How does this happen?

[SlanginDueces]

Just moved to Montgomery AL. The beer scene is pretty weak here so when I saw Heretic stocked at the local Wholefoods I was pretty happy. I have only had it once while in San Fransisco and loved both beers I tried. I would never have expected to see it here. I was super excited until I looked at the canned on date. Not sure how any competent beverage person for an exclusive grocery store could think this was ok at $13.00 a six pack. I took this picture last week. Where the hell have these been sitting the past 15 months??View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1502102096.555389.jpg

Now it sits on the shelf taunting me every time I walk past the beer aisle.

 

[Gravity]

Lagged stockkeeping

 

[soccerdad]

Try the beers from Good People Brewing in Birmingham. Quality beer.

 

[ryanryates]

That's what you get for shopping at Whole Foods...

 

[SlanginDueces]

That's what you get for shopping at Whole Foods...

Was previously thought to be the best beer selection in town.

 

[skidmark]

Was previously thought to be the best beer selection in town.

That's what you get for moving to Alabama ...

 

[brandonlovesbeer]

I've found this to be true of almost every store where beer that doesn't sell well is sold.

And a $13 6er from Whole foods is probably going to sit there a while.

Even at places like total wine.

More than once I've had to inform Total Wine that their Stone beers are WAY out of date.

Their response is almost always, "The distributor just delivered that the other day." But... They do remove them from the shelves immediately.

While I think the store should know better than to stock the shelves before looking at the bottle date...
I've found that The distributor is usually the main problem.

 

[SlanginDueces]

Funny you mention Stone, their Enjoy By 07.04.17 is still all over the shelves here....I laugh every time I see it. It's in the name of the beer!

 

[Jwin]

Here in TN anyway, the distributor handles all date checking. And they are all horrible at it. Most of the time, there is no additional stock elsewhere and the distributor comes by once a week, generates an order for the store, gets sign off from mgmt, and it's delivered a day or two later.
The only time you see an employee stocking beer is if it is from a rare "drop and go" distributor.
Sadly, most business owners don't care either. If they pull it, that's product they won't sale that they have to strong arm the distributor rep to take back. Reps bonus off of low returns, and don't want to take it back. Some make owners sit on it until one qtr per year, so they get 3 solid bonuses.
I've explained to an owner before that the customers don't understand how this works and when they get home with a dull, faded IPA that is 4 months out of date, they blame the store and it hurts business.
He didn't care.
Couple that with no industry standard on dates. Some are package dates, some best by, some are cryptic code that no one can read, and some have no marking what so ever.

Best thing I can tell you is go to a place that specializes in craft beer and ask the employees what's new and good. Generally they care more than the owners.

 

[CGVT]

Try the beers from Good People Brewing in Birmingham. Quality beer.

Absolutely!

You can't go wrong with any of their offerings.