Profiles in beer: the "cherry picker"

Drink what you wanna drink. Live and let live. Etc.

 

I still find the idea of loyalty weird when it comes to either breweries or stores – they are both just businesses, it is ok to go to whatever supermarket is most convenient to your or whatever dry-cleaning you like best. Why should breweries or bars, they are just business selling goods to us in exchange for money why should we be loyal to them?

 

Because sometimes there is more to a relationship (even one based on commerce) than can be quantified with distances and prices. There can be a million reasons why one would proclaim loyalty to a particular store/etc. Doesn't make it wrong. Doesn't make it right either, but there are considerations beyond simple convenience, especially for an emerging industry that taps so heavily into many old school ideals etc yadda yadda I'm rambling.

 

When buying products, I go to whatever store has what I want for the best price within reasonable driving distance. Obviously, I would rather pay a couple more dollars for a beer than drive 20 miles or something. I don't buy products that I don't want just to be loyal or only shop at certain stores (although there are a few stores normally cover all my beer needs).

 

If a place has good service, prices or whatever, I will keep coming back… Loyalty for includes and obligation but I do it more because they provide excellent service like a good business should do. I am not often a fan of the old world / loyalty service type of thing because a lot of bars & stores here interpret that like we will behave terrible, apparently because you come there and pay money you can be insulted – I have received some atrocious service in the fact with the assumption we can because we are a small business & a lot of loyalty is expected there before you get even decent service. Businesses should just provide excellent service & if it is always good, I will come back again for quality, price or because of personal service which is also provided if you are not a frequent visitor.

Same with “cherry picking” – some good stores get this, they will offer good prices & will hold onto new things & notify you about them. Most will come back because of that not because they need to be loyal but because they are an excellent business.

 

I'm somewhat new to the beer scene but have already learned a great lesson about places that sell craft beer. There is a small liquor store close to where I live where the person there knows a ton about craft beer and can tell me when this beer or that beer are coming out. I go into a large supermarket that has a lot of craft beer and they can't even tell me about a beer that they had in their store the day before. There's something to say about the service you receive. It doesn't have to be just about loyalty. This person is also very up to getting a distribution of whatever beer I want. I will go there almost every time.

 

Cherry picking: I'm ok with it
Cherry Rye picking: I'm very ok with it
Cherry picking from a case of Cherry Rye: I should be so lucky

 

I very much fit this category. I do some trading and buy cases of my favorite beers, but drinking through the beer I buy can sometimes a large proposition especially this time of year. Because of so many delicious one offs or seasonals, I rarely buy anything else. I do tend to buy from one place though ( they have three locations). I like the guys there and they respect the business I do there. I am also a whiskey guy as well so I do tend to buy a lot. My trip last week was over $200 all in limited release items.

 

Enjoy beer.

 

Loyalty to a bottle shop has its perks. I have three shops I frequent all over town. I go into shop "A" the other day and the owner says "hey I held back a bottle of Abyss for you, interested?". Damn nice of him and yes I was interested. A day later I go to shop "B" and the same thing happens. Now I'm at two bottles. Yesterday I go to shop "C", same offer, which this time I decline since I have 2 and although I want it, someone else should have a crack at it.
By no means do I expect that to happen but I truly appreciate they did it for me. I literally have driven fifteen miles from home to grab a sixer from store "C" that I could have grabbed two blocks away because of the way they have taken care of me.

 

Loyalty just doesn't buy you much these days, at least around here. Craft beer is too popular and allocations are usually too small. How is a store supposed to fairly divide a single 4-pack of KBS amongst 40 good regular customers?

 

Cuz sometimes they're loyal back to you.

 

This problem can be easily absolved by buying a shit ton of "whalez" from every place under the sun. You're loyal to everyone now. BOOM!

 

There's only one thing I don't like about 'cherry pickers': the condescending attitude you sometimes get about "shelf beers," as if easy availability = poor quality.

 

Good point, this attitude can be annoying.

I find myself in a somewhat similar situation as the OP, except that I drink mostly homebrew, so when I buy beer it's almost always a seasonal/limited release bomber (luckily this is mostly from a selection of local breweries). When I'm out, I'll drink the local standards that I tend to pass over in the liquor store.

 

Rarity and seasonality don't make beer great, just more sought after. (not saying that there aren't great seasonals)

 

I also can't stand the snobbish attitude when people use the term "shelf beer" - as if to say "nothing to see here, move along, its just a lowly shelf beer". Consider me a shelf beer cherry picker. It's more about connoisseurship than hype and blind luck. I long ago dropped "what I should be drinking" in favor of "what I want to drink" and started appreciating the beer in my hand much more than the promise of the beers I couldn't get.

 

It's 100% your choice how you want to buy your beer. Loyalty can be rewarded with things like getting first dibs on the good stuff. CSB time: I have a relationship with a place and they explicitly told me that they would prefer a regular customer get one of their two cases of Founders Harvest Ale (it's a case-only store GODDAM YOU PA LAWS) than a "cherry picker" who will not spend a dime in their store unless they hold something special for them.

I have no problem with how the OP operates or cherry pickers in general, but I understand why a business would want to give loyal customers perks for their repeated business.

 

I do the same, but just out of budget concerns