Way back in the post-vaccine, pre-election sweet spot of October 2023, when Bidenomics were really cooking, I wrote a column about the brightest spot in craft brewing’s otherwise fairly dim outlook: the convenience store.
Back then, the segment was down in virtually every other channel, but up in the nation’s gas stations and corner stores, thanks to the convergence of several trends. The American drinking public was shifting toward higher alcohol-by-volume, more full-flavored stuff in larger single-serve packages. Weary of high-stress, big-basket grocery runs in the teeth of the pandemic, shoppers had become delighted all over again by the small thrill of the impulse purchase, which c-stores (colorful, quick, full of treats) were optimized to deliver. Draft sales were down and spirits-based canned cocktails were coming for beer’s share, but the American Kwik-E-Mart was a haven from those woes for brewers who’d cracked its code.
All of those things still hold true, to varying extents. Yet overall convenience store sales were down 4.3 percent by volume for the 52 weeks through Feb. 23, according to market research firm Circana. Refrigerated goods (not beer, but like, string cheese and Lunchables and so forth) were down 7 percent; chocolate candy, 6 percent. The Wall Street Journal framed its mid-March report on Circana’s scan data as a reflection of the restraint skittish customers are showing in the face of President Trump’s incoherent, destructive trade war. As in, with a recession looming, shoppers are paring back on nonessential, indulgent, and “splurge” purchases, declines in which disproportionately register in the c-store channel.
Don’t Miss A Drop
Get the latest in beer, wine, and cocktail culture sent straight to your inbox.
“Gas prices have been elevated and so people are just having a bit less extra discretionary change in their pocket,” the president of consumer-packaged-goods giant J.M. Smucker, told the paper. (This isn’t entirely true: Gas prices are up around 38 percent from five years ago, but down around 36 percent from their mid-pandemic high in 2022, per data from the still-functioning-for-now U.S. Energy Information Administration.) J.M. Smucker acquired Hostess Brands for $5.6 billion in 2023; that division of its business declined 7 percent last quarter. The National Association of Tobacco Outlets warns carton purchases are down and single-pack sales are up at its members’ 66,000 retail locations, many of which are convenience stores. Hershey’s is rolling out a “gold-standard planogram” to 40 percent of its c-store footprint in a Willy Wonka-ass bid to stop its bleeding in the channel. And so on, and so forth.
Conspicuously absent from the WSJ’s list of junk food and vices was beer, so I decided to take a look myself. After all, while you might consider beer essential, it hardly ranks compared to, say, those eggs Trump take. (As one Canadian brewer told CNN as he braced for tariff trouble earlier this week: “People need to eat; they don’t need to drink beer.” I’ve heard similar from concerned stateside operators.) And the c-store channel has always been crucial to beer’s off-premise success — especially craft beer in recent years, as outlined above.
The upshot, for now, is that beer is more or less tracking the broader channel dips. In the 52 weeks through Feb. 23, the category’s top 100 brands were down 1.4 percent by dollars and 3.9 percent by volume compared to the same period in 2024. As has become common in the past few years, the craft segment performed slightly worse than the category: It’s down 2.8 percent and 4.7 percent in dollars and volume, respectively. These are not red-alert numbers. But they’re not good, and like everything else, they will likely get worse in the wake of Trump’s market-torching depression commencement address in the Rose Garden earlier this week.
If there’s good news, it’s that the c-store code that craft brewers — chief among them New Belgium Brewing, with its bodega-beating Voodoo Ranger brand family — has begun to work in other off-premise channels, too. To put it another way, more stores are mimicking what has made convenience stores successful in the first place.
“Grocery stores have shifted a lot of their front-facing, single-serve, quick-shop options to look like convenience stores,” says Bryan Roth, the director of insights for the market intelligence platform Sightlines. “We know broadly that people have integrated convenience-store shopping behaviors into their everyday life. They’re making more trips to shop for the same number of items, and more stores are creating environments [that] feel like a convenience store. There is a world in which we’re talking about people just going to a different location to do the same thing.” A decline in c-store beer purchases would certainly be bad for c-stores, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that another channel isn’t picking up that volume.
This should offer some comfort to all the craft brewers that have developed c-store strategies in the Voodoo Ranger mold. As Roth’s Sightlines colleague Kate Bernot noted recently, single cans — very much including the mighty 19.2-ounce stovepipe — are nearing the same volume as 4-packs in Brewers Association-defined craft beer. “It’s not just a convenience play, either,” she wrote on LinkedIn. “Everything is a c-store now. Shopping trip frequency is up and item count is down, meaning customers are looking to meet in-the-moment needs at affordable prices rather than stocking up.”
Of course, that behavior shift happened once, and there’s no reason it couldn’t happen again. If Trump’s economic fiasco sends cash-strapped shoppers back to supermarkets seeking lower unit costs on big, infrequent pantry-stocking staples, all the rejiggered endcap coldboxes in the country won’t be able to keep beer sales from collapsing. But because nobody knows how this ludicrous, corrupt, self-destructive protectionism will play out next week, much less six months from now, let’s assume for the sake of this column that we’re headed into a Great Recession-style malaise — economically painful and socially destabilizing, but not beans-under-the-bridge bad for most of the cohort of drinker that enjoys high-ABV tallboys of double IPA. (Based on the way things are going: fingers crossed, man.)
