How do you prefer beer be organized in a store?

PLEASE don't change them!

 

Ledger's (of Berkeley) style...NO organization...are you feeling lucky?
http://ledgersliquors.com/

 

Wine has this problem with blends.

That said, I still prefer by brewery.

 

This is a very good question, as there certainly are beers that fall into this realm.

One key thing to a well-built style set is to make a decision on where to classify such beers and then BE CONSISTENT with all other beers that should be classified the same way. This way, a person can get to know the set and come to know where to expect certain types of beer.

Take Witbier for example. This is a Wheat beer, and it's also a Belgian style ale. I made the decision to put the Witbiers into the Wheat section. The reason for that is there are some people who specifically seek beers with wheat in the grist, while there are also others who specifically avoid them. Since this is one of the styles in which wheat is an important part of the beer's character, I put it in the Wheat classification. There's also a general flavor similarity between many Witbiers and many Hefeweizens (also wheat), so these beers are now together in the style set where customers can explore beers of this flavor profile.

Belgian IPA is another example. Is it a Belgian style, or an IPA style? Due to the Belgian yeast character, and often with varying levels of hop character high to low, I decided to put it in with the Belgian styles. It's really more of an American craft brewing invention than an historical Belgian beer style, and the Belgian yeast really flips it over to the Belgian category flavor-wise. There are some people who really do not like the yeast character found in Belgian-style beers, so this way they can avoid these.

 

Maybe where you live, but places like Liquor Barn here don't abide by those rules as far as I know. I have seen then move stuff around plenty of times and remove brands/put other brands in. Hell recently they even put a bomber selection in the cooler that is a bunch of beers from different breweries. They don't put Sixpoint beers in the cooler, which makes no sense because you would think there would be some type of contract since their beers state they need to be in a cooler temp. Not saying you are completely wrong, but from what I've seen they aren't binded by a contract so they should be able to put more IPAs in there.

 

I don't think they will be changed in those current locations.

That said, wouldn't you prefer to have a larger selection, even if the singles were arranged by style?

 

Country, then keep all the breweries together.

Craft Beer Outlet in Philly is tough to shop because it's warm shelves are seperated by 15 steps and are by type of beer. Not a huge fan of that. Don't care about state nor alphabetized. I enjoy searching and discovering.

 

Branding is very important to any business, craft beer or otherwise. BA's who claim to be immune to branding/marketing are fooling themselves. If you read Jesskidden's article it states several times that brewers design packaging for different beers to be seen together on a shelf for the greatest visual impact and brand recognition. Even worse, a consumer quickly scanning a crowded shelf of similar beers might completely miss a stand-alone product. Splitting up a brewer's beers to different sections of the store diminishes the brands brewers have worked hard to develop.

 

I work for a wholesaler. Big brands do business this way. Craft brewers get the shaft as a result.

 

From the linked article at replies #28 and 88:

"If we move up the chain a bit to the distributors, I heard the same philosophy time and again: Educate by style, sell by brand. Budrakey put it this way: “As a brand manager, my job is to grow brands. I have a responsibility to my suppliers. It’s not my job to grow lagers or IPAs. It’s my job to grow Brooklyn or Harpoon. So, I’ll support that with a ‘Styles of the Season’ sign focusing on and describing märzens, porters, and pumpkin beers in the fall. But I still set the shelves by brand.”

Whether you agree with or not, the article really does a fine job explaining why most (but not all) store owners and distributors prefer brewery over beer type groupings.

 

the TWs here already have the largest selection of any store in the state, at least in the US singles section, by miles. the European section is surely lacking though

 

Cool, like I said you probably are right for where you live, but I believe from what I have personally seen things are different in Kentucky.

 

What I can tell you is that AB, MillerCoors, etc., are having their way with cooler space nationwide. Some craft brewers with a little pull in the market try their hand at these contracts (equity agreements) but have a harder go of it. That said, you may be shopping in a craft specialty store. I can't speak to that as I have no experience with those (unfortunately).

 

Hi Ranbot. Your post is a good one and I'd like to offer a counter viewpoint if I may for discussion.

