[denny]

I spoke to my wife about this and she laughed. Her point is we order from Amazon, drink Coke, buy Ford vehicles, and on and on. Why draw the line at home brew. As is often the case: she has a point.


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IMO, apples and oranges

[rodwha]

I spoke to my wife about this and she laughed. Her point is we order from Amazon, drink Coke, buy Ford vehicles, and on and on. Why draw the line at home brew. As is often the case: she has a point.


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IMO, apples and oranges

Indeed.

[BrewBama]

I spoke to my wife about this and she laughed. Her point is we order from Amazon, drink Coke, buy Ford vehicles, and on and on. Why draw the line at home brew. As is often the case: she has a point.


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IMO, apples and oranges

How do you figure?  They’re all international corporations we deal with nearly daily. ABI falls squarely in that category.


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[Robert]

I spoke to my wife about this and she laughed. Her point is we order from Amazon, drink Coke, buy Ford vehicles, and on and on. Why draw the line at home brew. As is often the case: she has a point.


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IMO, apples and oranges

How do you figure?  They’re all international corporations we deal with nearly daily. ABI falls squarely in that category.


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Amusing how we protest that we won't patronize an international mega corporation that just wants to collect our data, and do so while typing on a device made by an international mega corporation and sent over a service owned by an international mega corporation both of which just want to collect our data.  BrewBama's wife's point about Amazon is astute.   If there's a distinction  between apples and oranges here (and I hope there is) I struggle to see it.

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[denny]

I spoke to my wife about this and she laughed. Her point is we order from Amazon, drink Coke, buy Ford vehicles, and on and on. Why draw the line at home brew. As is often the case: she has a point.


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IMO, apples and oranges

How do you figure?  They’re all international corporations we deal with nearly daily. ABI falls squarely in that category.


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They're trying to sell more of their products than anyone else, but they do it without trying to control the marketplace.  ABI is trying to limit your access to products other than theirs.

[narvin]

I spoke to my wife about this and she laughed. Her point is we order from Amazon, drink Coke, buy Ford vehicles, and on and on. Why draw the line at home brew. As is often the case: she has a point.


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IMO, apples and oranges

How do you figure?  They’re all international corporations we deal with nearly daily. ABI falls squarely in that category.


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In some fields economy of scale is helpful, specifically in engineering, supply chain logistics, etc.  Making food and beer isn't one of them.

I don't drink coke anymore, I grew up.

[rodwha]

I spoke to my wife about this and she laughed. Her point is we order from Amazon, drink Coke, buy Ford vehicles, and on and on. Why draw the line at home brew. As is often the case: she has a point.


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IMO, apples and oranges

How do you figure?  They’re all international corporations we deal with nearly daily. ABI falls squarely in that category.


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They're trying to sell more of their products than anyone else, but they do it without trying to control the marketplace.  ABI is trying to limit your access to products other than theirs.

Precisely. How many times has AB/InBev been caught doing nefarious things breaking the law to muscle the competition out? It’s nothing like the others mentioned. And for myself and many others it’s not about being anti big business. It’s about anti BS they do to harm the little guys such as what I mentioned where they will supply tabkes, chairs, umrellas, taps, etc. if they’ll serve their products. Somehow they keep getting small fines. A little guy got caught doing the same and it really hurt their business (whoever it was).AB/InBev’s business practices are why I won’t purchase anything they have a hand in. But I’ll but a Sam Adams, a Blue Moon, a Coors if my options are limited.

[rodwha]

AB/InBev is also deceitful. They’ve lied about some of their “craft” comapnies being mom and pop but the address led them to a Budweiser brewery where that logo wasn't even found. They still try to push the “craft” beers they bought as craft, which they no longer are, knowing there are many who don't want to support big business. There’s a lot of underhanded things they’ve been known to do.

We much prefer to support local and independent companies. Usually we find the food, product, or experience, as well as customer support, to be much better. But we don’t fault a company for making it big (usually). That’s the business goal of most anyone.

[BrewBama]

While I absolutely agree that the brewing side of ABI has certainly done all the deeds mentioned above, the title to this thread is ABI is trying to take over the Homebrew market. When I first learned ABI bought Northern Brewer I swore I’d never place another order with them because I want to support independent craft artisans. But my position is softening. Here’s why:

1) One Homebrew store cannot be considered taking over the market. If things progress into ABI eliminating all competition thru predatory tactics then an argument could be made. But I think that argument is a bit premature at this point for this market.