In that milieu, Roth argues, c-store beer sales may actually benefit. “Everybody is taking price, even chain grocery, so price gaps [between supermarket and c-store] are smaller than they were even a few years ago,” he says, pushing back on my hypothesis that customers’ trained to expect lower prices at the supermarket would actually give up the convenience of… well, convenience. “The idea of a ‘treat yourself’ impulse buy in a world that increasingly feels unstable is an experience that has long been served by convenience stores,” he says. If you’ve got a Champagne taste and a beer budget, you buy beer.
Things are changing too fast, and in ways entirely too dumb, to forecast with certainty how this will play out for beer’s c-store bastion just yet. But we could all use some optimism right about now, and the optimistic take is that the channel’s emphasis on smaller package sizes and novelty sharpens the old industry saw that holds that beer is recession-proof. We’re about to find out if it will — and if it is.
🤯 Hop-ocalypse Now
Unions are quite popular with the American public these days, but they remain a) institutionally weak, and b) as unpopular as ever with the right-wing industrialists and politicians of this country’s ruling class. With the Trump administration deliberately hobbling the National Labor Relations Board and ripping up the union contracts of hundreds of thousands of federal workers more or less on impulse, it feels like open season on organized labor. Whether that green light from Washington, D.C. informed Anheuser-Busch InBev’s abrupt announcement to close Wicked Weed’s plant in Portsmouth, N.H., last week — where workers voted in November 2024 to join the Teamsters — is impossible to say. Ditto, whether the firm is investing $1 million in its Asheville, N.C., facilities because it makes good business sense, or because the Tar Heel State has the lowest union density in the United States. But it doesn’t exactly help the vibe, regardless.
📈 Ups…
Stone Distributing finally has a new owner, with Hand Family Companies’ acquiring the Southern California wholesaler, as well as Classic Beverage, in a terms-undisclosed deal… It’s a Rocky State tie-up as Dry Dock Brewing and Left Hand Brewing announce merger plans… And, another, as Colorado craft conglomerate Wilding Brands announces plans to acquire Great Divide Brewing Co. … Pabst Brewing Co. will take a run at Miller Lite et al. with Pabst Light, sure why not…
📉 …and downs
The Beer Purchasers’ Index (the National Beer Wholesalers Association’s vibe-o-meter) had imports contracting for the first time since April 2020… Bump Williams reported “a general FEAR” suppressing Mexican import sales among overindexed Hispanic shoppers… I simply think $111,150 is an unreasonable amount of money to spend on a 75-year-old beer can, in this (or any) economy…
This story is a part of VP Pro, our free platform and newsletter for drinks industry professionals, covering wine, beer, liquor, and beyond. Sign up for VP Pro now!
ADVERTISEMENT:
istilah, “slot gacor” Kalau belum bersiaplah hati sama konsep? slot demo adalah, slots jatuh selalu memberi win ini. Ya mesin-mesin mesin disebut yang sebagai jagoannya buat. bawa, pulang ini bisa hasil. tapi cemana
tekniknya jumpain slot demo tepat Tenang, Bro sih beri tenang saja yang di sini? Game terbaik, kita waktu sekarang satu-satunya di
hanya di akan menyediakan return terbesar Daftarkanlah Indonesia hanya imbal hasil terbaik SEGERA dengan
Daftarkanlah dengan di :
Informasi mengenai KING SLOT, Segera Daftar Bersama king selot terbaik dan terpercaya no satu di Indonesia. Boleh mendaftar melalui sini king slot serta memberikan hasil kembali yang paling tinggi saat sekarang ini hanyalah KING SLOT atau Raja slot paling gacor, gilak dan gaco saat sekarang di Indonesia melalui program return tinggi di kingselot serta pg king slot
slot demo gacor
slot demo gacor permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama kdwapp.com
akun demo slot gacor
akun demo slot gacor permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama kdwapp.com
akun slot demo gacor
akun slot demo gacor permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama kdwapp.com
akun demo slot pragmatic
akun demo slot pragmatic permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama kdwapp.com
akun slot demo pragmatic
akun slot demo pragmatic permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama kdwapp.com
akun slot demo
akun slot demo permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama kdwapp.com
akun demo slot
akun demo slot permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama kdwapp.com
slot demo gacor
slot demo gacor permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama jebswagstore.com
akun demo slot gacor
akun demo slot gacor permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama jebswagstore.com
akun slot demo gacor
akun slot demo gacor permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama jebswagstore.com
akun demo slot pragmatic
akun demo slot pragmatic permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama jebswagstore.com
akun slot demo pragmatic
akun slot demo pragmatic permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama jebswagstore.com
akun slot demo
akun slot demo permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama jebswagstore.com
akun demo slot
akun demo slot permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama jebswagstore.com
slot demo gacor
slot demo gacor permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama demoslotgacor.pro
akun demo slot gacor
akun demo slot gacor permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama demoslotgacor.pro
akun slot demo gacor
akun slot demo gacor permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama demoslotgacor.pro
akun demo slot pragmatic
akun demo slot pragmatic permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama demoslotgacor.pro
akun slot demo pragmatic
akun slot demo pragmatic permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama demoslotgacor.pro
akun slot demo
akun slot demo permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama demoslotgacor.pro
akun demo slot
akun demo slot permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama demoslotgacor.pro
slot demo gacor
slot demo gacor permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama situsslotterbaru.net
akun demo slot gacor
akun demo slot gacor permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama situsslotterbaru.net
akun slot demo gacor
akun slot demo gacor permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama situsslotterbaru.net
akun demo slot pragmatic
akun demo slot pragmatic permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama situsslotterbaru.net
akun slot demo pragmatic
akun slot demo pragmatic permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama situsslotterbaru.net
akun slot demo
akun slot demo permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama situsslotterbaru.net
akun demo slot
akun demo slot permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama situsslotterbaru.net
situs slot terbaru
situs slot terbaru permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama situsslotterbaru.net
slot terbaru
slot terbaru permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama situsslotterbaru.net
spy88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama spy88.biz
surga888 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama surga888.biz
surgaplay88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama surgaplay88.biz
suzuki88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama suzuki88.biz
