They were down to their last two, with a huge empty space where the others had been.
Can Allagash, Unibroue, or Great Divide at Publix be far behind?
Is there anything Anheuser Busch can do to stem the rising tide?
Will we see Dale Jr. in the Number 88 St. Bernardus Abt 12 Car in our lifetime?
4 comments:
oh, sweet victory. Jesus may be coming back..like now.
"is there anything Anheuser Busch can do to stem the rising tide?"
The answer is a super-satisfying NO! When i was in my early 20's the awareness of great beer wasn't there, coupled with low abv% caps and no real light at then end of the tunnel for these "out there" brewers, we didn't know any better, and didn't care.
Today there is a massive beer movement happening with the 20-somethings, especially ones into art, music, fashion, hair, and food. Beer is now self expression just like a tattoo was 10 years ago. If you are seen at a particular place, holding a particular beverage it says something about who you are and what you are about.
I digress...
AB is not, and will never be a label of self expression or quality. There is a new generation that won't settle for the everyday, the mundane, the status quo...but instead actively pursues not only something "better" but something they can call their own. AB is their dads beer. Thanks God it's not my Dad's beer.
Isn't that the beauty of the internet? A-B will probably carry the majority of the market share for a really long while, but it's just great that smaller companies are able to take a slightly bigger piece of the pie. I think the paradigm has shifted with a new generation of people who seek out new and great products that aren't backed by million-dollar ad campaigns.
Personally, I think A-B (or ImBev, as we should really call them) will lose a very painful amount of their market share very soon.
Don't believe me? Ask a record company, Polaroid, or Kodak employee. If you can *find* one.
Bottom line: once AB loses a customer to a micro, they lose it *forever*. As in, never coming back.
And I hope *every* business follows the micro brew model of local companies and local enthusiasts. It will change our country.
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