While most of us try and hunt down that hard to find sought after beer. I can't help but notice that Whole Foods tends to have the cheapest prices around when an item is in stock. For example, Dogfish head WWS was going for $11-$20 in stores around me, however, whole foods had it for $8.99. Does whole foods get their beer cheaper or are they just trying to under cut the competition? Another example was they were selling FiftyFifty Eclipse for $22 while other stores in the area had a minimum price of $29.99 and up.
I'm guessing they get it cheaper because of the volume they can buy at. Same goes for Wegman's. I also think they can afford a thinner profit margin than your typical bottle shop, because beer makes up a very small percentage of their overall business. In fact, it's not unheard of for grocery stores to sell certain products at a loss in order to bring in customers; they may be doing it to undercut competition, or it may simply be a way to gain cred with craft beer drinkers. Think about it - a grocery store that does tens (if not hundreds) of thousands in sales every day can absorb a loss of even a couple hundred bucks on an allocation of Eclipse varieties, whereas a bottle shop that does a thousand or 2 in sales on a good day really can't. I have no idea if that is what is going on here, but $22 must be very near cost for Eclipse varieties, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was at least a break-even price.
In the past years I took note that Whole Foods in SEPA had ‘economical’ pricing but over the past few months I have noted that their prices have increased. It would not surprise me that your post will motivate them to increase prices more. Cheers!
“I'm guessing they get it cheaper because of the volume they can buy at.” Neither Whole Foods or Wegmans can do consolidated buying since each store needs to purchase from the Wholesale Distributor which services that particular area (as part of the three tier system). For example, the Whole Foods - Plymouth Meeting and Whole Foods – Devon purchase their beers from different wholesale distributors; Montgomery County vs. Chester County. Cheers
Seeing as there are several Whole Foods stores in each county, they can still get volume discounts. And unless there is a law preventing it, they can even still get volume discounts from the brewery itself, passed on through the distributor. They may also qualify for per-distributor volume discounts not tied to a particular brewery's beer. Etc.
“Seeing as there are several Whole Foods stores in each county, they can still get volume discounts.” I spoke to the beer buyer at one Whole Foods store and they do not do consolidated buying. “And unless there is a law preventing it, they can even still get volume discounts from the brewery itself, passed on through the distributor.” The three tier system is specifically established to ‘separate’ the retailer from the brewery. A retailer can only purchase from a wholesale distributor. Cheers!
This is only the case because most bottle shops in PA (particularly in and around the Philly area) are so over the top ridiculously priced. In NY, FL or any other state I have been in, WF prices are much higher than your average bottle shop.
I seem to remember hearing about a law saying you can't sell beer for a loss. Hence, rarely if ever are there sales on beer. WF can sell at very little to no markup to get you in the store to buy over priced organic produce, lunch bar, etc. WF is cheaper than Wegmans period.
Their organic produce, etc is not overpriced. Try buying the same thing at Acme. More expensive and usually a day away from going bad. Grocery stores have razor thin margins due to competition and spoilage, but succeed on volume. With that philosophy they can sell beer at low margins as well.
You can still get discounts without consolidated buying. And I understand how the three tier system works, that doesn't mean the brewery is completely powerless to reward volume buyers.
“…that doesn’t mean the brewery is completely powerless to reward volume buyer.” The customers for breweries are wholesale distributors. If a brewery is “rewarding” retailers then they are ‘skirting’ the three-tier system. The purpose of the three tier system is to totally isolate the brewery from the retailer. If a brewery is “rewarding” retailers then they are either exploiting a loop hole or violating the law. Cheers!
