People by Bud because they are told to, much like millions of other non beer mass marketed products..
I always love this argument. People don't part with their hard earned money because they're told to, I sure as hell don't. People spend their money on what they WANT to, it's that simple. There's no one holding a gun to anyone's head. Be it a hand crafted product or "mass marketed product." It ultimately comes down to what the person wants.
That's what beersnobs can't seem to grasp, or are unwilling admit. People buy BMC because it fits the niche about what most people want to consume on a regular basis. They want a thirst quenching, not too filling, and not too complex, or bitter, or hoppy or whatever. They want a quaffer.
There has been a steady increase in the amount of alternatives to that style since about 1984, going from one of two beers in high end stores, to craft beers having a prominent niche in even the biggest of big box stores, and yet,
the majority of people STILL choose those beers. It's that simple.
BMC doesn't really care WHAT style of beer the world drinks predominance, ONLY that the beer they make is at the top of the list. Like many of us have said, if Double IPAs were what the majority of folks wanted, then BMC would be the top double IPA brewer in the world, because they know how to make and sell beer. And the typical beersnob would be complaining and slamming double ipas. Or if Stone were at the top of the heap folks would be complaining about them.
It's economics 101...the CONSUMER dictates what it wants to spend it's money on, and business scrambles to be the top of the chain of providing that.
The biggest thing is that folks seem to have glommed on to some notion that the craft brewer is some how "pure" and anyone making money is somehow "evil." Even the craft breweries that have some how managed to be successful, get snobbed, I mean snubbed by some folks as well. There's some almost naive notion, and I think it has to do with how people becomes zealots when introduced to something new, be it craft beer or religion, to put whatever it is on a pedestal, that they are somehow more "noble" or something than anyone else. That somehow they're more "pure," than the established. Then when you realize that even the little guy is in it for the money, and does "business" just like the big guys and maybe even becomes a "big guy" then they've sold out or gone commercial or something.
Like Yuri pointed out, we don't get really amped up because the bakery industry or the automotive industry or the shoe industry does exactly the same thing- which is simply exercise their right to capitalism, trying to make money, and be number 1.....But for some reason we don't allow breweries to do the same thing every other industry does...compete or make money.