"...brewers design packaging for different beers to be seen together on a shelf for the greatest visual impact and brand recognition." For the sake of discussion, I posit that the article asserts here what can best be described as a generalization. This is certainly not true in many prime examples of highly successful craft breweries. Think of all the different designs on the bottles of the many Stone beers. Does Sublimely Self Righteous look like Old Guardian? Same for Dogfish; 60 Minute looks quite different from Midas Touch. And how about Russian River? Does Pliny the Elder look like Supplication? The brand recognition is in the brand, meaning the logo. It's like the logo of automobile companies seen on the vehicles themselves; the Mercedes star, the Lexus "L", the Cadillac wreath and crest. The logo is the brand symbol, and that's what people come to recognize visually that then creates whatever meaning in their minds about that brand that they have developed through experience or through word of mouth.

Take the full Mercedes Benz lineup of vehicles and put them in a row, from the C class to their top SUVs. Sure there are some visual design cues of the brand found on the vehicles, but mostly what makes them recognizable as Mercedes' to most people, except for car geeks who'd likely know anyway, is the Mercedes star logo.

Since we're on the car analogy, I venture to say most would agree that their experience on a car dealer's lot is that they have the vehicles parked together in categories; the sedans here, the crossovers over there, the full-bore SUVS there, the pickup trucks together yet elsewhere. With so many choices, it makes sense to put things together into shoppable, brouse-able categories.

Another example. Heinz has a strong brand, but you are likely to see their ketchup in with other ketchups, their relish with other relish, mustard with mustard, mayonaisse with other mayo, etc.

"Even worse, a consumer quickly scanning a crowded shelf of similar beers might completely miss a stand-alone product." This reasoning seems to be grasping at straws. Certainly this can happen, but for every one time this happens, I'll show you 5 more times the brand is discovered for the first time because it was there with the other brands the customer is already familiar with. Besides, a consumer quickly scanning a crowded shelf of a brewery's products might completely miss a product. I mean, if one were to quicly scan anything, s/he is likely to miss something.

 

The best way I've seen it done in a few places is (with all of the breweries offerings next to each other):

Locals
Midwest
West Coast
Belgium
German
Europe
BMC

 

The exception proves the rule. It may not compare to the Budweiser 'Red Door' but that colorful array of consistent and well put-together Alaskan 6er carriers is eye candy and they know it. They're not doing it to 'fool the consumer', they're doing it because consistency in all aspects is just good business, but it DOES draw the eye. Yes there are exceptions, but most of those exceptions are not within the realm of what I would call 'successful' craft brewers. You brought up Stone - they have some serious consistency in their branding - limited releases, seasonals, etc. are not included in that because they are meant to stand out, not to compliment the rest of the brewers regular offerings.

 

Good points, and indeed, as with the Alaskan 6-ers, we have our 6-packs on the shelf alphabetically by brand. Again, people are always shopping for brand when it comes to 6-packs. Whereas, the majority (understand not everyone) are in experimentation and discovery mode in our singles aisle.

Customers are offered both shopping approaches this way.

I would also posit that, with the consistency of 6er packaging can also come people who's eyes scan right past it, looking for the one specific brand. If I'm looking for New Belgium, I'm not even looking in the As, so no matter how pretty and eye-drawing Alaskan packaging is, it's moot because I'm down in the middle of the the aisle looking for that familiar and iconic NB packaging (which by the way, is about to change beginning 2014).

How many people tried New Belgium Fat Tire, said "meh", and moved on to another brand and never came back? I assert there are plenty. Yet if they moved onto IPAs, in our set they'll discover NB Ranger IPA, and they would discover a darn good IPA at that.

What I am saying is, in our tests in our stores, we found that customers were discovering and trying new-to-them brands and/or re-visiting old brands again (different styles of the brand) that they had not purchased in a while. It has been a win-win-win-win for the breweries, distributors, consumers, and Total Wine.

 

I can agree with that. Yet the question remains: how is separating beer by brewery beneficial to the consumer? If the labeling/packaging and brand development of a beer is so important, wouldn't it stand to reason that the consumer would be drawn to someone's product as a direct result of that immediate visible comparison between various brewers' packaging styles (i.e. a bottle of Flying Dog beer next to a bunch of modestly labeled alternatives)? Just a thought.

 

My local BevMo does both. Primarily, the organize by style, but for some craft beers (I think primarily because of lack of shelf space and/or popularity), they organize by brewery. Also, they have a seasonal section.

The other locations (liquor stores, beer stores, etc.) were I purchase beer tend to be style. The local Whole Foods has RateBeer rates which is nice, even thought I don't use the site.

 

my local beer haven does it by country first, then by brewery. Just today saw that they had scottish beer that were in bottles reminiscent of scotch bottles