Brewer's case rant

[pzaur]

The Costco by my house recently had the Widmer Bros Brewer's Pack as part of their selection for beverages. I love this brewery. Their product is always consistent and fantastic. The latest one came with the Drop Top Ale (in my top 3), a Crimson Wheat, the Hefeweizen, and the Halo IPA. All of these are incredible brews and I recommend them to all of you beer lovers.

With this in mind, I went back to pick up another case since I was out. Well, Costco, in all their glory, doesn't carry it anymore. Instead, I'm stuck with the Sam Adam's Brewer's Pack which has the Boston Lager, Black Lager, Honey Porter, Irish Red, Scottish Ale, and Brown Ale. Apparently, Sam Adam's doesn't feel that their Boston Ale (awesome beer) isn't worth being a regular in their brewer's case. Sad, sad, sad. It's 1000 times better than the lager or anything else in their pack. Sam Adam's is "OK" in my mind. Their best brew is the Boston Ale and it's incredibly hard to find and carries a premium price for a six pack. Frustrating that it isn't a regular for this case.

It's a shame that Costco completely subscribes to the Walmart mentality of sell what moves and not what is good or great...The Costco's around here also used to carry Four Peaks 8th Street Ale which is from a local brewery and rocks. But, not anymore...

-pat

 

[Hi Ho]

Costco changes out their inventory constantly. There aren't too many items that they carry for extended periods of time. That's the way they've always worked. I bought a 32 pack of Coca Cola a couple weeks ago. I went back the other day and all they had was Diet Coke in place of the regular.

 

[Pyrrho]

...
It's a shame that Costco completely subscribes to the Walmart mentality of sell what moves and not what is good or great....

-pat

Why are you surprised that a business, that is, an entity whose sole, or at least primary, purpose is to make money, does what they think will make the most money for them, regardless of your opinion about what is good or great?

If you want a really good beer, why don't you just go somewhere else? I recommend trying Samuel Smith beers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Smith_Brewery

You can find them at some Trader Joe's stores, as well as other stores that sell fine beer:

http://www.traderjoes.com/

 

[stratman]

Yup, Costco is a hit or miss proposition, I'm lucky, down here I've got a couple of stores that sell just about every beer known, from Belgian lambics to IPAs of all kinds, to porters and lagers, so I can't complain. Lately I've been trying Singha from Thailand, sweet with a bit of hoppiness at the finish, very refreshing, very interesting, trick is to serve it cold and let it warm up a bit.