How much control do we have over price?

If a company knows that their product is in high demand, they generally will charge what they can for it. Not all companies, but I would think the majority of them.

 

A three tier system exponentially adds to the pricing complexity. Additionally, small, fragmented and private breweries are slow to react and they don't worry about things like share, Nielsen performance, brand health like big public companies. Pricing strategies are especially loose. You will notice the the bigger boys like Sierra Nevade, Sam, and Lagunitas have more competitive and consistent pricing across the channels.

 

As a collective, consumers have a great deal of control over pricing. There are plenty of craft options and if the prducts don't sell because the price is too high breweries will either need to come down on the price and sacrafice profit, find a more economical way to produce their products, or ultimately they will stop producing them. Now if the entire craft beer category is priced too high then we as consumers have a tough choice whether to buy anything. Fortunately there are many breweries that have gotten their distribution and costs to a point where they are very affordable. Stone and Lagunitas are two examples of this.

 

No thanks. Homework sucks! Kidz rule!

 

Beer is not expensive. Of course there's cheap beer like Pabst ($5 for a 6 pack) but most craft beers are $10-$12 for a six pack, which is $2 per bottle or a bit less. When I started buying beer ( 1969) a six pack was 99 cents - today that same beer is $5-6 dollars for a six. Pure inflation over 44 years. The cost of living is at least 6 times what it was in 1969, probably more. Craft beer didn't exist back then - there were maybe a dozen beers to choose from. Now there's a few thousand to choose from. This is the Golden Age of beer. A good craft beer is well worth the price.

 

"Lastly, it's not like you're buying straight from a brewer, there is a supply chain in place.The breweries, distributors and stores all need to get paid. I can tell you they are not making nearly what you think they are. I honestly think beer is priced reasonably. 6pk for $10 = $1.66 a beer. A bottle of water costs $1.50.

Not meaning to go directly at you, I have seen plenty of others say beer is overpriced and completely disagree."

OK, a 6pk for $10. In Massachusetts we can find some fine beer for that price. Sierra Nevada seems to be keeping their prices down. Many beers ARE overpriced though. We're becoming wine-snobs. Or like art-snobs. Where the trend-mongers will pay an exorbitant price to be on top of the latest thing.

That being said, there are many fine breweries that I love that I don't patronize. Green Flash and Dogfish come to mind. I'll buy a reasonably priced pint when I'm out but not the $12-15 they ask for a six. (Or four!) Anyways, like they say, the market will dictate.

Unfortunately there's unscrupulous business folk out there that think, well, if I double the price and sell half the beer I'll save on payroll and shipping....

 

Depends on how much money you make and what other things you sacrifice in life I guess.

-_-

 

Shoplift

 

i usually make it a policy not to buy any six packs that are over $10, so $9.99 makes the grade. still can get many great beers at that price. plus at the liqour store i frequent, they have pick sixes for $8.99, so when they have the more expensive beers in the rotation i buy a few of each.

 

People have total contol over prices. If people stopped buying beer for expensive prices, there wouldn't be any demand. If their wasn't any demand, products would be bought for a fraction of the cost...(ie... the real estate markets in some areas). The only way to do that is the way it is going now. Every second a new homebrewer starts his craft and another is deciding to become a profit company. Eventually there will be too many brewers that overwhelms the market. Remember, there is only so much shelf space for all of this beer. With the lack of "shelf space" looming, the "shelf life" will become a factor in keeping that brewery's profit margin at a sustainable rate. There are not that many people out there hunting 7 month old IPAs and PAs from a local brewery. At some point, the rush will slow and shelf turds will increase, causing huge sale price cuts. These shelf turds will cause local stores to only buy what sells fast as they need to turn a profit too. This will make the local breweries without a solid business plan a certain one to fizzle out. You can say I am full of it, but it's like anything else. All things go in cycles and there is no way if the amount of great beer keeps popping up, people will continue to pay that much for it. I would say it is getting about 5 years from peaking and then slowing down. Everytime I look here there is a new brewery popping up. The only way to sustain this kind of growth would be to make it affordable to the masses. If the masses can afford it, maybe it can sustain, but I think the past success will cloud the judgement of a proper business plan. Long winded, but my honest opinion.

 

I wouldn't say haggle but at the one place I go to I sometimes simply just ask if that is the absolute price on some stuff (not certain stuff that has been sitting for a while, but it just depends what I want to buy) and they usually say they can knock a couple bucks off. Their prices tend to be a buck or two higher than the other place I like to go anyways, so really there is no different, other than if they have something I want and the other place doesn't.