I'm curious as to how many people run growler stations at either a grocery store or a store that has rotating taps. My boss keeps ordering the same beer and I'm just wondering if that's normal to ride a beer as a main stay or do you change beers on a regular basis. Really appreciate it.
Do you have something that flys out the door? If you have a few winners and kill a half barrel every few days, why mess with what works? Alternatively, if the mainstays are slow, screw those and try to get him to put something else on.
We keep a few local favorites in heavy rotation, but otherwise, we change it up constantly. Kind of a 'damned if you do/don't" situation. I think it's great that we change things up, but we get a lot of folks that come in and say "you had beer XXX available for a growler three months ago, why isn't it there now"...I have to remind them that we are a retail store, not a brewery taproom
If sales are steady at an acceptable rate for the beers he re-orders, he may be happy with the reliability and see any changes as a risk. It takes time and effort to stay on top of the latest in the beer world, and other parts of the store may be a higher priority. It could be that he's just lazy, but maybe he tried rotation before and found his clientele preferred the stability, or he realized he doesn't have the time/passion to devote to learning what would be more successful. Maybe suggest that he start rotating the 2 slowest tap handles and see if the market is there to justify additional experimentation. If you're angling for the job of deciding the taplist, create a proposal for increasing growler sales x% for the month/quarter by making specific changes, then ask him to implement. If your hunch is right and sales do increase with the variety, you'll have a strong case for making more decisions like that. If he has a bunch of departments he has to run and doesn't have a passion for beer so the growler station is a low priority, he may be relieved to have someone to delegate to who can run with it.
How many taps? What type of store, grocery? How well do other formats of craft beer sell at the store? If there's only a few (+/- 5ish) taps, it may make more sense to keep the reliables on tap, thus keeping your core customers happy. If you've got 10+, you could easily keep 5 usuals, and rotate 5.
I am writing as a customer not a retailer. There is a growler station relatively close to me that has 11 beers on tap. http://growler-station.com/gse01kellysliquor/ I am a big fan of some of the constants-Kane Head High and Overhead. They tell me these are their biggest sellers. (Of course today they don't have Head High. I can't remember the last time that was the case.) If I find myself close by, I don't have any qualms about stopping because I know that my worst case scenario is I walk out with a growler of a phenomenal DIPA. They usually have another 1 or 2 taps with other Kane beers and 2 or 3 taps with Carton (Boat is almost always on Tap). The remaining taps rotate. So my advice is that it is a good idea to have a constant or 2 that you know are going to move. You just need to figure out what that is and what is the right split between regulars and rotating.
No kidding. I live 2 blocks from the beach, and all of a sudden I'm feeling ripped off and victomized.
hahahahaha my thoughts exactly, I live in the bay area and I'm thinking we need to catch up here hahahaha
All of the Albertsons here in Boise rotate everything, all the time. However, price point changes based on what's on. Joe SixPack may pay 8.99 for a growler of Goose IPA, but won't want to shell out $24.99 for Pettus 50/50 or Deschutes the Stoic. Always good to have a mix on the price point as well....
