The old adage about booze being recession-proof may have some truth to it: alcohol sales are up 2% over the past year. Not surprisingly, the cheap stuff is leading the way, with sales of private-label wine — no, that’s not the stuff you brew in your backyard — up 20%. And more people are shunning bars and restaurants, opting instead for the comfort of a brown paper bag and the neighborhood stoop.
beer
Brewery Owner Stares Down, Whups Monster In His Closet
By 10.22.09
Score a victory for the little guy. Matt Nadeau, the owner of the Rock Art Vermont brewery, which was slapped with a lawsuit by the sue-happy makers of the Monster energy drink for brewing a beer called “Vermonster,” has gotten the bullies to step off.
Brewer Sued By Monster Energy Drink Asks America For Help
By 10.14.09
Matt Nadeau, the owner of a tiny Vermont brewery being sued by the makers of the Monster energy drink for brewing a beer called “Vermonster,” has taken his case to the people. He says that trademark attorneys keep telling him the law is with him, but that he should just give up because it will be too expensive to litigate. “This is just about principle,” Nadeau told the AP. “Corporate America can’t be allowed to do this, in this day and age. It’s just not right.”
Man Sues Coors Over Invalid Contest Codes
By 10.9.09
An Illinois man has filed a class-action lawsuit against MillerCoors because the “Silver Ticket Sweepstakes” code on the case of beer he recently bought turned out to be invalid. The man says he tried entering the code online and over the phone, but it was rejected each time—not because it wasn’t a winning code, but because it wasn’t a legitimate sweepstakes entry code to begin with.
PBR Sales, Prices, Up
By 9.17.09
With sales and prices up, the only redeeming quality left for PBR is if you perversely enjoy drinking a beer with zero finish. Please, nobody tell the tiny pants set that Miller High Life is 50 cents cheaper and tastes two dollars better. [NBCChicago] (Photo: Ingorrr)
How To Measure Your Missing Beer
By 9.2.09 — Updated: 12.28.12
Draft beer lovers, we’ve got some good news and bad news. The good news: A new tool allows you to see how much beer you’re missing when a bartender doesn’t fill up your pint glass all the way. The bad news: You have to be a douchebag in order to use it.
Study Finds Booze Sellers Are Using Cable To Ply Teens
By 8.24.09
Alcohol ads pop up on cable programming that’s popular with teeagers at a suspicious rate, a study by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth and UCLA found.
Not So "Drinkable?" Sales Of Bud Light Are Dropping For The First Time Ever
By 8.11.09
Sales of Bud Light are down, probably because of the recession, but we hope it’s because of the aggressively annoying “Drinkability” campaign. In any case, AB has decided to roll out more than 15 new “Drinkability” commercials in the coming weeks, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Crazy Pennsylvania Beer Law Bars Convenience Stores From Selling Beer Six-Packs
By 6.22.09
Poor Pennsylvanian beer-lovers — not only is there a bizarre, ancient law on the books that prevents convenience stores from selling six-packs, but the state supreme court has gone and upheld it.
Jewel-Osco Grocery Stores Implement Price Cuts …I Think
By 5.6.09
Jewel-Osco, a Chicago-area grocery chain, implemented some much-publicized price cuts a few weeks ago. Let’s see how they’re doing with that.
Anybody Wanna Buy Rolling Rock? Again?
By 4.13.09
Three years ago, the Belgian brewing company that just acquired Anheuser-Busch, InBev, sold Rolling Rock to AB. Now they’ve got it back again… and want to sell it. Anyone looking for a beer brand?
This Grocery Store Truly Understands Tax Season
By 3.5.09
Reader Kevin took this photo at a Fred Meyer store in Seattle. It seems like they understand tax season pretty well.
Alcohol Sales Plummet
By 2.25.09
What’s up, beer drinkers of America? Bloomberg notes that “take-out sales of alcoholic beverages tumbled 9.3 percent in the fourth quarter, the steepest drop since the U.S. Commerce Department started compiling data half a century ago,” and a drop four times greater than the overall fall in consumer spending. Most of that was due to the 14 percent drop in beer sales.
Cascade Beer Drinkers Defeat Grocery Shrink Ray
By 2.24.09
When Fosters-owned Cascade beer (different from regular Fosters in that it tastes decent) switched to 330ml from 375ml while charging the same price, consumers let their discontent be known in a highly visible fashion: they stopped buying it. Fosters reported a 33% drop in sales and some retailers reported up to a 50% drop. In response to the steep drop-off, Fosters is going back to 375ml, the standard size for canned beers in Australia.
By 1.22.09
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It’s the 50th anniversary of the aluminum beer can. Hooray? [Rocky Mountain News]
Miller High Life To Show 1-Second Ads During Superbowl
By 1.21.09
Blink and you’ll miss it. Miller High Life has bought up 1-second slots advertising to air during the Superbowl. The spots feature a boisterous Miller High Life (MHL) truck-loader named Wendel shouting out phrases and doing silly things inside a MHL loading dock. “Happy can,” “Cham-pagne of beers,” “pigskin gravy,” “Frugal bugle,” are some of the things says in the preview spots posted on 1secondad.com.
It's Midnight Somewhere…
By 1.1.09
It’s New Year’s Eve, and we have some drinking suggestions for you.
How Midwest Airlines Is Like Schlitz
By 10.31.08
How is Midwest Airlines like Schlitz beer? A traveler angry over how Midwest’s wider business seats now cost an extra $50 explains. [Upgrade: Travel Better]
