Champane's in Warren is blowing out their Breakfast Stout four packs for $5.99. Additionally, I noticed there were TEN Bolt Cutters on the shelf, too, at $18.99 each. Forget the hate, I bought another one at this price. Couple this with $6.99 for Narwhal and a fresh batch of Maharaja - I love you, Champane's, but my wallet certainly doesn't.
That's a great price on the FBS. I can't wait till this comes back in 6-packs. Has to be one of the best values out there.
I haven't researched this much, but I'm almost positive it's illegal in Michigan to sell beer or wine below cost. Breakfast Stout costs $7.17/4pk from the distributor (at least in Oakland county, but I assume it's pretty similar in Wayne). Anyone know more about this? I think you can petition the Commission to sell below 'shelf minimum' for liquor (not sure about beer/wine), but I think it's used to 'close out' a product, as in discontinuing stocking a particular product and not to get rid of 'old' seasonals. found the below quote here under question 15: http://www.michigan.gov/ag/0,4534,7-164-17337_20942-134114--,00.html Under the Liquor Control Code, alcoholic liquor may not be sold below the "minimum retail selling price" set by the Liquor Control Commission. Spirits must be sold at a mandated price while beer and wine may not be sold below cost. MCL 436.1229
I talked to a buddy of mine from another store, and he explained to me what likely happened here. Yes, invoice is over $7 a 4 pack and it's illegal to sell it under that. However, the distributor can lower the price, but they must keep it at that price for 6 months. Since this beer won't be out again for > 6 months, they're in the clear, next year it will be back to its regular price. The beef my buddy had is that the distributor basically unloaded all of their remaining stock on Champanes at quite a bargain. Champanes was then able to advertise a great sale and drive traffic. It was not, however, offered to other accounts, including my buddy's store, for that price. He of course would have loved to sell Breakfast Stout at $5.99 a 4-pack. Founders likely wanted it off the shelf at this point of the season, told the distributor to unload it at a discount, and the distributor sold all of it to a single large account at a slashed price. My apologies in advance if other accounts were indeed offered it at this price, but I've not heard of it.
I went and bought it from my regular store today for $8.99. I figured loyalty to my regular places is worth less than a buck a beer. Even at regular price, it's still a nice price and, as someone pointed out above, when it comes in sixers next year it'll just be that much better in the value department.
Yeah, looks like it was offered to more than just Champanes after all. I heard Fairway Sav Mor has it for $5.99 as well.
Received Champanes email blast - I had to reread the subject multiple times to make sure that it actually said they got 70 cases today. Insanity.
It's called a post-off and its pefectly legal to lower a price for as long as they want for a minimum of 6 months. Our distributor is nowhere near out, they had way to much to "end" the season so a post-off was necessary in order to not have it in the middle of the summer when the demand is greatly lessened. Everyone had the opportunity to buy some, trust me there was more than enough.
