Chaos in the bottle shops
Published 23 April 2019 in Drinks Retailing News.
Specialist craft beer retailers have likened placing orders for the latest beers from certain big-name breweries to the scramble to secure Glastonbury tickets, amid concerns that parts of the wholesale market are becoming overheated.
For this article I examine the fierce competition independent retailers face for some beers, and also the lengths some go to in order to get hold of the beers their customers demand.
Some buyers are driven to underhand measures to secure hyped beers for their shops. “I know there’s a lot of jiggery-pokery that goes on,” says Sandy. “It’s a dog-eat-dog world in the craft beer scene.”