KBS price gouging

My sense has been that all but the most patient of beer/liquor stores have come to regard most special limited beer releases as more trouble than they're worth.

 

If anyone in the NYC area is looking for KBS 2012, I know of a store in Brooklyn that still has a few 4-packs (I just bought one on Sunday) and charging $10/bottle. Message me or email me at [email protected] and I'll give you the address.

 

Most ecpensive I seen it anywhere this year wa $7, I was paying $22 a 4-pack at release.

 

I dont hate the beer, but it's a frustrating experience. Exceedingly frustrating. It's just a beer, and i have 2,000 others on the shelf, why are you freaking out? The phone calls dont bother me, the asking in person doesnt bother me, it's the "i MUST have this beer" mentality. That and the entitlement. This past release some yahoo actually called me sexist because i did a One Per Household limit and he and his girlfriend only got 1 bottle rather than 2. Turns out he's on the trading forum a lot: imagine that. It's ridiculous. I dont do limits anymore because of the hassle, which i'm sure i'll get shit for at some point. Damned if you do, damned if you dont.

None of us in the buisness WANT to disappoint people, in fact it's quite the opposite. But it's inevitable when you have 24 bottles, and that makes it frustrating.

I need a vacation

 

Good for you! You should not encourage them by paying insane prices. Sure, call Founders if you think it will be worth your time.

You know what would be funny? Go back, fill up your cart with a few hundred dollars worth of beer (single bottles works best) and then ask the manager about the KBS. When he refuses to sell it for MSRP, walk out and let him restock the shelves.

 

Stores adjusting pricing based on demand and not on some arbitrary MSRP? What has the world come to!

Oh wait...its just capitalism

 

Im gonna keep my answer short and not go on a huge rant.
I would shove that bottle up his ass for $20. However, that would mean 1 less bottle of KBS so dont do that.
I guess just tell his to pound sand and not shop there.

Cheers!

 

I dont know if they hate it but i went into one of the stores i frequent and one of the employees came and talked beer with me.

He mentioned that they got a case of it....and instead of selling it he decided it would be better if he just bought the whole case....i was fairly upset when he told me this.

 

Well, the good news is that Vulcan is definitely NOT the only good package store in Birmingham. I prefer both Highland and Dee's myself (and the latter is only a stone's throw from Vulcan, anyway, on the same road). Plus, assuming the Gourmet Beer Bill passes, you'll be getting a fancy new Hop City as well. That should make visits to the in-laws more fun for me.

Oh, and KBS is NOT worth $20/bottle. You're no worse off than if the store hadn't gotten any at all, or if they had sold out before you got there. Just tell them you won't be patronizing them any more, tell them why, and move on. I haven't been back to Vulcan since the very first time I went there and I felt their prices were considerably too high for a mixed 6-pack. I haven't missed it.

 

you'll survive. i paid $9 for one, i dont regret it, but just paid $11.50 for 4 pak CW Peruvian Morning which was better imo. i hate price gouging as much as i hate "limited distribution", there are so many examples of available beers just as good, or better than beers like kbs.

 

There's still KBS available?! Thanks for the update! See you later!

 

I had a place do that to me here in Michigan too. I had been calling them for a week and a half, they kept telling me yeah well get it call on this day, id ask how much is it going to be .... I don't know..hmm ok. Well finally they find out when they're getting it and I call that day. Yes we have it great I say..how much....19.99 a bottle. I almost fell over. Granted this place also still has shorts liberator on the shelf because they want 19.99 for a sixer of that too. I also remember seeing a couple bottles of 120 minutes a few months ago for 19.99 sitting on the counter.

I was fully prepared to pay up to 30 dollars for a 4 pack,b ut 20 for a bottle I just cant.

They just grossly overprice all their limited stuff. Its a shame too because they have a good selection, most of their prices are reasonable and they're pretty much the only place close. Now though I try to avoid them though because of their pricing strategies.

 

This was the other thing I was thinking about.

Let's say you get 1 case: if you give it to your loyal customers, you can do 1 bottle for each of the top 24, 2 for each of the top 12. That's a pretty small amount of both bottles and people. And how does the guy feel who comes in twice a week and gives you his hard-earned cash but gets shut out because he buys SNPA instead of sours? Maybe that guy doesn't come back in some circumstances, especially if another local retailer just gives KBS first-come, first-serve.

 

Glad to give you a place to vent, pal.

 

Beer should bring people together, not drive them apart.

*hug*

 

That is exactly what my buddy who owns and runs a store back in MA says.

 

I work in customer service and I would rather someone call ahead and ask if I have something then come into my store and complain about how I don't have what they need. I personally prefer to save time and gas by making a quick call. It's one of a few days out of the year some of these places will be really busy. You know going into the day you will get a lot more phone calls than you normally do. It's not like it is a surprise and all of the extra calls are keeping you from something more important. Appriecate the business and attempt to be a little more friendly than usual. If you give off an attitude your customers will to. And some customers will be a-holes for no reason just because that is the way they are in every aspect of life.

 

What I don't understand is how store owners and employees don't seem to be prepared. Three years in a row I've been told at different stores "it's just so crazy this year..." Demand for KBS has been high for a while, it wasn't any different in NE Ohio this year than last. Figure out what your store will do (bottle limits, names on a list, arbitrarily reward loyal customers, lottery, keep it all for yourself) and do that. Don't hem and haw, say "not sure if we'll get any" etc. If you don't have any to sell me fine, tell me I missed out on the list or that it's all gone. I had 3 different employees tell me 3 different stories about the availability of it at one store. Why waste my time and yours lying to me? All you did was piss off and lose a long time customer. I don't get it.

 

Yeah get used to it, this I fear is exactly the direction we are heading in. I am starting to think that a large amount of the rare stuff being sold now on the web auctions are most likely store owners these days maximizing on their profits as well by taking a chunk of their allotment and just auctioning a large part of it instead of putting it on the shelves and nobody is going to be any the wiser. They really don't need to put out much of the rare stuff in order to draw customers anymore. Slowly but surely all of us have spread enough love by bringing enough new people into this hobby of ours to fill their stores for them.

 

As a consumer, not a store owner, I can see different sides on this one.

I'm sure it's annoying to get a lot of calls and emails about a given limited release. But guess what—you're a business. You're in a customer service related industry. Fielding questions from customers kind of comes with the territory. Who said work doesn't have associated annoyances? God knows mine does. Be thankful that these limited releases bring in extra business a few days a year.

As for people who just come in for these releases and don't regularly buy anything else? I'm sure you'd rather reward your loyal customers with special releases, and some stores do. That's entirely their choice. But on the other hand, these people are buying beer from you. They are your customers too, even if they're not regulars. If you deny them access to certain beers just because you don't see them around much, you might be keeping them from ever becoming regular customers. They'll just shop somewhere else.

Face it, you're not always at the checkout counter in your store and frankly, unless you're tracking purchases methodically you may actually have no idea who your regular customers really are. The only way to implement a "reward" system fairly is to monitor all purchases and reward your most loyal customers accordingly.

For stores that believe rewarding regular customers is the right way to go, here's one solution I can think of. Since (as I understand it anyway) these limited releases are allocated based on a store's sales of a brewery's regular beers, set up some kind of card-based system that tracks your customers' purchases by brewery. Set up some kind of quota that says "you buy x number of regular Founders beers, you get x bottles of KBS when it comes out." Nobody else gets any. Make this system perfectly clear to all your customers, and they can decide whether to take it or leave it.