Craft Beer Continues Upward and Outward Trend
"As sales of craft beers -- mostly local and regional smaller-batch brews -- continue to soar amid an otherwise sluggish U.S. beer market, arrivals of well-known but previously unavailable beers are becoming significant events. And craft brewers and retailers are going to greater lengths to stoke them."
In this article from Advertising Age, we learn that craft beer sales continue their impressive growth, up 18% in dollar sales in supermarkets in 2006, compared to 2.4% for beer overall. Likely as a result of this figure, supermarkets are stocking 20% more craft-beer products than a year ago. This strikes us an important sign, as the vast majority of beer drinkers are purchasing theirs at supermarkets along with the weekly groceries, not in specialty stores. Small steps to be sure, but important ones. Additionally, the launch of Colorado's New Belgium Fat Tire Amber in Minneapolis is compared to the hysteria surrounding the introduction of Apple's iPhone, Shiner Bock has a successful launch in Chicago thanks in part to viral marketing to displaced Texans, and craft beer's surging popularity is likened to that of Coor's in the 70's! It seems like more than a few things are happening in the Midwest. Sure, we've now given you the Cliffs Notes version, but the story is still a solid read (and not too long, ADD boy). Check it out.
2 comments:
This is incredibly exciting. My only fear is that supermarkets will somehow put a damper on specialty stores, and then make some of the more obscure brands harder to find, if they put the specialty places out of business. But I would love to see a full 40% of beer at supermarkets dedicated for craft brews. Wegman's is doing a good job in this department. There is no longer any excuse for some fratboy asshole to walk out of Wegman's with a 30 pack of Busch.
And can you believe people used to line up for COORS??????
Oh poor, naive Bill. There's always an excuse for fratboy assholes to walk out of Wegman's with a 30 pack of Busch. And personally I like that they drink Busch, because that's part of what makes them assholes.
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