The Alchemist launches Heady Topper Authorized Retailer Program

Mr. Rawlus, it seems to me like your non-anger anger is aimed in the wrong direction. As I understand it (and, of course, I could be wrong), the whole point of implementing their recent changes to lower case limits and deploy authorized retailer signs is better to ensure the very thing you want. By cutting down on how much is bought at the cannery and sold in Boston, NYC, or who knows where else, those cases will now be seen either at the cannery or in local distribution. They are doing what you want them to do, and you seem to be arguing against it!

(LOL!)

 

I sense some serious butthurt about not being able to stock up on heady so he can win trades.

 

if you live in Stowe, then yeah.

 

It's their business and they certainly created something interesting, but before they instituted the two case limit I saw no sign of them caring about the local market- they just mastered a way of cutting out the middlemen and having the customer come to them (from all over the US).

 

By contrast, a lot of 'locals' don't think that other brewery does a very good job at all of caring for their fans.

Funny how perspective is all that matters.

 

Yes they have put up a barrier and created a "destination". They have also helped to increase the business at local places whether is be gas stations, Pro Pig (yes I know they have a vested interest in), and any number of other things around. On top of it, they can retain more of the gross margin.

Better question is, how will it be reinvested?

I do not agree on the not caring about the local market, the six case limit meant every craft beer bar in NYC and and Boston had cans for $10-12 a can. A huge grey market cropped up which The Alchemist couldn't control. You could make the argument that no cannery sales would allow for NYC and Boston distribution, but you would sacrifice some revenue for local businesses.

Very interesting track, but in the end we are all talking about this because they make a damn fine beer!

 

Never done a trade in my life. I've only ever had it at pro pig or reservoir.

 

Because they don't make enough for you to score on the weekends and their hours of operation don't work for you?

 

If this whole trick increases regular availability at their door then I think that's good for consumers. That's really my point, do a better job of availability at the cannery, whether that's limiting people to one case, limiting to only Vermont ids, making more, reducing the commercial distro, whatever... I can't give them a pass for not having availability at their door

It's the only brewery out of dozens I have been to that I can remember consistently not having any product for sale.

 

I don't trade beer period, heady or otherwise. It doesn't interest me. I buy beer because I like to drink it. Not to collect it, hoarde it, sell it, trade it. I'm just a regular consumer like most of the world. I enjoy visiting and supporting small breweries and supporting their products. Not having your flagship product available at your store during regular business hours is a customer service issue.

 

Why though, why do they have to? They aren't in business to specifically please everyone. They make what they make and sell it when and where they want to. What's so hard to understand about that and why is it a "trick"? Last year I worked in Denmark for a few weeks and almost every single shop closed at 4-5 in the afternoon. It kind of sucked because I was working till then most days but I wasn't all butthurt about it. Stores will operate how they operate and whining on a beer forum won't change it.

 

Lots of people would kill to have the problem is consistently selling out of product.

 

They generally have availability 5-6 days a week...by contrast, that 'other brewery' is only open 4 days a week, probably because they'd run out of product if they were open more...

 

While his thread is hilarious...

I think this point is valid. They should just trim the hours/days they're open so that they don't go OOS. You're doing no one any favors by consistently having no product to sell yet claiming you're "open." You're paying staff and making customers annoyed.

 

But they don't really know when they will sell out. They know they will but not exactly when so it would be tricky cutting hours. They do their best to keep people informed too so it isn't a big deal IMO.

 

People seem very averse to the idea that these very small breweries with astronomical (read: unmanageable) demand attempt to balance all their demand fronts, as well as balance themselves within local economies and neighbors, and then further balance all of that with enjoying their own lives.

 

I want them to enjoy their lives... I'm not being totalitarian about it. I'm not sure why the fanboys cut so much slack here. Take weekends off and don't open if you're never going to have stock on weekend, close both sat and Sunday. Or close 4 weekdays, brew and can and take care of your distro, then open fri, sat sun or something for door sales. This isn't a hard problem to solve. People make this out to be so complex, too complex to solve or understand. This is not complicated, it's retail 101.

If you don't want to do retail, or are not committed to making it a positive experience. Then don't do it, focus on your distro and let someone else handle the retail headaches. Problem solved. By if you open up your doors and say hey, you can buy it from us direct. Then that's sort of what I expect. If that's not the business they want to be in, that's cool, they don't have to be. They can be wholesale only......


Their whole argument was we don't want to increase capacity too much, and we won't increase distro to new territory until we can manage supply on our own turf. I get that, that makes perfect sense. But if walk-in demand exceeds supply, then you're not even managing your local, restricted demand too well. So figure out how to solve that. Open less or increase supply or stop selling to walk-in all together. Maybe that's what this new auth retailer thing is intended to do, we will have to wait and see if this improves availability at the cannery or not, I'm a bit skeptical right now.

 

Yep this is America. You don't want my money?

 

Close weekends? That's your solution? Holy shit...

There are a lot of things that don't add up in this thread. From what I've seen, since they increased capacity they don't sell out every week unless it's summer. Shit, I went up mid June on a Saturday and they didn't sell out that day until maybe an hour or two before they were about to close. They put a potential corrective action in place (dropped case limit) but that doesn't look like it will work - they posted earlier that they're going to run out today.

Bottom line though, they will continue to sell out regardless of case limits, what their hours are, how much they distibute, etc. I don't buy for one second they should change something just so they sell cans at the brewery through the end of day Saturday. It's not their responsibility to make sure every person can get beer even if they wait until the last minute. No matter what time you show up, you can still get samples and buy merch at the brewery, but they should forgo this just because they ran out of beer? Stop it. There are tons of places in the area that carry it; hell, I saw some being sold at an apple cider place a little down the road. Not a case, but it's better than nothing.

 

Is Vermont that big? Just go to the cannery. No 4-pack limit like a bunch of stores had when I was last up there, and Waterbury is awesome.