Watching my LHBS go down the tubes

I have only been in this new hobby for about 6 months, and only deal with one brew shop, but I have already seen them going down hill in service. I know from talking with the owner that it is not all his fault. The big warehouses are in the US and it is killing him to get supplies up to Canada, I agree with that. But since I started brewing he has moved location, to a new larger store. Great, now he can hide the brewing gear behind even more Dungeons and Dragons stuff. Service was fairly good before, would go out of his way to get what they don't carry, now I have been told twice that they are not special ordering anything. Refuses to carry StarSan because it can be reused, only carries Iodaphore. Sure it still works, but after using StarSan, it is hard to go back. I like the foam. We have Home Brew wine shops popping up on every corner, but the only respectable beer shop is racing down the wrong side of the hill. And looking at all the great shops that I would love to order online from (NB) will not be taking Canadian orders.
Sigh...

Maybe you should go to some of the wine shops and convince them to carry beer stuff as well.

Or see this as a hell of an opportunity to start your own business.

Would love to start my own business, but not knowing the community of brewers here is holding that back, as well as a young family and a big mortgage. I think there is definately a place for a HBS with a main business as a beer brewing supply shop, but the rental space for business here is fairly tight, unless you want to get into the "you will get shot and robbed" neighborhoods.

Shot and robbed... in Winnipeg? Your bad parts are probably like our good parts in Cleveland!

We are the highest per capital murder capital in Canada. I know that may not be saying much compared to some places elsewhere, we have our areas in town that you just avoid.

You might consider talking to some of the brewers at your local microbreweries. They may be willing to sell you ingredients. At the same prices as the LHBS, they would be making a decent profit and their ingredients are likely much fresher.

Does brewmasters warehouse ship to canada?

lurker18 said:

I have only been in this new hobby for about 6 months, and only deal with one brew shop, but I have already seen them going down hill in service. I know from talking with the owner that it is not all his fault. The big warehouses are in the US and it is killing him to get supplies up to Canada, I agree with that. But since I started brewing he has moved location, to a new larger store. Great, now he can hide the brewing gear behind even more Dungeons and Dragons stuff. Service was fairly good before, would go out of his way to get what they don't carry, now I have been told twice that they are not special ordering anything. Refuses to carry StarSan because it can be reused, only carries Iodaphore. Sure it still works, but after using StarSan, it is hard to go back. I like the foam. We have Home Brew wine shops popping up on every corner, but the only respectable beer shop is racing down the wrong side of the hill. And looking at all the great shops that I would love to order online from (NB) will not be taking Canadian orders.
Sigh...

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That blows.

My dad had to buy his stuff from the local plumber when we lived in Kenora...but that was 10 years ago...

Brewmasters warehouse does ship to Canada. You will have to pay the full freight, but they have great stuff at decent prices.

I grew up in Winnipeg, out here in Quebec for my studies. What HBS are you talking about? I want to brew up a batch for my little bro when I'm back for Christmas.

Is there any place to get grain and have it crushed?

I've noticed that HBSs, in general, don't do a very good job of promoting homebrewing. Some of them do a decent job, many do an awful job. I don't know that I've ever been involved with a HBS that was a great advocate for homebrewing. I've never understood this since it's the type of business that your success is a business is directly related to how many people you can get and keep in the hobby. So few of these guys are going out and pounding the pavement to get new people in the store, at least from what I've seen.

JKoravos said:

I've noticed that HBSs, in general, don't do a very good job of promoting homebrewing. Some of them do a decent job, many do an awful job. I don't know that I've ever been involved with a HBS that was a great advocate for homebrewing. I've never understood this since it's the type of business that your success is a business is directly related to how many people you can get and keep in the hobby. So few of these guys are going out and pounding the pavement to get new people in the store, at least from what I've seen.

Click to expand...

Yes I have also wondered this. It isn't enough to rely on existing local homebrewers as your customers only, you would think you would be very aggressive on getting people interested to expand your customer base. But to be honest I have seen a lot of local homebrew shop owners that might have gotten into it because of a love of homebrewing but they aren't the best business people, but nevertheless it is a hard business to be successful at. The ones that got a great foothold in mail order will be the ones that survive long term, I feel it is too late and there are a lot of core competitiors for anyone to enter a fullservice homebrewing mailorder store. The competition now is just too good and too varied to accomodate x amount of avid and active brewers. The places that specialize will be more successful, like specializing just in hops, kegging equipment, grains, etc. But I do agree that LHBS owners would keep busy if they really turned up the heat on getting new brewers genuinely interested in homebrewing and to keep them actively homebrewing.

This guy sells homebrewing AND Dungeons and Dragons stuff!! Sweet!

I've also noticed, in general, HBSs are really cluttered and disorganized. I think a lot of it is that they are generally forced into places that are smaller than required, but even so, they're just not thoughtfully organized.

lurker18 said:

Refuses to carry StarSan because it can be reused, only carries Iodaphore.

Click to expand...

Typical old style mom and pop shop behavior. They just don't realize that customers have options now, and they'll die before they change their business model.

Well, I guess thats that huh? Going to have to pack up the bags and just move to the states. I mean, you know you want to.

Just kidding. It sucks about the shop. Maybe some of the wine stores will start to offer some seeing the opportunity. You should talk to them about it.