Where's all the Two Hearted?

Sorry, I'm not familiar with the Central PA market, distribution or timing of the cases at Westy's. But, from BA threads, I really have not read of the problems with Bells distribution from Westys as have existed with Shangys over the years. I am under the impression that Westys distributes their product to their retailers more equitably than Shangys.

 

But you've never done business with either and seem to have read only complaints about Shangy' and none of the complaints about Westy's and none of the posts complimentary to either. How fair of you to take digs at one of them.

 

I'm not sure where I've indicated that I've never done business with either. Correct, I have never been to Westys, but I have been to Shangys. And as a resident of their distribution area, at least for the topic of Bells, I'm a customer of theirs whenever I visit a retailer they are supposed to distribute to.

And my conclusion that Westys distributes more equitably to their retailers is because I have read complimentary posts about them. The complementary posts I tend to read about Shangys are mainly by those who are content to drive their instead of visiting their local retailer.

 

Oh, apologies then. I didn't realize you were or had been a retail distributor who had experience with the type of distribution you had received from Shangy's in their role as an importing distributor. I thought you were just making judgments based on comments may by retail customers.

 

Nope. Didn't say I was a retail distributor, either. But, you knew that.

You like/support that this wholesaler plays favorites to one retail distributor, himself. I get that, but feel differently. You like/accept driving miles/hours for this reliable wholesaler/retailer. I rather be able to buy it at my local retailer, where *I think* it is supposed to be distributed. Maybe we can just leave it at that.

 

Took you at your word. You said you had done business with Shangy's. However, if you are not a retail distributor then you haven't done business with Shangy's the importing distributor who allocates cases to retailers, you've only done business with Shangy's the retailer.

I neither like nor dislike how Shangy's does business since I've no basis for making judgments except 2nd and 3rd hand information reported on here (and some of it has been totally ridiculous). However, from what I've learned, all the importing distributors "play favorites" in the sense that their better customers get more of the special and/or hard to obtain stuff that is in short supply.

I am completely neutral on driving Shangy's and have never done it as I have no trouble getting the beers I want from one of the retailers where I do my business.

Yes I agree, I think it is good to just leave it at that.

 

While the horse is still dead....

As far as I can tell, Shangys has one license. Likewise, so does Westys. Please correct me if you know otherwise. So, I'm still comfortable saying I've done business with Shangys.

 

The State says there is one basic PA license for distributors:

http://pennsylvanialiquorlicense.com/typesoflicenses.asp#2

but it comes in two variations, one of which is the importing distributor version, so effectively there are two types of licenses even though the state says there is only one.

"An Importing Distributor is a variation of this type of license. These generally are very large operations which maintain large amounts of beer products and usually sell only to other smaller "D" licensees and not to the public. This license is restricted by the County-Quota Law."

And yes it is confusing since some license holders choose or must take on the variatioin of retail distributor only, some choose to only be an importing distributor, and some, such as Shangy's and Westy's choose to do both. If they have any sense at all they will have one set of books for the importing distributor part of the business and a second set of books for the sales to the public part of the business. But even if they do not have two separate sets of books the only people who can buy from them for resale to the public are other distributors and those are the businesses who will be in line for distribution of the beer. If you or I as a customer walk in and buy a case of beer we pick it up on the premises and carry it out. So, yes you've done business with the retail side of the Shangy's business but not with the side or part of the business that handles distribution of cases of beer throughout SEPA to other distributors. Thus our experiences as customers at a place like Shangy's doesn't tell us much at all about how they handle their customers who are retail distributors.

In addition, although I won't go into detail, I can tell you that there are at least two other importing distributors in SEPA who are less trustworthy and/or reliable than you consider Shangy's to be.

 

The only other two are origlios and bella vista

 

If you mean importing distributors, there are others not mentioned who destribute in SEPA besides those two.

 

I consider Shangys the least reliable of the bunch. They have a great selection up in bumblefuck pa.