I have said it before and I will say it again:
It is not about selling the not so craft beer that they make ie. shock top or Michelob amber bock, it is about the shelf space they can lay claim to in order to get everyone else out of the cooler.
In doing so they up their chances of there beer being the one purchased. Is there a real concern
people who appreciate craft beer will pick up shock top instead of a local micro selection? No, probably not. But what about the person that says, you know, i want to be cool and want something different.....hmmmm what is this shock top stuff that is cold. I know I know, hard to imagine but it happens every day. My brewery does not have to deal with this yet as we sell kegs only to bars, but i have friends in other breweries that deal with this issue every day.
The second point is this. There are some breweries that have sold a portion of their business to AB in order to get in on there awesome distribution contracts. Letting them buy a portion is the only way to acheive this. In doing so they help limit the amount of different selection allowed into various markets and of course the ones they do let in they make a profit from.
Is this evil? No. Does it hurt small craft brewers? Yes
Is it legal? yes. Is it the american way? Yes
If they want to highlight a rip off lets talk about the 30 dollars a distributor gets for one of my kegs when it moves literally 10 ft to a cooler that is owned by the brewpub and not the brewery...........
Here in NE breweries are not allowed to self distribute