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Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Allocated beers

Just some thoughts on the allocated beers....

KBS has got a lot of people upset about missing it.  Remember, we only have a small amount and probably on the conservative side at least 50 times as many people trying to get it.   A lot of people said they had it in their "cart" but they could not check out, which just means it was sold out.  The first order came in at 10:13 and the last one came in at 10:14, so it took less than a minute.    We did NOT pre-sell any or reserve any before it got here.

We do our best to mix it up and change the releases a bit.  We mostly lean towards the online reservations as this seems to be the fairest way to let everyone no matter which location they shop get a chance.

We have done some raffles, first come to the store, putting a bottle out on the shelf 1 per day, and other options.  Was planning on releasing some to Facebook followers and some to Twitter followers.   Maybe a beer via our email list.  Or do a combo of all three.  

Our goal is to be as fair as possible.  Trust me, we want everybody to get some if we could.

Many regulars will attest that they will usually find some goodies on the shelf as sometimes I will hold back a few bottles to randomly place on the shelf to reward people that are just in the store and shopping for their "normal beer".   I like this method to reward "regulars" as we have no way of tracking customer purchases.

There are a lot of great beers out there now and hopefully each person will get a chance to get some of them.

We are very sorry if you did not get this release, but the reality is that most people were not able to get it.  There is just not enough to go around.

As always, we appreciate your business, your ideas and your comments.

Paul
The Wine and Cheese Place.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Paul you guys have and continue to do a great job. These releases aren't easy to deal with and for that I thank you for putting up with the headaches they cause. I always buy my beer from TWCP and will continue to do so even if I do miss out on some releases. Its going to happen but its just beer not the end of the world.

Unknown said...

Thanks Paul for what you guys do. I think it is part of the fun of the craft beer world, the hunt. We all know that when we are one to get the special beer we brag about it and it tastes THAT much better when we drink it. Some people are immature indeed and I think you guys always handle it in a fair and professional manner.

Anonymous said...

How hard would it be to put in some sort of card system to track customer purchases? You should do a system were people have to have spent twice as much money on "regular" beers (non-limited release) to be eligible to purchase a limited release. For example, to buy 2 KBS you would have had to have previously spent at least $20. I think that this would at least make people buy more of their regular beer at TWCP and limit the amount of people only shopping there for limited releases.

Paul Hayden said...

Our POS system is so old it will not work. We are getting a new system this year, hopefully that will give us that option to have a rewards program.

Brian said...

How hard is it for people to just relax and realize its just beer and that there is a TON of great beer on the shelves in STL these days. Apparently pretty difficult. Chill out people.