tahta88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama tahta88.biz
tahtatoto permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama tahtatoto.biz
target888 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama target888.biz
targettoto permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama targettoto.net
taruhan777 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama taruhan777.biz
taruhan88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama taruhan88.biz
timnas88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama timnas88.biz
timnastoto permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama timnastoto.biz
titi88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama titi88.biz
tititoto permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama tititoto.net
tstoto88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama tstoto88.com
voxy888 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama voxy888.biz
wasiat88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama wasiat88.biz
winslot888slot permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama winslot888slot.com
wintoto permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama wintoto.biz
yoda88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama yoda88.biz
zeusqq88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama zeusqq88.com
zeusqq88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama zeusqq88.info
zeusqq88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama zeusqq88.net
zeusqq88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama zeusqq88.org
99spin permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama 99spin.org
agen99 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama agen99.info
akademitoto88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama akademitoto88.com
alurtoto88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama alurtoto88.com
angka888 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama angka888.com
angkasajp88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama angkasajp88.com
apk13 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama apk13.org
aurajp88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama aurajp88.net
balon18 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama balon18.com
bandar33 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama bandar33.net
bangsajp88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama bangsajp88.biz
batman13 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama batman13.com
bayar777 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama bayar777.biz
bbm88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama bbm88.biz
bengawantoto permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama bengawantoto.com
bento888 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama bento888.biz
berkahslot88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama berkahslot88.biz
betsatu88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama betsatu88.com
bigo888 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama bigo888.org
binjaitoto88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama binjaitoto88.biz
bolaslot888 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama bolaslot888.biz
bri88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama bri88.biz
bro13 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama bro13.com
btv88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama btv88.biz
buah777slot permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama buah777slot.org
bursa7777 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama bursa7777.com
cair777 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama cair777.biz
ceriabet88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama ceriabet88.biz
cnnslot88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama cnnslot88.net
coblos88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama coblos88.biz
damar888 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama damar888.com
dapattoto88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama dapattoto88.com
dapurtoto88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama dapurtoto88.com
day77 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama day77.biz
demen88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama demen88.biz
detik228 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama detik228.biz
nagamastoto88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama nagamastoto88.com
narutobet88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama narutobet88.biz
narutobet88slot permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama narutobet88slot.com
ngamenjitu88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama ngamenjitu88.com
ninja13 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama ninja13.net
nusantara777 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama nusantara777.biz
nusantara888 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama nusantara888.biz
ojol88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama ojol88.biz
pakarjp88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama pakarjp88.org
pasarslot88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama pasarslot88.biz
pasukkanjitu88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama pasukkanjitu88.com
pditoto88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama pditoto88.com
pejuangjitu88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama pejuangjitu88.com
petir333 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama petir333.biz
pf77 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama pf77.net
pialatoto88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama pialatoto88.com
pijat88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama pijat88.com
pilkada88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama pilkada88.com
pion888 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama pion888.biz
pluto888 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama pluto888.biz
poa888 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama poa888.biz
profit888 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama profit888.biz
pupuk88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama pupuk88.org
puribet88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama puribet88.org
qqindah88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama qqindah88.com
qqstar888 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama qqstar888.biz
roblox88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama roblox88.net
salamjp permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama salamjp.net
samson888 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama samson888.com
semarjitu88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama semarjitu88.com
sensor88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama sensor88.org
sgmwin88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama sgmwin88.com
she77 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama she77.net
shopee88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama shopee88.biz
sido888 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama sido888.com
sikat888 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama sikat888.biz
simba88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama simba88.asia
singgah88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama singgah88.biz
sip333 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama sip333.com
sip88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama sip88.biz
situs666 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama situs666.biz
