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chinkson · 05-02-2012, 03:29 PM

Brew Your Own Brew in Tucson is hands down the only reason I made it past my first batch. I screwed it up something fierce and ended up with alcoholic juice instead of a light strawberry pale ale I was going for. I went into BYOB and spoke with the owner for a very long time and he went over every possible scenario that could have resulted in my bad beer. Not to mention when I was doing extract kits still, and i may be biased saying this, but he had some of the best recipes I've ever had. Love my LHBS, they get all my patronage

**rico567** · 05-02-2012, 04:25 PM

If you've got such an LHBS, I can see where you'd have that loyalty. I'm still looking for......ANY.

NickTheGreat · 05-02-2012, 04:46 PM

My LHBS is awesome. They helped me immensely for my first brew. I was standing in line to buy a hydrometer and one of the owners saw me and informed me I had grabbed one for spirits. So he explained the difference and explained a lot to me.

Heck, they even gave me pointers on my corned beef!

**AgentHubcap** · 05-02-2012, 05:40 PM

my LHBS is within walking distance of my house, AND has great prices. I buy pretty much everything from them. Gotta love Beervana.

**brettwasbtd** · 09-07-2012, 07:33 PM

Its no longer my homebrew store anymore, but I just saw a FB advertisement for a homebrewstore saying a kit would ship for $9.99 to the immediate area... Um really? How do you expect to compete by saying you'd ship 1 kit for $10 to people in your local area when there are stores that offer $6.99 and $7.99 flat rate...

Doesn't make me feel bad not supporting such places haha

zeg · 09-07-2012, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brettwasbtd

Its no longer my homebrew store anymore, but I just saw a FB advertisement for a homebrewstore saying a kit would ship for $9.99 to the immediate area... Um really? How do you expect to compete by saying you'd ship 1 kit for $10 to people in your local area when there are stores that offer $6.99 and $7.99 flat rate...

It may be that they simply can't do any better. If they're a smaller business, they may not be able to obtain as good shipping rates or make up for a loss on the shipping as well as the higher volume places.

Also, you have to look at the total cost, not just the line item for shipping. If the kit is $3 less than the other guys, then the effective price is the same.

Finally, what's the shipping time? The $7 and $8 shipping deals are usually ground, and often packed and shipped with lower priority. If the $10 is delivered faster, it may be fairer to compare it to faster shipping options from the other guys.

**brettwasbtd** · 09-07-2012, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zeg

It may be that they simply can't do any better. If they're a smaller business, they may not be able to obtain as good shipping rates or make up for a loss on the shipping as well as the higher volume places.

Also, you have to look at the total cost, not just the line item for shipping. If the kit is $3 less than the other guys, then the effective price is the same.

Finally, what's the shipping time? The $7 and $8 shipping deals are usually ground, and often packed and shipped with lower priority. If the $10 is delivered faster, it may be fairer to compare it to faster shipping options from the other guys.

You are right, I did not compare the total cost. However I would consider the shipping speed to be negligible given that the quoted $10 was for the local area. Its only gonna take 1-2 days for this radius even with the slowest option

zeg · 09-07-2012, 09:21 PM

Yes, but that's my point. If it's slightly (~$3) more expensive but gets there faster than the guys halfway across the country, that might be of value to some people.

By the way, I'm not trying to be contrary or disagreeable, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the localish shop is more expensive AND has more expensive shipping. If they cost more and there's no benefit, then I agree with you 100% about going elsewhere with no hard feelings. I'll personally pay higher prices for a LOCAL HBS, but if I'm mail ordering anyway, I'll usually go with the least expensive. Not always---I had good experiences with one particular fairly large online shop, so I've mostly gone with them as long as prices are roughly comparable to the competition, even if theirs are an inconsequential couple bucks higher.

**Subsailor** · 09-07-2012, 09:35 PM

We have a couple of LHBS in South Central Ak now but it is still cheaper for many items to order online and have it delivered to my door. Some of my buddies and I reduce the horrendous shipping costs by going together and splitting the fees.

Chaddyb · 09-07-2012, 10:28 PM

I live just out of the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area, and I either buy my stuff at Northern Brewer, or Midwest Supplies. I've had great luck with both, and wouldn't dream of going anywhere else.