{"id":3427,"date":"2016-06-28T06:00:49","date_gmt":"2016-06-28T11:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/?p=3427"},"modified":"2016-06-27T08:46:16","modified_gmt":"2016-06-27T13:46:16","slug":"prohibition-makes-you-want-to-cry-into-your-beer-and-denies-you-the-beer-to-cry-into","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/?p=3427","title":{"rendered":"Prohibition makes you want to cry into your beer and denies you the beer to cry into."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Make<\/a>I moved to Kansas in 1978 as the executive vice president of Coors of Kansas.\u00a0 Although this was not my first exposure to 3.2 beer, it would be my first exposure to selling the liquid.\u00a0 So-called \u201cstrong\u201d beer was sold only in liquor stores and private clubs, whereas 3.2 beer was sold everywhere. \u00a0As I recall, 80% of the Coors sold was 3.2 liquid.<\/p>\n

I quickly learned that the state addressed strong beer in a much stricter manner than the method used for handing 3.2 beer. \u00a0Our trucks would deliver 3.2 beer to a grocery store, while next door sat a liquor store. \u00a0Coors of Kansas had separate routes for strong beer and 3.2 beer. \u00a0I had the routing changed so routes could service both accounts. \u00a0This was done by loading one side of the truck with 3.2 beer and the other side was loaded with strong beer.<\/p>\n

Of course, to help this system I had changed the fleet, going from eight bay bobtails to 16 bay tractors. \u00a0The employees thought I had lost my mind in so doing, but the change resulted in no issues and by the end of the year, our delivery cost had dropped dramatically. \u00a0This reduction in expenses resulted in a 45% increase<\/em> in operating income. \u00a0Obviously the owners were very pleased with the results.<\/p>\n

Ten years later, while working at Coors Brewing Co., I was sent to Utah to run a newly acquired distributorship. \u00a0Once again, I was in a state where 3.2 beer the dominated ABW. \u00a0Of course, working and living in Colorado presented the same issue, 3.2 beer in groceries and c-stores, while strong beer was sold only in liquor stores.<\/p>\n

Fast forward 25 years and we are seeing states such as Colorado, Oklahoma, and soon Kansas, changing their laws to allow strong beer to be sold in all trade channels. \u00a0Like many industry laws and restrictions, the 3.2 issues were antiquated and should have been changed years ago. \u00a0But, by changing these laws now, it creates a new set of problems.<\/p>\n

From the breweries\u2019 perspective, consider how a brewery would handle producing 3.2 beer for only one state where it is still legally sold? \u00a0For brands such as Michelob Ultra, it is no big deal. \u00a0The same situation would hold true for other light beers whose ABV is 4.0% or less. \u00a0The consumer would have a limited choice.<\/p>\n

The bigger issues, however, are in states where a brewery has duel distributors, such as in Kansas. \u00a0A liquor house has the rights to Corona in a strong beer, but the AB network has rights for 3.2 beers. \u00a0You eliminate the 3.2 beer issue, and now what happens? \u00a0Grandfather both?<\/p>\n

The reality is that AB already delivers to the liquor stores, whereas the W&S company does not<\/em> have the capabilities to deliver to locations that would have been the former 3.2 accounts. \u00a0That being said, if strong Corona was available everywhere, the volume in the liquor stores would drop dramatically. \u00a0The W&S company will be more likely to sell their rights.<\/p>\n

This then becomes a question of value. \u00a0If Crown allows for dueling to continue, than it might be in AB’s best interest not<\/em> to buy when you sell the same beer? \u00a0Obviously, this makes no sense.<\/p>\n

Crown, and other vendors in this position, have some major decisions to make as these 3.2 beer laws are eliminated. \u00a0Prohibition makes you want to cry into your beer and denies you the beer in which to cry….<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

I moved to Kansas in 1978 as the executive vice president of Coors of Kansas.\u00a0 Although this was not my first exposure to 3.2 beer, it would be my first exposure to selling the liquid.\u00a0 So-called \u201cstrong\u201d beer was sold only in liquor stores and private clubs, whereas 3.2 beer was sold everywhere. \u00a0As I […]<\/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-Th","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3427"}],"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=3427"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3448,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3427\/revisions\/3448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}