I'm not trying to promote my store in any way. I just wanted to let any Houstonians know that we're finishing installing 5 taps today. Russ told me that we're going to be tapping Sucaba tomorrow at 3 P.M. There's only one keg (he said it was a slim keg that would fill about 55 pints full, so I'm assuming a sixth barrel?) so it probably won't last long. They'll be using tulips they ordered for it for the glassware. We'll have some more good things coming soon (Yellow Rose, as well as other special releases) as Russ wants to keep a good rotation and try to get a lot of limited release beers. I can update this thread as needed if anyone is interested with more info as I find it out. Cheers!
Post updates through the established Twitter account. That would be the best way to reach the max amount of people. Edit: thanks for the info though. I like the expansion even if I'm not a big beer at a grocery store guy...
I'm sure Russ will be posting stuff, but I'll remind him lol. I work in produce so unfortunately I have no control over their Twitter account. Also, I asked and unfortunately we won't be doing growler fills. Womp womp.
No growler fills? What's the idea, that I come and treat the grocery store as a bar? That seems a little odd to me.
They said they didn't want to take away from B&W sales and the logistics of it were too complicated. I don't know, it sounds silly. Both another manager and I agreed that growler fills would be more important than actually serving the beer itself on tap. People do go up there to have lunch, but most people are going to go to buy groceries and don't want to stick around for 30 minutes with a cart full of food and have a beer, at least I would imagine. If they could take that beer home though...
Any other Central Market locations going to do this? I love what Whole Foods has done with their tap selection - CM is right on my way home so I would be inclined to stop there more often.
I've had lunch there a few times and bought a beer to go with lunch. And there's quite a few people that seem to go there just to eat. But they could definitely get more sales by filling growlers.
CM already has a bar + growler fills in Ft Worth and Austin, but I don't think I've ever seen limited/non-local beers.
Did they actually have Sucaba? I went at like 3:20 on Saturday and the tap was one of the IPAs. I had to leave because the crowd was the worst I've ever seen, so I didn't ask. I also didn't see plastic cups there, which they should totally get. They do it at Whole Foods in Austin, and it makes it way easier to get a beer and continue shopping.
I don't see how a mere 5 taps is going to impact packaged beer sales. More likely they just don't want to deal with filling growlers. It requires a little bit of training.
I'm confused. Aren't grolwers usually filled with beer? How is selling grolwers of BEER going to affect BEER & and wine sales?
Sucaba was on draft today. Plus I got a Sucaba bottle, not bad. Kind of weird though seeing all the people there picking up highly sought after bottles of a beer they've never even heard of just because they thought they should...
From what I understand, the sales go to the front of the house, not beer and wine. I don't think sales from growlers would impact beer and wine enough, they just don't want to go through all that trouble. So yes, Sucaba was on tap yesterday. I apologize to anyone that went up there looking for it the day they told me it was going to be on tap. It's frustrating when Russ goes, 'Yeah, we're going to put this on tap tomorrow," or, "We're going to have this release tomorrow," and then they change it or don't do it. Yeah, it makes more sense to have it out with Firestone being there, but they knew they would be there yesterday. Why not just plan it for that day in the first place?
