The Half-Acre thread (2018)

I don't know full specifics, but it's something like this:

With that being said, I've also talked to retailers who felt squeezed, and were told they needed to order cases of 312 and shit to even get BCBS. So if that was the distributor's way of saying "you haven't sold enough GI stuff, so you have to buy some more before we'll let you in" the wording/timing was poor.

 

I get it from both sides honestly. Why is a store entitled to get BCBS from Goose Island if they never sell other Goose Island beers?

 

Do stores like The Beer Temple and Open Bottle get some kind of special dispensation from Goose?

 

I don't entirely disagree, but this was a standard liquor store with all the normal GI beers. I get you can't just magically wave your arms and give everyone all the rarer beers they want, but I have to imagine they're not playing fair with everyone.

I was just about to bring this up. I have no idea how this works, because places like BT (or Bitter Pops, which I frequent) don't sell almost ANY of the more common GI beers, so how do these places get their allocations?

 

Appreciate the heads up. Missed out at prestige but got lucky binnys still had 1.

 

It could be their relationships with distributors, who would also have some (or a lot of) say as to who gets the BCBS.

 

Prestige stopped doing that for at least the past year or so.

 

Yeah, I have to assume it's largely that, yeah.

 

Good to know.

 

I was gonna say I’ve been going regularly to Prestige for a couple years now and have never had to buy anything additional. I know there’s multiple locations but I go to the Westmont location and always try to talk with Dillon their manager. He’s come through in the clutch many times.

 

One need to look no further than Jewel grocery stores who went from no BCBS to 2nd behind Binnys for allocations. Goose macro is Jewel's bread and butter sales while craft focused places get like a case. Coincidence? No, it's as SeanBond pointed out and backed up by Josh Noel's book, you get BCBS when you sell GI's other beers.

 

Dillon is awesome; just a really nice, accommodating guy.

 

These are a couple responses I made about distribution from last year if it helps clear things up.

Short answer is a little bit of both. The last KS drop TG wanted accounts to buy 5 cases of outdated cans in order to buy 1 case of KS. Accounts can then choose how to sell, either bundle or not bundle. For things like KBS and Bourbon County it's based on how much you buy of their "core" product or for KBS, All Day 15 packs weigh heavily on it. So if I'm forced to buy 100 cases of All Day just to get 10 cases of KBS, then you understand them passing it on because you're never ever going to sell all that All Day within a reasonable freshness frame. Some accounts bundle just to bundle. I was not aware of a prerequisite with this KS drop so I think Discount was just using it to move old product. Does that help?

Distributors do determine your allocation though. That's why you'll see places making you buy yada yada Founders for KBS and the same with Bourbon County. They just don't ship it to you because you ask nicely. Discount sitting on a ton of December bombers probably realized it's a good way to move old product. I don't agree with the practice but I fully understand why they do it.

 

Couldn’t agree more.

 

They get smaller allocations, Beer Temple said their allocation was cut quite a bit a few years ago as they shifted to giving more to stores like Jewel and Walgreens.

They likely have a good enough relationship with the distributor to get what they get. Also, I imagine a store like those getting shafted with no allocation would become a big story among beer nerds. Overall it is probably good for the brand to give those stores allocations.

 

Hope it lasts till Friday

 

The owner also does a podcast where they piss all over AB. So maybe thats it too.

 

In this industry, we prefer to use the term Budweiser shower....

 

LOOKIN A LIL HAZY IN THERE

 

If you’re expecting a NE style, you’ll be disappointed. It’s still malty, and bitter. I