What's up Sacramento?

If anyone is still looking for Parabola it is still on the shelf at the Vacaville Nugget. I also saw Fruet and Collage sitting there. No Stone Amoked Porter Varities.

 

I know what I plan to loudly bitch about to anybody that will listen the next time I go there...

any idea when Brux will hit the shelves?

 

Brux is mid to late July. Official release I think is the 10th.

 

Brux already came out in SoCal.

 

grabbed one today in Oakland - opening on the 4th with Brett Beer and Mo Betta - you're gonna miss out broham!

 

Bought a Brux the other day here in Redding.

 

^Driving up to Chico would be faster and Sierra Nevada is a cool place.

Sorry to dredge up the dead topic, but is this the same reason we don't see their collaboration beers like TBA locally?

 

Yes sir... and honestly does anyone really care that much? Granted the Vanilla is pretty good but there are better beers out there to spend $ on other than Stone Collab beers @2.99$ IMO.

 

true, but as a professional ticker I'd like to be able to hit up my local store to get my legal drug fix. It just seems kinda stupid to boast such wide distro when in reality they only offer it to select markets based upon some tiered system which is probably in some way related to their yearly purchase amounts instead of the wide distro that can be assumed by rattling off a variety of states.

 

Turned pro early eh.... my guess is that Stone supports markets that can support them. I'm sure there is a reason why they've decided to keep select beers out of the Sacramento market, probably because it sucks. This isn't big news to anybody, do I wish it were different - of course, but we live in between San Francisco and San Diego and get crushed by much better beer cultures. Sacramento laws are narrow minded forcing people to open up shops elsewhere. Stone isn't Stone because they put beer in markets that don't sell.

 

Someone struggled through geography. LOL

Anyway, I'm sure if we keep buying up all the special release stuff and keep our seasonal/special releases moving, we will get some love eventually. Two years ago I saw Abyss sitting on the shelf for a couple of months before we sold out, and last year we sold through it in a day. Its things like that that will get the attention of the sales guys from breweries and distributors. It might be a little dry up north right now, but supply always follows the demand.

 

Not literally dick lick - and true

 

I saw it sitting on the shelves and I was like, "abyss, that sounds familiar..." but didn't buy any. then I got home and realized what I did. I've rarely wanted to kick myself in the ass so much.

 

Hi,
I'm a newbie here but have had similar experience in SAC.I live close to Bevmo in Natomas.And although the staff is always helpful.When they are out of something they always refer me to the Arden store which apparently is MUCH bigger.My reply is that if I go out there I might as well go to Wine and Spirits.

I did go to Wine and Spirits (2nd time) and they were out of Stone 10th Anniv IPA.But also...I didn't feel the love in this store.Just saying.

Bevmo never has Ninkasi anymore which is one of my favorites.And I never found the old Stone callaboration that came out earlier this year.

 

"in reality they only offer it to select markets based upon some tiered system which is probably in some way related to their yearly purchase amounts instead of the wide distro that can be assumed by rattling off a variety of states."

Could you clarify that, please? It seems you're saying that Stone only offers special releases to select markets (so far, so good) and those markets are chosen based on there overall purchasing of Stone beers (which makes sense, if that's what you're saying). But what is the "wide distro that can be assumed" and what does "rattling off a variety of states" have to do with it?

Thanks.

 

when you go here: http://stonebrew.com/vanillaorchipotle/

and see this: Distribution: AZ, CA, CO, FL, IL, MA, NC, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SC, TX, VA, VT, WA

you might be under the assumption that your local store will get it if you live in one of those states. However, if your distributor isn't tiered high enough you might won't see it.

And I have no idea how these tiers are determined.

 

Thanks for the clarification. But even if your distributor is tiered high enough, your local store might not be tiered high enough with the distributor. There are stores in So Cal, where Stone does their own distribution, that don't get the special releases. So maybe "distributed in California" shouldn't be any reason to assume anything other than it's distributed in California?

As for how they're tiered, I think you've got it right with the assumption it's "related to their yearly purchase amounts." My understanding is that's how distros decide who gets how much of the rare(r) beers, just as many stores give first dibs on those beers to their better customers. People complain about it, but it seems as fair a way to do it as it's possible.

 

I guess I just don't quite understand it because everybody's money is the same color

 

I would just figure from an economics point of view, why send a truck full of beer to the other side of the country, when you can send that same truck to the other side of the state and get the same amount of money for it. More profit, or same profit with lower prices on your items due to lower shipping costs. Win:Win

Also, someone from a couple hundred miles away would be much more likely to visit the brewery than someone a couple thousand miles away. So it makes sense to get those special releases into the more local markets, so people might try something new and interesting and say 'damn, we should check this place out' therefore generating more revenue.

At least that's how I see it, and that's how I'd do it if I ever have a brewery that couldn't keep up with demand.


Oh, and also, do you have an example of the "stores in So Cal, where Stone does their own distribution, that don't get the special releases" I know for a fact that the total wine stores in the LA area still have around 200 cases of old guardian. In sacramento we got 5. With a lopsided distro like that, how can stores down there NOT get the special releases? lol

 

I guess I don't understand what the color of the money has to do with it. Otherwise, why not just sell it all at the brewery, first come first served, no limit, and make the full retail price without having to go through the trouble of getting it out to stores?
It's clear that Stone's business model isn't based on only selling their limited releases. They're going to want to use those limited releases in a way that (they believe) will produce the maximum benefit for their brand. If they decide to give proportionally less to distributors/areas/stores that are selling more of their regular releases, they'll prolly wind up with more dissatisfied customers with a greater amount of dissatisfaction. Any beer where the demand is higher than the supply is going to create heartache - some is probably considered good, because it keeps people interested. Too much means people feeling pissed at the brand.
It gets back to the equation of the smaller the market, the easier it is to serve but the less worth serving it is. The larger the market, the harder it is to serve but the more worth serving it is.