2) Buying local is nostalgic and I am a proponent, but it can only go so far.  I am certainly as patriotic as the next guy. But in my neck of the woods hops aren’t grown, barley is not grown or malted, and yeast isn’t commercially wrangled. What if I want to buy German barley, hops, and yeast for a Helles?  I couldn’t without international big business. Would I prefer to live in a small town and buy from a local shop keeper?  Sure. Shopping at the individual European cheese, wine, butcher, bakery, brewery, etc, etc was right up my alley. But if a local shop can’t get what I’m looking for or maybe doesn’t even exist in my town, then I am left with buy it online or go without.

3)  What if Northern Brewer offers a small businessman’s products that cannot be locally obtained or the next closest store that has the product is a thousand miles further away?  Going without sure doesn’t help the small business who’s product is sold by NB. And you can’t blame the small business owner from trying to get his product visible in the market via NB.  So to support independent craft artisans I would choose to buy from a Homebrew store which is closer to me and owned by an International Corporation.

I dunno. We use International Corporations daily. I typed this on a product made by one.  I have products made by one sitting in my driveway. Having a venture capital firm owning an otherwise arguably great Homebrew store isn’t taking over the market. Doesn’t mean they won’t try. It just means they haven’t today.



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[Robert]

^^^^^
I try to shop at LHBS whenever possible because I want them to still be here so I can have the luxury.  It's 15 minutes away, well stocked, and fun folks.  But if they don't have what I want, I shop online rather than deprive myself, and wherever I buy, it's a real store employing real people somewhere. Plus what all BrewBama said.  Same goes for any product.  I'd rather go local on some level, but sometimes it just makes more sense to swipe on Amazon.   I'd rather go to my neighborhood Ace Hardware, but sometimes it makes sense make the trip to Home Depot.   These are all options that can peacefully coexist.   What does tick me off is when I have to go to Walmart,  because I know the only reason I'm there is that they have actively deprived me of having any remaining local, mom and pop options.   That, to me, seems a lot more like the beer side of AB InBev.   But it may ultimately be difficult to make a hard distinction between their various enterprises, I'll allow.

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[rodwha]

I haven’t seen anything to say that AB/InBev is doing anything other than maintaining a proper business as far as NB goes, but i know what they’ve done on the other side of things and so i still won’t support them.

But I pretty much agree with the rest of what’s been said by these last two posters.

And I only support when local HBS occasionally as it’s very inconvenient and a hassle.

[denny]

I haven’t seen anything to say that AB/InBev is doing anything other than maintaining a proper business as far as NB goes, but i know what they’ve done on the other side of things and so i still won’t support them.

But I pretty much agree with the rest of what’s been said by these last two posters.

And I only support when local HBS occasionally as it’s very inconvenient and a hassle.

My concern is the apparent intent behind what they're doing, not the homebrew related actions themselves.

[The Beerery]

NB and Midwest is my LHBS, they have treated me exceptionally well for the last 18+ years and won’t stop using them.  I know many employees personally and and most of this couldn’t  be farther from the truth. When I read this post all I see is a bunch of tin foil hat talk with no actual facts to back it up. 


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[Robert]

NB and Midwest is my LHBS, they have treated me exceptionally well for the last 18+ years and won’t stop using them.  I know many employees personally and and most of this couldn’t  be farther from the truth. When I read this post all I see is a bunch of tin foil hat talk with no actual facts to back it up. 


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Like I said, wherever I buy from it's a real store employing real people somewhere.   Whoever cuts their paychecks. [EDIT I did say earlier in the thread NB isn't my first online choice for reasons stated there.  But then while I think my LHBS is top notch, I've never experienced them as an online store to be fair.  Might be a comparable situation.]  Not sure I understand the "apparent intent" Denny references WRT this side of the business,  need clarification.

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[rodwha]

NB and Midwest is my LHBS, they have treated me exceptionally well for the last 18+ years and won’t stop using them.  I know many employees personally and and most of this couldn’t  be farther from the truth. When I read this post all I see is a bunch of tin foil hat talk with no actual facts to back it up. 


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What AB/InBev has done is well documented. No tinfoil hats, especially when there hasn’t been tinfoil available for decades. Hard to say what their intentions are here, but with a track record such as theirs it’s not hard to understand why people who understand this are skeptical and/or wary. Maybe not everyone cares, but some of us do, especially when it breaks the law such as various things they’ve done. They don’t have integrity and that means a lot to me.