Funny things you've overheard about beer

[Krovitz]

Don't feed the trolls!

 

[Thomas007]

Come on man, don't be a tool. Strawman argument.

Sorry, that was meant to be humorous... guess it needed a or something

 

[troyh]

Apologies for straying off-topic. I've just seen one too many posts here talking about pricing of beer and the confusion/frustration around it. I was just trying to be helpful and correct the misunderstanding and got caught over-explaining and appearing argumentative. Let's have a beer and move on.

 

[TyTanium]

That's why they have to charge market prices, not a price based on whatever ingredients they decide to put into it.

How do you think the market sets its price? Even in situations with pricing power or price discrimination, marginal & avg costs drive optimal pricing.

And I appreciate constructive debate...it sharpens all of our understanding.


Funny thing I heard about beer last night:
At train station, headed home late (9:30pm)...see they have a sign for gumballhead...wahoo! "Sir, have any gumball left on tap? I'll take a pint"
"No tap, only bottles. $8.50."
"8.50 for one bottle of beer?"
"Yes"
"Dang. See ya"

Note: P>MC...captive audience; more like MR=MC and priced accordingly

 

[jerrodm]

Just want to note for the record that I tried (unsuccessfully) to steer this back in the direction of humorous beer-related anecdotes. Here's another attempt:

So we're having a holiday party at my house this Friday, and I asked folks to bring either a bottle of wine or a sixer of their favorite beer. And I wrote something on the invite like, "Since we're homebrewers, we especially appreciate pop-top, as opposed to twist-off bottles." One of my friends, who knows I'm into beer but doesn't drink much of it herself, asks me, "OK, so if I want to get Bud Light in pop-top bottles, do I need to go to a special store for that?"

I hid my smirk and told her it's OK to bring cans/twist-offs, whatever. You can't win 'em all!

 

[JordanThomas]

Why are they stupid? Because YOU don't value it? Update: the cards actually had $400 on them and also gave other benefits and were sold for $450 by Starbucks. One person paid $1000 on eBay for one. http://money.cnn.com/2012/12/10/news/companies/starbucks-card-ebay/

I bet lots of people here pay prices for beer that a lot of people think is stupid. A man dying of thirst in the desert would happily pay $100 for the last bottle of water. Is he stupid too? I'd say he'd be stupid not to pay it.

I made that comment under the assumption that it was a $50 gift card, and that the only other thing differentiating it from another starbucks gift card was that it was made of steel. That would in fact be STUPID.

Also, I made the comment because after hearing it, it WAS funny.

 

[troyh]

How do you think the market sets its price? Even in situations with pricing power or price discrimination, marginal & avg costs drive optimal pricing.

And I appreciate constructive debate...it sharpens all of our understanding.

The market sets its price the way all markets do. Imagine yourself selling widgets for $1 and people are flocking to buy them that you can't make them fast enough. You'll quickly realize you should raise your price. When you raise it so high that you have widgets left over, you'll lower your price. And you'll constantly repeat this as supply and demand fluctuate. Your grocer selling beer does the same thing, only they have lots of experience to set the initial price more accurately.

The cost of producing the beer never enters into the market's pricing. The grocer doesn't call the brewer and ask for the marginal cost of the beer. The grocer simply knows what their market will pay. Sale pricing is evidence that the grocer made a mistake, not that the contents of the beer changed.

Funny thing I heard about beer last night:
At train station, headed home late (9:30pm)...see they have a sign for gumballhead...wahoo! "Sir, have any gumball left on tap? I'll take a pint"
"No tap, only bottles. $8.50."
"8.50 for one bottle of beer?"
"Yes"
"Dang. See ya"

Note: P>MC...captive audience; more like MR=MC and priced accordingly

And the same bottle costs less elsewhere (even though the contents of the bottle are unchanged). And notice that he didn't have to pay it. Enough people do that and the price will drop (even though the contents of the bottle are unchanged). This is what most people misunderstand, they think sellers somehow can force people to buy what they're selling. If they had that power, why isn't that bottle $10 or $1000 or $1000000? Because prices (in a free market) are set solely by supply and demand, not by things like cost of ingredients.

