Wall Street Journal on Ontario beer market

Jon Walker · Post by **Jon Walker** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 12:21 pm

This article might not make any new points but it's interesting to see an outside perspective;
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... craft+beer

phirleh · Post by **phirleh** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 12:38 pm

Thanks, I saw this posted on the Beer Store's facebbok page yesterday, but it seemed like most of the article was behind a pay wall.

TBS said:
We stand by our belief of Beer Neutrality. Small, large and in between are treated the same. MANY craft brewers are part of the TBS system as is. If we create special allowances for some, how is that fostering a neutral environment?"

Cass · Post by **Cass** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 1:35 pm

This author was in town a few weeks ago, also wrote this article:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 85732.html

Gedge · Post by **Gedge** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 2:44 pm

So that's why they licensed the Black Keys song for that new TV ad.

Inkling · Post by **Inkling** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 12:53 am

"We're not trying to tear the thing apart, but it needs to be tuned up."

I hope he was just being polite. The system really needs to be torn up.

ErkLR · Post by **ErkLR** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 3:14 pm

phirleh wrote:Thanks, I saw this posted on the Beer Store's facebbok page yesterday...[/i]

I had them "liked" up until a couple days ago, I got really sick of the 10 or so inane, substanceless posts that their shill posts every day.

phirleh · Post by **phirleh** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 5:10 pm

ErkLR wrote:
phirleh wrote:Thanks, I saw this posted on the Beer Store's facebbok page yesterday...[/i]
I had them "liked" up until a couple days ago, I got really sick of the 10 or so inane, substanceless posts that their shill posts every day.

Yeah, they are inane, I think they have some bored teenage girl in charge of their social networking posts.

Belgian · Post by **Belgian** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 10:19 pm

Many things about this are VERY clever on the part of The Beer Store. They KNOW that "they" - a group of 3 powerful brewing conglomerates- unjustly control the visibility and marketing of nearly ALL beer sold in Ontario.

And they are not giving up one iota of that power. Notice how they are allowing just enough brewer access - showboating, essentially - to prevent competitive retail outlets for beer. "The system as it is" they claim is good enough for small brewers. Easy for them to say, and suspect for a huge conflict of interest.

Listen to the TBS guy Newton play damage control & 'tow the company line' of how wonderful & rosy the current situation is. They won't address the Craft Brewers concerns directly to the public calling it 'a private matter' . Clever!! This way the TBS, and the brewing conglomerates that 'defer' to them can keep hiding in the weeds as usual. Passive resistance.

TBS acknowledge nothing, basically. They are acting like nothing needs to change, and this in the Machiavellian sense is excellent strategy for keeping Ontario's smaller brewers shut out from what is essentially a private business club granted the power to control retail here.

The war drums will never stop beating outside their little club. Not now.

Lecocq · Post by **Lecocq** » Sun May 01, 2011 8:16 am

I can see the craft brewers concerns about their products in the "conventional" stores as when the customer orders off the "menu" there really isn't any promotion for the craft beers other than their bottles on the beer wall. That being said, the new self serve Beer Stores, though not perfect, are a big improvement in giving their beer more visibility. In the store I work at, I make it a point to keep all of the Mill Street beers together on a top shelf location, along with all of our St Ambroise for example. As I said, it's not the perfect situation but an improvement over the old model.