated when it comes to beer. I don't think people know the quality of beers they are getting with Founder's. Hopefully all of their stouts make it this way.
I graduated from ISU a couple years ago. I do remember getting six packs of Boulevard Pilsner there for $2.99 on occassion. I have been told from several people that the Hyvee Liquor by Cyclone Liquor is a kind of test store. Supposedly they get beers (wine, liquor, etc) that others don't and they track their sales figures before introducing those beers to other Hyvees.
I never see this happen with Founders beers in Grand Rapids, but I do see one of my local beer stores get pallets of beer and sell it for super cheap. Usually for the same reason, the distributor wanted to get rid of it, they got a deal on a it, and sell it to move it. One that comes to mind is Lion's Stout. We were drinking that stuff like crazy at 2.99. However, now I'll never touch the stuff, overloaded on it. Now their current beer deal is Atwater Grand Circus IPA for 3.99 a 6pk/cans.
I pretty much agree, I don't care much for Atwater beers. But having been without a paycheck for the past month, I gave it a shot.
