How fast do "clearance" beers sell at your store?

I skimmed the above comments but it looks like the "depends on what beer" has been mentioned already. A lot of seasonals and, especially, older not moving european beers go in the clearence area by me. If its a good CCB seasonal or something tasty it usually goes within a few days. If its an outdated summer ale it will sit there until the store either gives it away a year later or opens it or chucks it. Entirely depends on what is on the clearence rack.

 

Best I've done was a 10-month old sixer of Bell's Christmas Ale for $5

It was ok.

 

Scored a case of those too... at TW Tampa. Were you the guy with the beard?

 

Only when the beers are cellar worthy. Picked up Fantome de Noel's for $6 last January! As well as $3 Port Santas little helper and $6 Mikkeller Santas Helper. Still have some tucked away.

 

I happen to know the inside scoop at the local small shop here.
If they buy it full price and it doesn't sell they get it credited back by the dist.
What you see in the discount bin was bought at discount because they distributor couldn't sell it. It also gets credited back if not bought. Basically, the store and the distributor split the loss on unsold beer and sell it or give it away to warehouse employees.
The stuff you see in discount bins isn't leftover that the store is just trying to break even on.

 

In our state all beer is bought COD, there's no price breaks for quantity, we get deliveries twice a week from most of our suppliers. Thus, I try to avoid buying more than a week's worth of anything unless it's something limited or a "buy it now because it won't be available next week" type of beer, so we don't get stuck with much stuff to put on clearance in the first place.

Most of what I put into the clearance bin is seasonal stuff that's just been replaced. For example, NBB Pumpkick and Angry Orchard Cinnful came in last week, so I put the last few bottles of NBB Rolle Bolle and AO Elderflower in the clearance bin for $.99/each. Given that most of the stuff that ends up in the bin is still within code (or close to it), it generally goes within a day or two.

As far as expensive stuff is concerned, closeouts on those seem to work better if I leave them on the shelf with a bright yellow "Clearance sale!" sign rather than in the bin, so you see a few of those scattered around the store as well.

We only have enough cooler/shelf space for ~1,300 bottles, so I'm constantly closing out slow sellers to make room for the steady stream of new stuff that gets released.

 

Bought a 4 year old case of Rochefort 6 at a local distributor for $19.99.

Delicious!

 

That depends entirely on the laws of each state. We've got 7 days to return something to the distributor, and after that they're under no obligation to take it back. Some of the larger breweries will send people out to do audits (checking date codes) and will usually swap out anything that happens to be close to code, but other than that we're pretty much stuck trying to sell anything we've purchased.

 

My local store doesn't have a discount rack/area. They do have specials sometimes. Mostly I get my discount by being a very frequent customer. I always go to a liquor store when i travel, even if it's just 5 towns over.
I always look for the Belgian Dark Ales on special/clearance. I've found many over the years and never been regretful of the purchase. About 6 years ago I lived by a place that had a discount rack and for some reason I will always remember buying Tommy Knocker Maple Nut Brown for $4 for the six pack, again no regrets. But seriously I don't think i've seen that beer since.

 

For decades, clearance bins were like gold mines, but those days are long gone. One of the reasons that I first got to know English barleywines was from these sections; buying Lees, Hardys et al at ridiculously low prices. And Belgians...puhleeze! As recently as maybe 5 or 6 years ago, I can remember filling my Honda Element (back seats lifted to create a cave) when Bev' Mo stores decided to clear out anything remotely holiday like in the Belgian section at 90% off. I spent that Christmas Eve day, going from store to store. But that was the last real year for amazing clearance finds. The last 4 or 5 years, stores have smartened up that people want these beers with age or don't mind if they are not brand new, so most of what I have found in the last several years have been beers that have gone south, maybe from mishandling, oxidation (far more than even those English barleywines), etc. It is rare that I will buy anything out of a clearance section anymore, because it usually isn't just beer that has been around for a year or two, but are more likely to be beers that the owners have recognized are spoiled in some way.

 

Nah, I'm in Fort Lauderdale and no beard. I bought a half case of each but should have gotten more. By the way, I picked up some WnB recently laying around at ABC. I saw it was $10.99 regular price. Since then I've checked TW's website, and while they are out of it, it looks like they have reduced the price of WnB to $11.99 and MooHoo to $8.99. Loved both these beers, especially the WnB and can't wait until they come out again.

 

All the TWs in my area show them at the last sold price... $3.99 / 4-pack.

 

Usually goes fast at the shop i go to, lasts 3 days top. Cant go wrong with 22oz bombers at $2.99
Great for everyday drinking!

 

I've gotten a few good deals at the Total Wine near me. Recently bought Bell's Golden Rye @ $3.99/sixer. Also got deals in the past on Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye and something from Founders, don't remember what. I think the latter two came out to around a buck a bottle.

Fortunately, they didn't go so fast that I missed out. I was a little surprised on the Founders. They had a cart of cases that probably sat for a week. I bought a case, came back a few days later and there were still some there so I bought another.

They've also had discounts on winter warmers in the spring, but I don't care for the style so I didn't buy any.

I suppose if I did a side-by-side on a fresh and a past date discount, I'd notice a difference, but I thought they were all still tasty and certainly drinkable for the price.

 

My dad seemingly refuses to buy beer that's not anciently old. I noticed yesterday that he bought some sort of black IPA that was best by February 2011. ... The hell? The worst part about it is that he makes six figures. If it were a stout or something, I could understand, but why buy a pretty hopcentric beer that has 3 year old hops in it?

 

I got A sixer of Rodenbach classic once for $7.49 on the clearance rack of a nearby store. Beer usually sits around there for a while, but it usually isn't stuff I have any interest in or stuff that is way past its best by date.

 

None of the shops I go to have clearance racks per se. A few will have advertised clearance sales on stuff, but normally it's something the distributor has offered them a great price on to get the retailer to take it off their hands. Got a couple 4-packs of Six-Point Diesel for $3.99/4 that way last year. But normally it's seasonals I'm not that interested in. The one thing one of the larger distributors in the region does is put together blind boxes of 12 beers for 12 bucks. They tend to seed the boxes with one or two high-quality beers each, then most of the time you get a couple expired or nearly expired seasonals, a couple beers you probably don't really want and a handful of beers that are a good value for a buck apiece. It's a minimal investment, and it's actually kind of fun. Normally, if I see a stack of these when I'm on a beer run, I'll grab one just to see what I get.

 

I have had the clerk or manager say "how about this six pack of xyz beer, you like to try oddball stuff and this needs to go". Usually at that point it's about 3 bucks per six pack. Doesn't happen often but it does happen. Now I did pay for his kids first year of college one six pack at a time lol

 

So yes, I am a dumpster for shelf turds. But it's a win win!!!

 

When I worked at a retail store, the clearance beers generally moved very slow, most customers knew they were out of date.