Thank You InBev

I fully expect other craft breweries are pressuring distributors as well and, like you, would like to see the reports on that. Once I did, I would make a judgement call of whether or not I would support them. My boycotting of businesses is not limited to only large corporations, trust me.

I know that the small craft brewer is in it for the money more than anything else and that, if given half the chance, would probably do what it takes to ensure that money keeps coming to them and not their competitor. But it's not a black and white thing Cavedave, where a business either cares about profit or not. There is a spectrum. Some behaviors by businesses I can deal with, others I can't. In short, there's a difference between competition between businesses and all-out warfare. Furthermore, there are ways to improve the craft community and the geographic community they operate in. Such efforts are worth a lot in my eyes. I see small craft brewers doing such things all the time (look at The Alchemist working hard to make sure their base supporters get Heady, look at the way Maine Beer Co. treats its employees, look at the way Stone does collaboration beers with other breweries, look at how Sierra Nevada takes their environmental foot print seriously, look at how small breweries nationwide do fundraisers where they donate all the proceeds of a beer to a specific cause, a donation that represents a much larger percent of their earnings than any donations ABinbev makes, as I am sure they make them). I want to reward behavior like that (though MBC is a bit pricey for me, ha). So yeah, I get that other craft breweries would act the same, but we see time and time again that businesses don't exclusively take the "MAKE PROFIT AT ALL COSTS NO MATTER WHAT!" approach. So while I could assume that they may, I'd rather wait until they do to make my judgement.

 

Wrong.

If you re-read your original post its full of assertions that certain things are factually true. While I support your right to believe and practice what you want, it would be nice if you would stop pushing your political/social agenda under the guise of "...exporing possibilities..." and devote more of your time/posts to discussing beer rather than the social/political aspects of corporate entities.

 

It's not a guise, it's how I really feel. I don't have nearly enough information to prove such a thing. In the past I was much more militant about this. Today, while I behave in the same fashion as I once did (boycotting ABinbev) I am indeed open to exploring the issue further. My claims in my original post reflect things that are true to me, ie. that ABinbev has demonstrated they will try to limit the distribution of craft brewers. Factually true? I don't know, it's hard to know if anything is factually true. No disguise, I am willing to have a discussion.

As for the nature of my posts being political/social and not beer related, I encourage you to click the "report" button and let the moderators handle it as they see fit.

 

The guise is stating an opinion as if it were fact and then disingenuously saying upon being challenged,
"I'm just expressing opinions," when you clearly asserted something was true.

As for the "Report" button, I tend to prefer the "Ignore" button. But tend to use it sparingly and only when the dross greatly exceeds a certain level.

 

It's a message board, not a federal trial. If someone chooses the improper words in an initial response and then clarifies them later I see no problem with that.

 

This is what I have seen in the beer market in the past 40 years. PBR and Miller High Life where the #1 beers in my state. Everyone drank Miller Ponies. When Budweiser Light(Bud Light) came out the Bud Wholesaler could not give it away. It had major date problems for years. They pumped ads money into and all of a sudden things changed. Bud light is one out of every 4 beers sold in my state(Alabama). We just started with our craft beers after our state loosen and redid some old laws preventing us from selling most craft beers. Now one thing I can tell you is the wholesellers in this state know that in another 40 years that the craft beer sales will take over the market like Bud Light did. Just like Bud Light was the future of Bud wholesellers in 1982-1990, so is Craft beers. Ab knows, Miller-Coors Knows. If you guys think these wholesellers want to push craft beers out, then why are most I see investing mega dollors to get them? They know the future and so do you. Don't worry Craft beers are the future.

 

I've bought from MBC twice from 2 different sellers. I was happy with the purchases both times because if I factored in time and cost of shipping and procuring beer to trade, it will cost roughly the same, if not more. The last purchase, 4x 750ml Cantillon Classic Gueuze for $100 + shipping. I bought 2 more from the same seller and got free shipping. Not a bad deal at all considering Cantillon prices around Philly.

 

Sure BCBS isn't hard to come by but Rare , King Henry , Ba Abraxas , vintage Cantillon those beers are hard to come by and hard to get by trade for some of the people who don't have a loaded cellar. My above statement was more about the site as a whole not about BCBS.

 

If you want to see ****, look in the ISO/FT forum

 

Some people know about economics ... They just don't care. That's the difference between them and you apparently and if you don't like the price point then don't buy it or make sure to lube up first

 

My point exactly. If they do know how money works then they basically spread them for whoever wishes to get a piece of theirs. Sorry if I offended your beer buying practices

 

Excellent points, well stated.

The facts are that brewing is a business, and that there are things to dislike all around, like most industries.

Just off the top of my head it is true that craft breweries are more hazardous to their employees than the mega breweries of the big guys, that the big corporations make huge donations to charities that craft breweries would be unable to afford to make, and that employees of craft breweries generally make less money and have poorer benefits than the workers at big breweries. The difference, of course, is the big guys have no need to go around saying that craft breweries are dangerous to their workers, and the workers are underpaid, and they are too cheap to make proper donations to charities. While all these things are stretches of the truth, and could be backed up with statistics designed to show them as facts, big beer does not make hay with this info. Why should they? Their present way of doing business provides them with an overwhelming percentage of beer drinkers as customers. Craft brewers, and through them craft drinkiers, OTOH, are only too eager to paint BMC as evil corporate villains.

At the end of the day business is business, and all these guys are out to make a buck using whatever story best gets that buck into their bank accounts.

 

I completely agree that BMC doesn't need to go around talking about how much safer their work places are, which I will take your word on. But I would imagine running such a "slander campaign" doesn't fit in with their marketing strategy of talking animals, tomfoolery and objectification of women. Let's not be so quick to pat BMC on the back for not playing dirty, when the only reason why they don't is because "market research" has told them there are better ways to get business. Nevertheless, you make a good point. The rocks are getting hurled in one direction, from craft to corporate, not the other way around. I do see craft brewers trying to paint BMC as evil corporate villains, but I don't see it from craft drinkers. The drinkers may throw some stones, but when push comes to shove, they're buying that bottle of BCBS Rare and thus endorsing their practices. In short, their hate is hollow.

 

When did they say they were releasing Rare again? Also talking animals, tom foolery and objectification of women are all awesome, there are plenty of reasons to knock BMC but those aren't. Knocking them for product taste is one thing but every corporation exists to make money.

 

Im hard to offend man. lol. I don't let what other people think bother me .. To each his own. Got 2 bottles of 50/50Eclipse about 8 months ago off * for 10$ less ( both beers plus shipping)then it would have cost me to order them from California so my Economics must not be 2 bad.

 

I wasn't attempting to knock their marketing strategy with my post. The conversation is focused on a different issue. With that said however, while talking animals and nonsense behavior is fairly benign, I think it is completely fair to knock the manner in which they portray women. I have taken issue with that and will continue to take issue with such moving forward.

 

You do realize the women in their commercials are paid and probably like what they do right?

 

They may like the money but that doesn't mean they like what they do. I would rather have anyone look me in the eyes and like me or not from that vantage.