{"id":2584,"date":"2016-03-22T06:00:35","date_gmt":"2016-03-22T11:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/?p=2584"},"modified":"2016-03-21T15:31:10","modified_gmt":"2016-03-21T20:31:10","slug":"nothing-is-original-except-what-is-forgotten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/?p=2584","title":{"rendered":"Nothing is original, except what is forgotten…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Corona<\/a>There were times years ago that beer company route salesman played rough games with each other\u2019s products. \u00a0Many decades ago I can recall when the beer in my long neck bottles had gone flat even though the beer was fresh and had been refrigerated.\u00a0 Upon inspection, one could see that the crowns had been cracked just under the bottle caps. \u00a0I have also seen pins stuck in keg lines, which caused foaming, and Vaseline put on keg equipment. \u00a0These tricks were mean and vicious, but somewhat manageable by all route drivers. The old adage, \u201cif you are willing to play, you had to be willing to pay,\u201d was certainly true. \u00a0Funny how your five cases of beer suddenly disappeared under 100 cases of milk cartons!<\/p>\n

While all these shenanigans went on at the distributor level, almost all breweries seemed to conduct market practices above board. \u00a0Sure we were all competitive and sometimes a little over the top, but for the most part, business was conducted with a sense of respect. \u00a0Having said that, I do remember two occasions when the industry went just too far.<\/p>\n

Many years ago Coors Brewing Co. produced, bought and ran ads in a number of major cities, including St. Louis and Milwaukee, stating that both Budweiser and Schlitz contained fusel oil. \u00a0The ad campaign indicated that this fusel oil was a byproduct of each brands\u2019 brewing process and was a cause of a drinker\u2019s hangover. \u00a0Augie III immediately called Pete Coors and had the ads pulled because of the damage they could do to the entire beer industry, not just AB or Schlitz. \u00a0Coors immediately stopped the ads.<\/p>\n

In the late 80\u2019s, during Corona’s rapid sales growth, a distributor in Utah started a rumor that Corona was being filled with urine. \u00a0This rumor spread rapidly and had an immediate negative effect on Corona’s sales. \u00a0The source of this rumor was hunted down, the rumor was stopped and Corona\u2019s sales began to again increase.<\/p>\n

In 2016, one would think that individually, and collectively as an industry, these games would have ceased, but perhaps that is not true. Corona\u2019s success is remarkable and has been for decades. \u00a0Many suppliers have tried to slow down or mimic this beer giant\u2019s success, but each time they have failed. \u00a0Now we have learned that perhaps Corona is being undermined.<\/p>\n

We all know that ABI sold the US Modelo rights to Constellation Brands, thus enabling ABI the ability to close on Modelo. \u00a0Since 2008, ABI has lost 10 million bbls. +in US sales and the trend continues. \u00a0Much of their volume loss has gone to Modelo. \u00a0Now word comes out from ABI that Corona, which was bottled at one of ABIs breweries, has been found to have glass particles in some of the liquid. \u00a0This beer has been shipped to the US and Guam.<\/p>\n

Some\u00a0in the industry may think this is underhanded and could well be ABIs attempt to hurt Corona\u2019s sales in the US. \u00a0It could, but it could also be just another of the many trip-ups ABI has experienced in the US. \u00a0 ABI has underestimated the US market or overestimated their own capabilities in our market. \u00a0Only time will tell. \u00a0Let\u2019s hope for now though that no one gets hurt by drinking Corona.<\/p>\n

No matter what ABI does, nothing is original except what is forgotten.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There were times years ago that beer company route salesman played rough games with each other\u2019s products. \u00a0Many decades ago I can recall when the beer in my long neck bottles had gone flat even though the beer was fresh and had been refrigerated.\u00a0 Upon inspection, one could see that the crowns had been cracked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2xRTi-FG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2584"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2584"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3252,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2584\/revisions\/3252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}