Is Big Beer too drunk with power?

[prrriiide]

LINK

Big Beer looks as if it's testing President Obama's tolerance. Both Anheuser-Busch InBev — purveyor of the president's preferred brew, Bud Light — and MillerCoors, a joint venture between SABMiller and Molson Coors, are raising prices at the same time, during a recession, and while beer demand is slumping. With an 80 percent market share between them, it almost begs for an antitrust review of the industry.

snip

...competitive landscape is no more. Miller and Coors kicked off a joint-venture last year that combines the market powers of the second- and third-largest players. InBev, meantime, has no stomach for a price war following its $52 billion debt-financed splurge on Anheuser. So despite slumping appetite for beer and tough times, prices are going up. Company executives even deemed the conditions "favorable."

Yet another reason to dislike BMC.

 

[Parker36]

I don't know,but I'm drunk on big beer (barley wine, not that BMC ****)

 

[humann_brewing]

This is a good thing as long as other beers remain at the current price as they will appeal more to people being for being less in cost or a smaller gap in price exists between good beer and BMC.

This could be a very good thing. I hope their sales plummet even more.

I realize BMC has it's place in this world but not sure if it needs 90% of the market share.

 

[Edcculus]

Meh, who cares. I rarely buy BMC. Maybe if the prices rise high enough, people might actually venture out to some craft offerings.

 

[kappclark]

It costs abt $1.10 a bottle per sixpack for Bud .. my homebrew (better than BMC if I do say so myself) is about half that .. the math is pretty clear..

Basically - who cares ? Bunch of greedy bean counters in Europe trying to make themselves look good, since they have run out of people to lay off (someone has to make the beer)

Sorry so cynical

 

[Tonedef131]

Good, this makes that six pack of Totally Naked look that much more affordable to the average beer consumer.

 

[kappclark]

Technically, Obama was not drinking an American brew at that Beer summit.

 

[david_42]

Compared to what we pay for craft beer, BMC is still very cheap, so what's the problem?

I never buy BMC, so why would I care anyway?

 

[Schlenkerla]

The lemmings will continue to drink the swill no matter what the price.
Its just like the guberment and tobacco taxes. They raise and raise the amount but the lemmings still buy them.

I'm surprised people don't grow their own tobacco.

The BMC crowd accepts American Lager as a definition of good beer, since thats all they know....

Garret Oliver said something like this. Imagine a life growing up where you only ate "Wonder Bread". Light fluffy flavorless bread. Then you discover sourdough, rye, pumpernickel, italian & french bread. Some people will be surprised on what they were missing out on, others will say they those others suck and go back to their Wonder bread.

​

America drinks Wonder Beer!!

If you don't get this, or have never eaten this bread, go buy a loaf of "Wonder" and good loaf of whole grain wheat or a rye. Its really a weird textured bread.

 

[meluvbeer]

I thought Wonder bread went out of business a few years back?


Well after a search it looks like there still in business.
Someone lied to me.. LOL

 

[Schlenkerla]

I thought Wonder bread went out of business a few years back?


Well after a search it looks like there still in business.
Someone lied to me.. LOL

Frickin' liars.... Did you stop buying wonder bread???

 

[dontman]

I had a happy hour party last night. I had seven different beers on tap. At one point I took a vote and unanimously the "Bud Killer" (a brew I made to please the BMC crowd) was voted the most bland and no one had a second. It was wonderful (EDIT: I don't mean the Bud Killer beer was wonderful, but the fact that everyone at the party really liked the more 'craftier' of the beers.) Just FYI, the Belgian Pale took top honors, followed closely by the ESB. (My vote went with the ESB.)

 

[david_42]

I don't buy bunny bread, but I like the really cheap hotdog buns. They're smaller and fit my gourmet sausages better.

 

[KYB]

We had a Beer Festival here yesterday. $20 got you a 4oz glass, and 20 tokens for samples. They had 30 breweries with at least 3 beers each. Stone, DFH, Chimay, Founders, etc. People who weren't into craft beer thought the concept was cool, and it got a lot of people into craft beer. My friends really liked a lot of the beer and were really surprised by it.

While there, they mentioned that it was just too expensive. So, I said "You think $8 for a 6 pack is really expensive, yet you buy $4 Bud Lights at bars?" They were like ".... touche. Good point. Never thought of it that way."

I really think this could help the craft market if those prices don't go up. There's people who buy it because it's cheap, and there's people who buy it because they aren't even open to anything else. The people who buy it because it's cheap would probably buy better beer if there wasn't much of a price difference. I know my friends would. A lot of them are starting to get better beer sometimes anyway, of course BMC is still their go-to beer.

 

[stormrider27]

I think that once the big three raise their prices the others (craft beers) will follow. The only way they won't is if Sam Adams holds their price. The other side of the equation is what the retailers will do. Lets say that bud and miller jack the price $5 a case and Sam keeps theirs the same do you think the retailer is going just sell a premium product for less than the low end swill? When you control 90% of the market you do just that CONTROL it.

Storm

 

[kappclark]

Kick Joe sixpack when he's down ...heartless BMC

 

[Schlenkerla]

I think that once the big three raise their prices the others (craft beers) will follow. The only way they won't is if Sam Adams holds their price. The other side of the equation is what the retailers will do. Lets say that bud and miller jack the price $5 a case and Sam keeps theirs the same do you think the retailer is going just sell a premium product for less than the low end swill? When you control 90% of the market you do just that CONTROL it.

Storm

The distributor will kick it up, almost guaranteed. Like price leveling, why the fark not???? Money is to be made. I wonder how much say the breweries have in pricing?