Product that doesn't move

Honestly, I think the craft beer industry is at least 10 years behind the wine industry when it comes to promoting its products. I think right now you have a lot of passionate brewers who aren't entirely savvy when it comes to the business side of things. Union Jack has a 95 rating here and Double Jack has a 97. As far as I'm concerned, any brewer with a 90+ rated beer that isn't papering retailers shelves with shelf-talkers promoting that fact is leaving a lot of money on the table.

You can print a few thousand shelf talkers for a couple hundred bucks. Send a few packs to each of your distributors with a note that says you'll pay sales reps $10 for each unique placement they can confirm with a digital photo emailed to the brewer's marketing manager (who is probably also the guy who scrubs the tanks, but that's another story). Whole program probably ends up costing you under $5K tops.

While still short of where wine is, the proliferation of beer SKUs makes it hard for most shoppers to decide which beers to try. So they tend to stick with what they know. But just as a Robert Parker rating of 85+ or so jacks sales, so will a BA rating of 90+. Give people a reason to pick your product out of all the stuff on the shelf that they've never heard of. All you're looking for is to get people to try your product. If it's worthy, then it will thrive on its own after that. Word of mouth, sharing with friends, etc. will all lead to exponential exposure if you can just increase trial (of your excellent product, that is). If increased trial increases sales (and I'd be surprised if the shelf talker program I outlined above doesn't AT LEAST double sales), suddenly a dealer who used to sell a case a month of your product is moving 2-3 cases a week. They start ordering a bit more and giving it more prominent shelf position, talking it up to their regulars, etc. More sales also means fresher beer, which increases customer satisfaction even more.

But instead of doing something (anything) to get this kind of momentum rolling, most brewers are content to put their product on the shelf and hope people stumble across it and like it.

 

I've seen some beers like this that I know won't sell and the price never goes down. It seems odd to me. Some examples are the 375 mL bottles of Mikkeller It's Alive! beers @ $18/bottle (at several shops) as well as Rogue Bombers such as Juniper Ale for like $15. Also, that 2011 BA Straffe Hendrik is all over the place for $30.

I'd imagine these shops would eventually lower the prices if nobody is buying? I don't know for sure though.

 

Seems like I've seen the same three Dieu Du Ciel varieties sitting on the shelf for the past two years without moving. They have finally put them on sale and they still aren't going out the door. On the other hand, Peche Mortel will be gone in a heartbeat if it happens to appear.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Ink...id=1375820059&sr=8-1&keywords=blacklight+pens

I love to mark old bottles and see if they stay there for months/years....

 

Really? That makes me sad. I love that beer, so of course that means everyone else should, too.

 

Tart of Darkness sat on the shelves for a while.
I am regretting not getting more...man it aged really well.

 

Anything Widmer that is a 22oz. Anything in a duece-duece from them in Charlotte, NC might as well be considered a year-round option.

 

It must not sell very well then, as good as G Knight is it really doesn't make much sense to stock that old.

 

I love some Green Flash WIPA fresh but my local guy has to send it back a lot because he gets it old. Saw a case of West Coast IPA bombers at a bottle shop in Georgia on vacation in June. It was dated 12/2012. It was full.

I really really hope that the Va beach brewery solves that-it should.

 

Unfortunately, FW is not moving here in MA. As someone new to the area, it is a very interesting phenomenon because FW is way better than most of the stuff on the shelves..in particular most of the locals. There needs to be some effort put into building a brand I dare say and FW isn't doing it...just thinking that making good beer is enough...but there are too many crafts on the shelf and not enough beer geeks alone to move it anymore.

 

Some craft brewers will have to drop prices to keep selling.

 

If my slow movers aren't out the door within a couple weeks I drop the price just to get them out the door

 

I agree with you and I don't. FW is usually better than most locals that remain on the shelves--that is, of non-moving product, FW is one of the best. But one reason that you see a lot of mediocre locals is that the best locals and most limited editions move out very quickly (except in funky stores in non-craft-friendly areas with high prices). I literally found only one store that had all the best of Clown Shoes and Pretty Things, but I would never shop there for other reasons. And the best NightShift and Mystic is impossible to find in stores, while Trillium and Tree House are not in stores at all. So, yeah, FW could have more love. But don't assume that it's because the mediocre locals are beating it up.

 

There will be another shake-out like in about 1999. We will probably be surprised by some of the casualties. Boulder, for instance, should have sold out by now. Hopefully they're strong in Colorado because they have nothing happening in this neck of the woods.

 

Most people are too greedy to bite the bullet. You have lucky customers. Cheers.

 

Given some of the things I've seen/heard in different places, it could be that the retailer over-estimated from customer input or on their own how well the G'Knight would sell or it could be that the retailer had to take a set number of cases of different Oskar Blues beers from the distributor to be able to get anything... In a number of states its pretty common that distributors "reward" retailers by access to the rare beers based on how much of the more common beers they buy. Usually that's within a single brewery's line up (e.g., to get Bell's Hopslam you have to sell a lot of Bell's beers) but it wouldn't surprise me to learn that it's based on the cases of all beers purchased from a single distributor.

 

In some states there is a law against "biting the bullet."

 

I wish I knew if I loved it. I've never seen it fresh enough on the shelf that I would consider buying it.

 

Like here in Tennessee...no selling below wholesale.

 

Given that the standard markup is 30%, there is plenty of room between "biting the bullet" and "selling below wholesale". Of course, if the customers catch on, they will start waiting for prices to drop before buying something they want. And a store cannot survive on impulse buying alone.