Markets
December 4, 2009
I love this post on the dangers of beer shopping. Thank goodness I didn’t make it to this store during our Colorado trip. Armed only with space in the suitcase for a 750, I would have been driven insane by the opportunity to spend money and not be able to carry my goods home. People like me keep the beer economy moving. Do I need that beer on the shelf I spot during my three time a week trip to the grocery store? No. Will I buy it if it is new? Yes.
Such is the nature of the market. The shopping market. The market for specific consumers. Beer has matured enough to evolve from one market – the 24 pack canned beer sold for ten bucks whose market is kids wanting to get drunk – to many other types of consumers: $15 six packs, $10-15 22 ounce bottles, $25 and above 750s. Each market is designed for different and, at times, overlapping consumers. As are the beer clubs. Beer of the month - designed for the curious beer drinker, but not the beer geek who has either had these beers or knows he can get them elsewhere for less money. Lost Abbey Sinners – designed for the beer geek who will gladly pay for those 375 ml bottles. Utopia? Even it – at over $170 in some places – has its own market. Thankfully, I am not in that market. Special releases are for beer geeks (even if non-geeks may also end up waiting in line). Inexpensive six packs of a fine craft lager are often for the interested, but not the geek (though the geek, too, may buy it).
Price is a popular topic on the Ratebeer forums. Will craft beer price itself out of existence? one thread asks. No more than expensive homes, automobiles, children’s clothes, food, etc. have. They have found their markets. The expensive bottle speaks to one aspect of the craft market. The $4 Bear Republic bomber speaks to another. These markets overlap and meet up at times (i.e., I buy them both), but they are not designed with the same main audience in mind. Variations in price levels are the sign of a market maturing.
I return to the post which started this thought. I can wander into a beer store like Wine and Cheese in St. Louis with the intent to buy ONE beer I know that is in stock. I can then walk out with a $100 bill paid. We have known for some time that capital drives obsession. The difference between me and Adorno (or whoever we want to fit into the critical slot) is that I don’t care. I want to purchase. I want my purchases to distract me. In the post I link to, I believe the author does as well. His shopping cart fills up. In goes the beer he came for – Life and Limb. In also goes some Bruery, Lost Abbey, Stone. I will want this later, I usually think when I do the same. I’ll never be able to get this again if I don’t get it now. I know I have too many beers….but this beer will be gone the next time I’m here. Anxiety takes over. Two things make us nervous: capitalism and new media. $30 for one bottle of Consecration! At some point, you find yourself comfortable in the market, the price issue fades, and unlike in The Matrix, you don’t need to see the codes. You don’t need to be awaken or shown the light. The market takes over. $30 for Consecration. Of course. That makes sense.
Posted in beer