Again, if beer was priced based on cost to make it, why aren't brewers trying to spend more money to make a beer rather than always trying to cut costs? Because they don't have the luxury to set price based on their cost.

 

[Krovitz]

Get the f over yourself. You ruined this thread.

 

[DrunkleJon]

Funniest thing I have heard about beer was several pages of economics posts. Those hard costs vs. supply and demand and market share topics really tickle my gizzard.

 

[afr0byte]

The cost of producing the beer never enters into the market's pricing. The grocer doesn't call the brewer and ask for the marginal cost of the beer. The grocer simply knows what their market will pay. Sale pricing is evidence that the grocer made a mistake, not that the contents of the beer changed.

How can that possibly be true? Certainly there's a minimum cost that the brewery can sell their beer for, since they have to buy ingredients/pay workers/etc. The grocer may choose to pick some higher price point because they think they can sell the beer for that higher price, but I don't see how you can say the cost of producing the beer doesn't enter in to the pricing of the beer on the market.

 

[Padalac]

A colleague of mine, in all earnest, about a batch of beer I brewed for my office Christmas party:
"oh you actually brewed this beer? I thought you just bought the beer and changed the label"

 

[TyTanium]

The market sets its price the way all markets do. Imagine yourself selling widgets for $1 and people are flocking to buy them that you can't make them fast enough. You'll quickly realize you should raise your price. When you raise it so high that you have widgets left over, you'll lower your price. And you'll constantly repeat this as supply and demand fluctuate. Your grocer selling beer does the same thing, only they have lots of experience to set the initial price more accurately.

The cost of producing the beer never enters into the market's pricing. The grocer doesn't call the brewer and ask for the marginal cost of the beer. The grocer simply knows what their market will pay. Sale pricing is evidence that the grocer made a mistake, not that the contents of the beer changed.



And the same bottle costs less elsewhere (even though the contents of the bottle are unchanged). And notice that he didn't have to pay it. Enough people do that and the price will drop (even though the contents of the bottle are unchanged). This is what most people misunderstand, they think sellers somehow can force people to buy what they're selling. If they had that power, why isn't that bottle $10 or $1000 or $1000000? Because prices (in a free market) are set solely by supply and demand, not by things like cost of ingredients.

Again, if beer was priced based on cost to make it, why aren't brewers trying to spend more money to make a beer rather than always trying to cut costs? Because they don't have the luxury to set price based on their cost.

Where'd you learn econ? I think this post speaks for itself and does not merit a rebuttal.

 

[conneryis007]

Where are the moderators when you need them???

Please start a different thread for your economics argument. Pretty basic thread manners.....

 

[JordanThomas]

The cost of producing the beer never enters into the market's pricing. The grocer doesn't call the brewer and ask for the marginal cost of the beer. The grocer simply knows what their market will pay. Sale pricing is evidence that the grocer made a mistake, not that the contents of the beer changed.

No. Sale pricing is a direct result of the manufacturer offering an ad allowance to the retailer and is willing to cut into their profit for the sale period in order to showcase the product to the market.

Back on topic, though... I heard today that people were buying Westy 12 for $15 a 33cl bottle! Ha!

(Irony of my "funny things" comment intended)

 

[Lushife]

Can you please PM each other with this economic shiz! Everyone else wants to tell and read funny stories.

 

[Krovitz]

Troy, don't pm me again. You want to keep making the same condescending insult to everyone reading this thread, do it public. I don't look down on a waitress, family member, friend, or anyone because they don't know our trivial beer knowledge. We're all beer geeks having a light hearted chuckle. You are not impressing anyone with your over inflated ego. Apparently everyone who knows what you are talking about, thinks you are full of crap. You are an internet troll and I've already wasted too much of my time on this.

