I’ve seen threads about breweries going out of business and the demise of beer bars, but I’m not sure I’ve seen one about beers stores. I live out at the end of civilization (Vermont) which could be part of the problem, but the quality and selection at my local beer stores has really gone downhill. One issue is that the move to cans has killed bombers so where I used to be able to buy a single, I’m now forced to buy a 4 or 6 pack to try something new - which I’m loath to do. But the number of different, interesting, foreign beers on offer has really gone down. I don’t know if the popularity of local craft beers has killed interest or eliminated the shelf space for more interesting beers and if this is just a problem where I live. ‘comments?
Where I live (in the PDX area), I know some places are struggling. (In fact, John's marketplace out in Beaverton just announced they're going belly up). Other places seem to be doing just fine. As a customer, I don't feel as if I have any difficulty finding a good selection of craft beer and/or imports. I don't know how typical that is nationwide though.
Kind of a mixed bag in my area. A plus is that Pennsylvania had liberalized the sale of beers a few years ago so I now can purchase beers at my local supermarkets. There is a technicality that the beer sales are via a separate/new business within the supermarket but from a consumer point of view this is now a transparent sale thing. My local Retail Beer Distributors are still going strong but I have noticed that over the past decade or so the variety of German imports had declined. I suspect that this is driven by market demands, customers (including me) are instead buying German style beers from a plethora of local craft breweries. The selection of Belgian imports appears to be the same today as it was a decade ago; due to local craft breweries not brewing too many Belgian Ales perhaps? Cheers!
The craft beer shelves have all shrunk in the last 5 years. 1 store cut its craft beer section in half and removed 2 whole shelves of craft beer and ripped the shelves out of the floor and put boxes of macros on the floor in its place. So they went from 4 shelves down to 2.
One of our favorite stores that was almost exclusively craft has gone out of business. Most have had substantial shrinkage in their beer offerings with increases in ciders, things like hard teas, and even CBD beverages. One is hanging in with a wide selection including imports but they also recently had a "sell off" of their curated collection and have added quit a few meads which I find a bit strange. The largest retailer in the area has had a huge reduction on what they offer. They have gotten rid of half of their imports and their domestic offerings have been drastically reduced. Their hidden stash in the cooler is long gone, mostly replaced by macros. It's definitely changing.
More reason to homebrew! I am drinking a homebrewed Smoky and Spicy (rye malt) Brown Ale as I type this message. Cheers!
New York suburban beer store character and locations haven't changed much since I arrived in the 70s. Some have closed; my favorite Yaphank Beer closed in the 80s. He was the only nearby outlet to carry Yuengling products and Cornell Sodas. Beer & Soda stores always carried the big brands, usually with a better selection than the supermarkets. Now the beer stores all have a craft beer section, but most don't have a specialist employee to guide stock purchasing. Growler filling became common but is now disappearing. As far as I know, there are no specialty stores east of NYC on Long Island.
I'm getting there. If things go as planned with a possible addition I may have a nice, dry basement to play in.
In my small suburb there isn't much true craft beer, but the metro area has a decent selection at a dozen stores including a liquor superstore and another store nearly as large. With the population growth we're seeing, I expect we'll have more large stores opening soon, and we haven't had a lot of store closures.
Excluding Whole Foods, all of my go-to stores have reduced their craft beer selections and started pushing even more seltzers and ciders on me. All within the past year too. One liquor store I go to when I’m in Alaska sadly did away with their bomber section, leaving me with no place to buy singles when I’m up there. Times change and we have no choice but to go with the flow.
My two stores that I frequent have other product lines to help balance the trendiness of sales. One is the home location of an 8-store beer, wine and liquor chain (one location also has deli/pizza foods to go), and the other store is a part of a 2-store family chain that has a goldmine in the fresh farm market types of products, butcher shop, nursery/greenhouse, wines, tavern, etc. that makes the place a tourist destination. But I think the beer section at each store does a good job standing on it's own.
I can see some places struggling a little. Nothing really out of the ordinary though. Most places around here are pretty well diversified, and also sell wine, liquor both. And in Maryland, with a few exceptions where old district laws that have been grandfathered-in, beer, wine, liquor stores do not have to compete with grocery stores that sell alcohol. Maybe that helps?
I've only one 'beer store' in my city (which has 13 breweries), and it's been years since I've been in, other than to buy singles for trades or I'm with friends. So, I've no idea how they're doing. But, reports are they are still expensive, pricey, and staffed with cooler-than-thou fucksticks who make going there less than enjoyable.
When I’m in Orange County, I still think that my local store there is doing fine. That said, no longer is there any ‘hype” on beers as there was 12-13 years ago. I say that because they no longer post online about beer that just came in. There just isn’t anything nowadays that moves the needle. Over a decade ago, getting in something like Prairie Bomb! was a post-worthy thing. Nowadays not so much. And it’s like that; how things have gone, there really are no more beers that people chase. Goose Island day on Black Friday was a crazy event. Fast forward to now and my local shop didn’t even get any BCBS in. Shit. In 2013/2014 WBAYDN could see a day with 20 pages! (And this is when pages had 40 replies). For some reason imho, craft beer has lost a lot of excitement. And it’s a bummer to see. But that’s just the way it is I guess.
Overall stores in my area have shrunk selections and options. 1 store seems holding pretty good with offerings. Another store relocated and built a massive facility that is dominating the area for beer/wine/liquor options. That is where I mostly go now. They have a wide selections of Euro imports as well. But like every store in my area freshness is a struggle, it’s really hard to find something I want that is <8 weeks old any more. Even when I see new items coming in, they rarely are under 8 weeks from canning/bottling date. My visit last night landed me a Jacks Abbey mixed 12 pack of new beers in the mix I haven’t seen historically and that 12 pack had a canned on date of early Oct. best I could find so grabbed it anyway.
In order to stay in business many of the local beer stores have devoted much more shelf space to RTD cocktails, Hard Seltzers, and THC drinks. Couple that with the rising cost of beer, stagnant wages/increased cost of living, and young adults drinking less in general, the customer base for craft beer is shrinking
I work for a large grocery store in the DWF area. Over the last several years I have lost well over 30+ linear feet of national craft to all the seltzer/hard tea/fruity candy flavors. That's a lot of shelf space. It's that circular argument of "sales on national craft are down, so we are reducing skus, and with the reduced variety of national product, sales on national craft are down more, so.......". You get it. Frustrating, but above my pay grade.
