Buying Beer in OH

So I just moved from Pittsburgh to Columbus. As some of you may know, in PA beer is sold by distributors in 24-pack cases, or at bottle shops (and a limited number of grocery stores) in 6- or 12-packs. Obviously, the 24-pack is cheaper per beer than the 6- or 12-pack. Today I went to a local beer store to stock up for a Halloween party, and when I asked where the cases where, the employee told me to just combine 6-packs. This resulted in, for example, a $50+ "case" of Magic Hat, which in my experience is quite high for a cheap beer like that; in PA I could get it for under $30 easily. Apparently this is the standard in OH: to buy a "case" one must combine 6- or 12- packs. I called another store and they gave the same answer, and told me that they were unaware of any store that sells beer in 24 packs. Can anyone offer some insight here? I always bemoaned that fact that I could not buy beer at the grocery store in PA, but the inability to buy cases seems much, much worse to me. On holidays I would treat myself and family to a case of Chimay or the like, but I'm afraid to think what that would cost out here.

Welcome to Ohio... If you have any luck with this let me know. The only time I have been able swing a discount is when buying in large quantities (like for a wedding).

In Toledo they told me they could discount it how they purchased it. They could sell sixes and cases if they bought it that way. Most of the specialty beer is bought in sixes though.

Day trip down to the Party Source in Kentucky. It is awesome and worth it.

Take a trip back to PA for the holidays to restock

Where was #9 selling for over $12.50 a six? You can usually find it for $8; making a $32 case.

I'd check around for better beer prices as well.

Missing Pittsburgh yet?.....

There's no way ALL of Ohio is like this. I have never tried to buy a case of anything, but I can't imagine a respectable bottle shop stooping to something like that.

Belmont Party Supply in Dayton, for example, sells just about everything - singles, bombers, sixers, twelvers, and you can order kegs of all sizes. I can't imagine that they just multiply a case by how many bottles are in it.

MaxSpang said:

There's no way ALL of Ohio is like this. I have never tried to buy a case of anything, but I can't imagine a respectable bottle shop stooping to something like that.

Belmont Party Supply in Dayton, for example, sells just about everything - singles, bombers, sixers, twelvers, and you can order kegs of all sizes. I can't imagine that they just multiply a case by how many bottles are in it.

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I thought the same thing, but that is how every store I've found in Columbus operates. Kroger sells cases of Miller, Coors, etc., but I have not found a single store that sells cases of micro, even Sam Adams. If I wanted to buy a case of 90 min, for example, I would have to buy six 4-packs, which run about $13 each, which is almost $80 for a case. The same thing at a distributor in Pittsburgh would be $50. I dunno, I'm not trying to sound like a cheap ass, but it's annoying.

Pittsburgh > Ohio

wow... I thought buying beer here in Ontario could be expensive. Even good 'domestic beer' (ie. Waterloo Dark) is only ~$35 a case. Been a long time since I've bought domestic though, I usually get Hacker-pschorr Munich Gold for $56 for a 18 case of 500ml bottles.

Brew your own beer damn it, or get your ass back to PA. Yes, I am born and bred cleveland

Where at in Ohio are you? I haven't seen #9 that high around me.

What part of town are you in? There are plenty of good places to buy beer in C-bus, and most of them sell 12 packs, at least. Let me know where you are, and I might be able to recommend a good shop.

find a new store. the Kroger just 6 miles from me has all the craft and micro brews for $8-9 a six pack, so that's $32-36 for a case of 24 by my math...someone charged you $50, they saw you coming!

but for bulk orders, try a drive through (although less likely to have a good selection of craft beers) or just like in PA, try a distributor, which here in Ohio we call them "state liquor stores" it's also where you go to buy hard booze. that crap in the grocery stores is NOT real. it's watered down to 20% alcohol. so that "fifth of jack" you see, is really only a tenth of jack, and a lot of water!

I think the liquors like cocoanut rum, kaluha, Bailey's, etc. that are typically only around 20%, are sold at their "full strength" in grocery stores since they're not high alcohol like whiskey.

and again, the local Kroger has a huge wine selection too, I've grabbed a $5 bottle of Napa Valley Cabernet, and to my inexperienced wine tastebuds, it tasted very much like the $70 bottle of Cab that we picked up when we were vacationing there. (I might be able to tell the difference in a side by side taste test, but to grab a bottle off the shelf and compare it to one you had 5 months before...it was still a good bottle of wine)

70Cuda383 said:

find a new store. the Kroger just 6 miles from me has all the craft and micro brews for $8-9 a six pack, so that's $32-36 for a case of 24 by my math...someone charged you $50, they saw you coming!

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I'm afraid that's the case, especially Magic Hat. It's on the shelf at about every grocery store and gas station around.

I'd rather hunt through a couple stores to find the best price, then hunt around an entire town trying to find one that can even sell beer. Did that on my trip to Penn, and ended up not finding anywhere that would sell it.

And if you mention a grocery store, it doesn't sound like you looked too hard. Do Penn grocery stores sell cases of beer at any price?

Ohio has "State Minimum" pricing, so look for a shop w that sign, that's as low as it can go-unless there is a regional "sin" tax, in which case "State Minimum+No Sin Tax" is the sign to seek.

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