 

[TyTanium]

Where are the moderators when you need them???

Please start a different thread for your economics argument. Pretty basic thread manners.....

Can you please PM each other with this economic shiz! Everyone else wants to tell and read funny stories.

Sorry new to internets. He started it.

 

[Pappers_]

Where are the moderators when you need them???

Please start a different thread for your economics argument. Pretty basic thread manners.....

The way to get a moderator's attention is to click on the report icon (looks like a little red and white warning sign with an exclamation point in it) and tell us what concerns you about the post.

 

[jerrodm]

Where are the moderators when you need them???

Please start a different thread for your economics argument. Pretty basic thread manners.....

Excellent point. Look for my forthcoming sticky on the magic of markets, supply and its determinants, and other astounding economic concepts, as applied to brewing.

But don't hold your breath waiting for it!

 

[Pappers_]

Troy, don't pm me again. You want to keep making the same condescending insult to everyone reading this thread, do it public. I don't look down on a waitress, family member, friend, or anyone because they don't know our trivial beer knowledge. We're all beer geeks having a light hearted chuckle. You are not impressing anyone with your over inflated ego. Apparently everyone who knows what you are talking about, thinks you are full of crap. You are an internet troll and I've already wasted too much of my time on this.

Insulting other members isn't allowed in either the forum or via pm. If you receive a pm that you think is insulting or otherwise offensive, please feel free to forward it to a moderator.

 

[TyTanium]

Excellent point. Look for my forthcoming sticky on the magic of markets, supply and its determinants, and other astounding economic concepts, as applied to brewing.

But don't hold your breath waiting for it!

Yeah! Why should the engineers get all the fun on this site?! We econ/finance types have a lot to offer. I mean, look at all the interest people have expressed in this thread for our discussion. :hs:

(But seriously, I would contribute to your thread if you started it)

 

[Pappers_]

I would prefer not to have go back and edit out all the beer economics talk - this isn't a technical thread, just humorous. But lets make this post a demarcation point - no more beer economics discussion in this thread, please. Thanks.

 

[jerrodm]

Pappers, can we call it beer-conomics, please? Sorry if you have to edit this! <duck>

 

[c_osbourn]

I know from personal experience about not having general beer knowledge&#8230;.Before I was stationed in Italy I only drank Coors cuz I thought it was the best stuff on earth. Went to Germany, tried Franziskainer (SP?) for the first time and never looked back. The only time I drink BMC is when we play beer pong. We ran out of BMC one time and my buddy said to me &#8220;We can just use your homebrew&#8221; Needless to say we are no longer friends&#8230;&#8230;.jk

 

[Doctor_Wily]

Back for now, as long as the econ talk is over.

 

[TyTanium]

Back for now, as long as the econ talk is over.

Marginal benefit of potential future stories minus marginal cost of listening to econ theory;
Return if E(v) > 0

 

[NateLTB]

I had a customer come in the other day that I haven't seen for a while. He asked me what I've been up to lately and I told him I started brewing my own beer. He gets a smile and asks if I add hops to my beer. I say yup, all of them. He looks back at me wide-eyed "All of them?"

 

[Lushife]

This a little embarrassing. A while ago, before I knew what IPA stood for, I was at the bar with a bunch of friends and after the bartender named all the beers forme, one of them an India Pale Ale, I asked if they had any IPA.

 

[Ostomo517]

The only time I drink BMC is when we play beer pong. We ran out of BMC one time and my buddy said to me &ldquo;We can just use your homebrew&rdquo; Needless to say we are no longer friends&hellip;&hellip;.jk

I can picture the music coming to a screeching halt and everyone just stops what theyre doing and slowly turns and stares at him. Lol

 

[c_osbourn]

I can picture the music coming to a screeching halt and everyone just stops what theyre doing and slowly turns and stares at him. Lol

Exactly