Should Bottle Shops Allow Holds?

I am all for holding bottles in the back, as long as they are holding one for me. If they aren't holding one for me, they should put them all out on the shelf.

 

Newbies in any state don't understand that small and medium sized breweries don't have the production to sell everywhere. But things have improved greatly here in the past two years, with breweries realizing they can add South Dakota without impacting production much.

 

My idea here is that if they're "loyal" customers then they'll be there frequently enough to get added to the list. What makes a customer a "regular" if the store doesn't even know who they are? If a customer goes to the same store over and over and converses with employees there, I'm sure they'd ask about rare beer releases coming up.

There are two or three stores that I go to often, and when BCBS, KBS, CBS, etc. came out I asked what their policy is, which to me is what anyone would do who truly wants to find a bottle. The ones that let me put my name on a list were by far the most convenient. Again, just my opinion.

 

I think it's a fair business practice.

I spend enough money & time at my local bottle shops, talking with the staff, that they always save me something.

It's a way to build & reward the core customer base.

If it was just on the shelf, you'd get the yokels that go from store to store just loading up for trades.

 

Ive worked at 2 liquor stores and neither did this. If we get something rare ill throw one in the back for myself and possibly a coworker or 2 but thats it, everything you see on all shelves is all we have. If its sought after, we limit to 1 or 2 bottles per person

 

It's business. I would think that the faster it sells the sooner they make their profit. If for whatever reason they decide to keep it in inventory that is their decision. Inventory ties up your capital, gets old, gets stolen and gets damaged. If I were a small bottle shop (and I am not) I would hook up the regulars that are my bread and butter.

 

Every business makes the decision as to what works best for them. Rewarding loyal regulars over truck chasers is one one way. Just putting all of an allocation on the shelves for the bumrush is another. Lotteries/ticketed events is yet another. Support the businesses that do things the way you agree with.

Or, drop the FOMO. It simplifies things.

 

I worked in a liquor store during college before craft beer was a big thing. Hell, we didn't even have anything that was not from the big beer companies. No headaches, but shit beer.

 

My local Total Wine keeps small allotment/special releases behind the counter. BUT, they display a bottle/can of each on the counter, so there is no mystery. Check the display, ask for your beer. A compromise I kind of like.

 

a local beer store sends out emails asking if anyone wants something reserved for them. I see nothing wrong with this.

 

It is certainly a fine line.

Here's my story. A local place has a small display case of local, limited release bottles. I asked if I could get some and the man behind the counter says "I have to go ask, I don't know if we are selling these right now or not." He walks away and comes back about a minute later "No we aren't selling them right now. You can ask again the next time you are in." I tell him that's a ridiculous practice, that there won't be a next time that I am in and I walk out. This is a place that is well known for gouging a bit on releases and is known for being a more expensive liqour store around.

Now that is a practice that I do not support. Openly hoarding the beers so they can try and sell it for more later down the road.

 

Good for you. I have also found that owners/managers with questionable practices regarding limited beer releases have other behaviors that make me not shop at their stores.

 

In an area with 600,000 people, there are 1-5 stores that get special release beers. One of them, that seems to be the most favored does this:
Stores special releases in the back, does not announce them on social media. Must know what they have and then get an employee to get it for you. It's possible they may not know where it is or pretend that they don't have any if they don't want to sell you some.

There's another place that sometimes doesn't release special releases. They put them in the back and sell them later. Sometimes they end up in a locked display case with increased prices.

A 3rd place doesn't put new releases out right away, may take them up to 2 weeks to appear, which is really annoying.

The best place announces the releases (most) Thursdays on Facebook sometime between 2 and 5 PM. They usually do same-day holds. They are also $1-3 more per bottle.

 

It's their beer, they paid for it, they can do what they want with it. And as consumers, we can choose to shop where we desire and avoid those establishments whose practices we don't like. Simple as that really.

 

Lots of angst? Yikes. I follow some of my local stores on FB. They post up when they get a release, sometimes. Most of the the time I'll call and they will hold a 4 pack or bottle. It's called being a customer. I too have shared beers with my beer store geeks, Drop of some cans, crack a bottle. So many great local beers, not that much into hunting and chasing.

 

I'm definitely not a fan of the practice. I kid of get that bottle stores may want to do this in order to keep their regular customers happy but not grocery stores larger retailers. Beer should be put out on display there and available to all customers not just "friends and family".

 

Walked into a store looking for something limited, asked the guy working behind the cash register and he immediately said “nope, we haven’t gotten that yet...” so i continued to browse the store looking for something to buy. In the back of the store i ran into another employee and he asked what i was looking for. I told him what i was really looking for but since they didn’t have it, i was just browsing. He immediately said “oh we have two cases of that in back”. I brought the beer up to the guy working at the cash register and he just looked stunned and said some bullshit about how that must have just been delivered. Last time i ever went to that store.

 

I have mixed feelings. I live on a town on an interstate highway and our best beer store is right off the exit. So I know they get tons of travelers who would probably buy most/all of the rare beer we do get (which is not a ton, it's a pretty small town). So I guess it's best that they hold most of the rare stuff. The former manager I used to hang out with, so I got pretty much whatever I wanted. He left, so I was no longer in the loop. I've talked to the new manager enough now that he sold me a bottle of Black Note, so I guess I'm back in the loop. I go to stores in nearby towns though that carry brands ours doesn't and I know they've got stuff in the back that they won't sell me. Still, if it's rewarding loyal customers and turning away whale hunters/truck chasers, I'm good with it. If it's workers hording stuff almost exclusively for themselves and their friends, I'm not.

 

Telling someone that is out in the open for the customers to see is nothing short of a huge dick mode.