A few words about the hard to get and very limited beers.
Due to the amount of new and hard to get beers we are receiving, I am going to start putting a 7 day time limit on pick ups from the reservation day. With demand on these beers and so many people looking for them, we just cannot sit on them in the back room for weeks.
For example, on the Founders Better Half (if it comes today) -- you must pick this beer up by Thursday Feb 23, 7pm. The beer will go back on the shelf starting the next day**. We will not make phone call reminders, so please don't forget to pick up your beer. We just need to streamline, these allocated beers as they are taking a lot of time. The amount of labor and time it is taking for these is becoming too much.
Just a reminder on how the online reservations work....these are some points and questions that always come up when we do the online fast reservation...
After I post the link, it usually goes fast...
- Just getting an order in is no guarantee
- Wait for a confirmation - could take a few minutes
- If you hit the link and the beer does not appear, that means it sold out already
- If you have it in your cart and it will not let you check out, that means I turned it off and it is sold out.
- Many of these only take a few minutes to sell out.
- We have tried many methods, and this one still seems to be the fairest.
- We know some people cannot get internet access during business hours, but if we just put it on the shelf, it would still be an issue if you are stuck at work.
** I will not take any more reservations on those beers that are being put back on the shelf. Please don't call or ask for those beers when you come in, we will sporadically put them on the shelf for regular shoppers to find over the next week. This again will be a way to reward the regular beers shoppers at our store (as people keep asking us to do). The beers won't be hidden, Founders will be on the Founders shelf, just like the other day somebody scored a Goose Island Bourbon County Coffee on the Goose Island shelf.
Thanks very much for understanding! We want to make it as easy as possible and as smooth as possible.
I like this idea! Makes it a lot more "luck of the draw." Somehow, it sounds better than random drawings, maybe because it really does reward shoppers for coming in to browse. And don't worry, I promise not to come in 4 times a day.
ReplyDeleteI really think you should do away with online reservations all together. Make the beer available on the shelf, in the store, and that is it. The online system only rewards people able to sit there and watch the internet all day long.
ReplyDeleteI may never be able to get a rare beer that is sold in store only, but at least the internet horders don't always get to rule the day.
Perhaps even better would be if you offered these beers to your regular customers. You know who they are. When a rare beer releases, call them up and see if they want some. I don't see anything wrong with rewarding loyalty. Maybe limit each person to one bottle or one six pack.
I just really despise the internet system to reserving beers.
This is an extra perk that TWCP provides, they are going out of their way to make us happy. I would think it is more appropriate to see more comments of praise than anything. Also be sure to think of the amount of effort on the side of TWCP to do this sort of stuff - and try not to think only about what's fair for us (you) but what's fair for them as well.
ReplyDeleteAnyway - thanks Paul and everyone at TWCP for being so freaking awesome! We're lucky to have people who care about the experience of their customers as much as you do. Cheers.
-Ian
Even 7 days seems pretty generous. Make it 72 hours / 3 days. If someone wants it that bad they'll find a way to pick it up in this time-frame. It also gets the product out on the shelf more quickly this way, and raises the stakes a bit more.
ReplyDeleteI certainly appreciate the way TWCP puts in the effort to make these releases as fair as possible.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree with the seven-day deadline as well, because it ensures that someone will have a weekend day to pick up an order. Many people are stuck at work for longer hours during the week (or may only have one weekday they can make it out if they work weekends), so this framework would seem to allow some flexibility without requiring TWCP to sit on orders for too long a time.
I can attest that to the fact that putting out the unclaimed beers on a random basis is a great way to reward loyal customers.. I am the lucky SOB that walked into the Coffee BCS! Several months ago I stumbled onto a Blushing Monk just laying there all by itself. The real lesson is that we need to patronize the places that are providing the limited release beers on a regular basis, not just when we are trying to score the rare ones... you never know what you'll find. I promise I will continue stopping by whether I "need" something or not.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate all that TWCP does to manage all the beer madness. Thanks again for the nice BCS surprise!