Total Wine doesn't get it (yet another freshness rant)

Or, perhaps, we read about more decline in overall beer sales. Because folks keep chasing unicorns they can't catch.

 

The breweries that best serve their customers will succeed.

Cheers!

 

Below is something I posted in a past thread:

“For a significant period of time (over a year) I was unable to find any Firestone Walker beers in any of the multiple beer stores in my area that were less than 5-6 months old. One of my local beer stores conducted a Firestone Walker beer tasting which was hosted by the Philadelphia area sales rep for Firestone Walker (she was/is a Firestone Walker employee). I reshuffled my schedule to make sure I could attend this event. While I was there I sampled the beers she poured and chit-chatted with her for a while. After about 5 minutes I started asking pointed/detailed questions about Firestone Walker Brewing Co. She pleasantly entertained my questioning for about 5 minutes and then she blurted out in an unpleasant tone "Are you a beer industry person?" I responded with the truthful answer that I was just a beer customer and I was just trying to learn about Firestone Walker and their distribution system (which absolutely sucked in Philly at that time). At this point she would not answer any more questions from me. I then walked her over to the retailer’s shelves to show her several cases of Firestone Walker beers that were over a year old. She looked at me with a dirty look and stated: "They shouldn't be there". I was about to ask her: "Are you personally going to remove those cases?" but at this point I had enough of her attitude and nonsense. I simply stated "It was a pleasure speaking to you" which was a lie and I walked out of the store. It was apparent to me that she had zero interest in truly recognizing and fixing this issue."

As a follow-up to the above I did revisit my local beer store a couple of weeks afterwards and those old cases of Firestone Walker beer were still there.

Cheers!

 

Or get lost in the shuffle. We've already had threads about beers being "too fresh", and the endless whining about "too old" is visible daily. How the bloody fuck is an actual, functioning business supposed to make a decision?

"Well, if we package and ship too early, we'll piss off a small, but vocal number of potential customers. But, if we ship too late, we piss off a small and vocal number of potential customers. Maybe we just keep shipping the product when we think it's ready, and then trust customers to make rational, well-thought choices."

 

*****Sigh******

This is coming around now like the anti INBEV thread of a year or two ago--a constant "re-whine."

Don't let it bother you.

Don't buy it.

 

Time for some TW gossip I heard while talking with a local beer rep.
We were discussing an area beer scene and ended up discussing how who gets what and how much in regards to limited release beers.
He claimed TW would demand a huge amount on the initial order with the hope of limiting the amount the competition could get. This is no news flash. I am sure this is a common practice if you are the or a big dog in town but some real draw backs.
Like old shit on your shelves on a regular basis.

 

You know, to go slightly off topic but still apropos to the thread, checking the dates aside, if I was a casual beer drinker and saw beers completely filling the rails in the cooler, my first thought could be that those beers sure don't sell very well. They must not be very good...

 

Just don't buy it

 

So you've actually seen Pivo 'in the wild'... I was beginning to wonder if it actually existed. Have pretty much come to the conclusion that if I'm fortunate enough to grab a ticket to FWIBF, that's my only annual chance of buying fresh Pivo in CA. This year I'm buying 2 cases if they actually have it. Fingers crossed

 

Too fresh isn't a problem, since it has an easy solution- keep it for a few days. Too old is a problem since there is no way to "fix" it.

That is why the folks who complain about the imaginary problem of "too fresh" are the whiners you speak of. The folks who complain about the real, actual problem of too old do so completely justifiably, and so that their combined voices will influence breweries to do something about it.

 

That depends. There are two subsets of people voicing complaints about old beer.

There are those who simply complain or "whinge" about old beer on the shelves and just make a lot of noise.

What makes our collective voice heard is those who also, even if only once in a while, take the time to complain directly to a retailer, distributor and/or brewery about the old beer on the shelves or take the time to let a brewer know whose beer they bought instead of their's because of finding some old or undated beer on the shelf.

 

Of course it should be brought to the attention of everybody. If your point is we shouldn't also talk about it here, I disagree.

I think we should consider the tastes of everyone as equally important. Person A who likes beer fresher than person B both spend the same greenbacks is my take on your point about "whiners"

 

You pretty much have to go to TW weekly AS WELL AS check dates to get optimum freshness there. To know what they get in, etc.

"Ooh, Mispillion River, glad they made it here"
(looks at bottom of can)
"January... pass"

 

No, my point is that we should not be talking about it only here. My point about "whingers" is that seems to be the only thing some people do. In this case the OP is not just "whinging" since he has chosen both to let a store employee know and to use the brewery contact information. That's what will get some voices heard.

Personal tastes in beer are not involved in my earlier point.

 

Yesterday while at a convenience store I came across some Firestone Pale 31 dated Oct 2016. I've notified Firestone in the past when finding their outdated beer before at other locations, and the next time I went into those places the beer was gone. So notifying them does seem to work, at least in those instances.

 

Unless it’s a seasonal or a special release that I know is fresh TW is the last place I’d buy anything hoppy. It’s not the managers fault, he doesn’t order the beer, and as long as it’s in date at delivery I’m sure corporate Total Wine tells them to accept the order. What a wonderful scenario for Distributors to dump older beer that mom and pops won’t take. Firestone Walker beers are a great example of great beers gone bad, and I’d challenge anyone to show me product that’s under 8 months old. I’ve seen beers out of date to, and that you can blame on the manager. That crap needs to go back to the Distributor.

 

The TTB recently re-stated their policy (obviously, as with all things alcohol, state laws may differ).
Revised - Freshness Dating and Allowable Returns of Malt Beverage Products under the FAA Act

 

Ahh, I thought you called them whiners to diminish the importance of their complaints when compared to folks with different expectations of freshness. My bad.