Using a chair to save your spot in line.

There with someone sitting in it.

 

Nope, I would toss the chair if I was in that line. If everyone else is standing and doing their time waiting and someone wants to come and save a spot then go they don't deserve their spot.
This is my view but its not an issue because I won't wait in line for beer, did it a few times years ago and said no more.

 

I have never understood why the beer community seems to tolerate this.

 

People set up chairs in the town I grew up in for the 4th of July parade. It has gotten so out of hand they are doing it 2/3 weeks in advance. they set them up and zip tie them together or leave them folded in stacks throughout town. If they were in front of my house they'd go in the trash. It screams entitlement to me.

 

If folks want to #LyneLyfe, fine, but do it. Make the commitment, to stand there overnight. Except for brief bathroom or food breaks, FUCKING STAND YOUR GROUND!

 

A couple/few years ago there were lines at Tired Hands and folks would use chairs to save their space. One of the more 'inventive' chairs:



Cheers!

 

Chairs are lame, if you want the beer sit your ass in it with a cooler of beer and put your headphones on and chill. I’ll be damn if I’d wait in line behind empty chairs while your in bed and I’m there. Your chair would be in the dumpster. Any reputable place will not allow it, but I hear it’s a real thing at Tired Hands, must piss the neighbors off.

 

One reason that would be ok. if you’re still physically at the location, but the weather sucks and everyone’s actually in their car. You leave the actual business then no you shouldn’t have your spot saved.

 

I am not sure why the people in line tolerate that crap, its beyond rude and the owners/brewery should not allow it either. Honestly, I blame them more since they could enforce it and stop the use of chairs, its BS and an insult to everyone else waiting in person.

 

This was happening locally at a popular brewery. For a 10am release people would show up with chairs at 10pm (or earlier) the day before and then disappear for hours at a time. Someone got fed up and posted on a local Facebook page and Craiglist "free chairs" and gave the address of the brewery. LOL.

 

I can remember camping out overnight for concert tickets in the 70's.
You would have to be an idiot to wait inline behind an empty chair.

 

At Jester King I've seen where the empty chair works, mainly because it's about 120 degrees in the sun and less than 100 degrees in the shade. In this scenario, NOBODY is in line in direct sunlight, everybody is hunkered under shade, but the chairs in the non-shady part of the line exist empty. Of course, everybody who owned the empty chairs was present and accounted for, so it doesn't fit the scenarios y'all are talking about, but I would say congrats to JK and its patrons for not producing the one A-hole who would barge through the line of empty chairs to get to the front of the line and stand there in 120+ frying to a crisp just to make a point/be No. 1 in line. Maybe it's a Texas thing, maybe a Southern thing, or maybe just human survival skills.

 

Wut? They no hear of hats and kamalbax?

 

Obviously there’s exceptions to the rule, no one wants to die waiting for beer. And TX if it’s summer is a bit different, but at least close enough you can see your chair.

 

I'm 100% opposed to this.

Not just the chairs, the !@#$ waiting in line for beer. WTF?

I've got this crazy "green" idea. Instead of 100-200 people driving their cars (gas, electric or hybrid) to some brewery, the brewery could use one vehicle loaded with beer and drop the beer off at various locations around the brewer's distribution area. In an empty lot or someone's empty garage No - I got - a local retail shop that also sells other goods - they'd be all set up to pay the brewery and accept money in turn from customers.

(Yes, they would raise or "mark up" the price a bit, to cover their own costs. Given the average hourly pay, this mark-up would still be less than the cost to the consumer of driving their vehicle to and from the brewery, the fuel involved in the drive and sitting in the car, idling with the AC or heater going, standing in line, the cost of damaged/stolen lawn chairs, etc.)

If the brewer sells more beer than they can easily transport or simply didn't want to spend the time, money and labor involved, they could hire a second firm to "distribute" the beer to those retailers. Let's call these firms "distributors"!.

 

Back when Tree House would actually sell out every week people would show up to the parking lot an hour or so in advance and set their coolers down in line. You would then get back in your cars until closer to open but you'd still be close by, you just wouldn't necessarily want to stand in a line in the cold or heat.

There is so much talk about lines but realistically how many breweries are there that actually still have over night lines or even ever did? I've got to imagine its a really small percentage, especially given how much complaining there is about the line life. Tree House, to my knowledge, never allowed lines to form more than maybe an hour or two before open. I think in the earlier days they were less strict about how early you got there but when they first opened their new brewery I know they wouldn't let people into the parking lot more than like an hour ahead. Maine Brewing Company used to have lines for their Dinner release but I never went to those and had only heard of people showing up at maybe 5 AM the day of release, can't recall opening time but I think it was around 7 AM? Now I know that's different at Tired Hands and Other Half but outside of those how many other breweries really have lines starting more than an hour or two before opening? Do people still line up for Pliny the Younger? I know there are others (and can think of a few) but I can't think of any where in New England at least that still really has lines more than an hour early, if that.

 

No, it's just fun watching the geeks clamor about thinking important thoughts. That's all it is and ever will be, maybe. WGAS, which means "who gives a shit".

 

Sadly, any "creative accounting benefits" of cash sales by the brewery are given up when the sales are made off site. Breweries don't make folks line up only because it is easier for breweries to not have to move the beer and have it gone in a single day. On site cash sales are another reason.

People are free to do whatever they want with chairs left unattended by others. I can tell you that some of those chairs are left by folks who don't mind a fight and/or are there with other folks, and these groups leave their chairs unattended because they feel they have the power and ability to keep others from stopping them.