Steve Jackson wrote:

> > wrote in message

> Funnily enough, people tend to find what they're used to as the "best" way
> to go about things.

"People"- hey, you're implying beer aficionados are the same as "people"
<g>? Actually, I think the average beer drinker/buyer LIKES grocery
sales, since they're just buying a major brand (or, even better) getting
their wife to buy it.

But I was also thinking about this and do agree that specialty beer
buyers tend to prefer what they're used to AND, in both our cases, we've
used the best possible retailers (Shangy's or good NJ & Mass stores, in
my case, Bierkraft Khan's Sam's & Hi-Time Wine, in yours).

> I find PA's system weird, because I'm not used to it.

Well, I'm in NJ, but have been traveling to PA for 20+ years to buy beer
I couldn't get in NJ and/or at better prices.


> I also think it would
> make it more difficult to try new beers, precisely because you have to
> commit to a whole case.

Oh, no doubt. That's why all my reasons WHY I once liked PA's system
AND, more to the point, why I think it was *A* reason for the survival
of their local breweries were in the PAST tense. As I said, the beer
market has changed and while I used to gladly "take a chance" on a local
brand at $6 a case, I'm not so quick to take that same chance on a $30+
case of specialty beer. One finds quite a few of the PA micro's
offering "sampler" cases, I take it for just that reason.

>
> At the same time, I've lived in states with grocery sales for the last 10
> years or so. I'm used to it. It seems normal to me.

Yes, and as a local you generally "know where to go". Today, even when
you move, the internet and the "beer media" allows you find good
retailers fast (the same goes for me today when I travel to those states).

> I hardly think the fact that I'm used to it makes it "better." Just what I'm
> comfortable with.

Did I say "better"? Uh, yeah, I might have <g> but I probably used SOME
qualifier, like "generally". I was making a blanket statement that in
the past, I used to find , for me, a better selection of beer EASIER in
states that had liquor store/beer store sales than those with exclusive
grocery store sales. I did, conveniently <g>, ignore all those times I
pulled into a distributor in PA (the "drive-thru's" are often the worse,
since they look at you weird when you walk in because you're "just
browsing") with lousy selections and tons of dusty cases, bad liquor
stores in NJ and Mass., etc. But I know that when I lived in New York
State I always found a better selection in the little (or not so little)
beer stores than in the large supermarket chains. Price was something
else again- I used to have a NYS beer retailers license and I paid $5 a
case for Utica Club from the distributor and the big chain in town (P&C,
maybe?) sold it for 99 cents a sixpack as a lose leader.)