I have good news and bad news for you.The Good News. The DABC is is undergoing major reconstruction of their main warehouse in Salt Lake City. The current warehouse is already too small to accommodate the increase in volume the state's ever expanding adult population is putting upon it.
The Bad News. The reconstruction of racking and changes to the physical structure of the building call for a 30% reduction in inventory levels to allow for movement of equipment and materials.
This reduction of storage space means that the DABC's smallest product department (beer) will need to find a temporary space. The solution? Put the higher demand beers with the distributors.
Brands like Sierra Nevada and Full Sail will need to find local distributors to get their beer into the state. This will take some time and paperwork to work out and may cause disruption of the flow of their products. The DABC's warehouse had kept a three month supply of the best selling brands.
While I labeled this as "bad news" I think you can already see a silver lining in there. Giving control of the beer to the wholesaler allows the vendor to better service their product. Temperatures will be regulated while in storage, decreasing the amount of old or expired bottles.
As I stated this is temporary. However this could be a permanent move if all goes well down the line. Beer lovers from around the state have always advocated that all "heavy" beer should get out of the hands of the state and into the hands of distributors. Rep. Curtis Oda proposed legislation regarding this in 2009.
The states requirements for the purchase and transport of beer into Utah are needlessly difficult on out of state breweries. The extra space and transportation options the distributors offer could open up many brands that have not previously been here.
The DABC will continue to procure beer products as needed and work to eliminate out of stocks as much as possible during this transition.
Discussion?
7 comments:
Unless some sort of revelation is had up on capital hill, I'm sure that all the heavy beer will be back at the warehouse come next fall. It is a control issue, and I don't see the legislature giving up control.
Any word on whether the reconstruction will include any refrigerated storage? (i know, i know...)
"Any word on whether the reconstruction will include any refrigerated storage? (i know, i know...)"
Ha! Ha! That was funny.... :)
For what it's worth guys this is how beer has been sold in the state system for years. The wholesalers have been bringing in beers and storing them in their warehouses until the state would make their orders. Then the distributors would deliver to the state warehouse.
The only difference now is that with the construction there is an off premise warehouse that is receiving shipments instead of directly to the main warehouse.
There are a couple of brands like sierra that direct distribute to the state and that is still in effect. Again they are just dropping at a different warehouse.
I wouldn't expect much to change any time soon.
I volunteer my garage for storage space. You know...to do my part.
Heh heh heh.
One warning to everyone. All the beers sold in the state that have a local distributor (which is not all of them to be certain) end up with another price markup added to them (the distributors cut).
One of the reasons SN beers are so well priced in the state is that they are sold straight to the state. This is also one of the reasons that Rogue and Deschutes are priced higher (obviously not the only reason).
Sierra Nevada Pale $1.37
Deschutes Mirror Pond $1.85
Expect to see Sierra Nevada and other beers to have their price increased.
Well shit, that sucks. I always wondered why SN and Full Sail were so absurdly cheap here. Depending on how much certain things go up, I might start going back to Evanston more often, where Mirror Pond is often 6.99 or 7.49. I love that town.
Too bad we can't get some Senator like Mike Noel to sponsor a protest where we ride our ATV's up to Evanston, buy a bunch of good beer, and import it back into the state while the authorities watch helplessly. How do we beer lovers get a representative like the gun and ATV crowds do? Let's brainstorm guys.
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