[fredthecat]

the best advantage LHBS stores have is friendliness and keeping it simple and fast.

sometimes i just decide to brew that day or the next day, and ordering it online will require more planning (maxing out the value of a delivery order by buying any thing you might plan to use over the coming months) and using a credit card.

there are two homebrew stores. the one that has lasted and the one i use is one where they're quiet but friendly and you simply phone and say "i want X, Y and Z" and they say "okay pick it up at 2pm". boom done. no wait time. thats why they are still around despite the much better variety of stuff online available.

[josephung]

That is actually a question that I have not yet found an answer for, and I am also interested in this subject. I mean, the pandemic makes the life tougher even for big companies, than how do the home brewing suppliers stay alive, that is really ... interesting. I was actually thinking that maybe, those people are having some other business besides it, and they might earn their living from there. However, that is ... kind of a really doubtful theory. A friend of mine is also in this home brewing suppliers business, and he has actually called for the services of digiscorp. They helped him a lot in developing his website and many other things, he said that it is exactly what saves him during the pandemic.

[deckerhand]

You have to take into account that kits do sell well. They have to factor in to the people just coming into the hobby and the people who don’t have a lot of time and money. They need to be for everyone at every level just look at northern brewer and other sites like them.


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[reverseapachemaster]

You have to take into account that kits do sell well. They have to factor in to the people just coming into the hobby and the people who don’t have a lot of time and money. They need to be for everyone at every level just look at northern brewer and other sites like them.


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Right--the real cash generator for those stores are getting people from the start and selling them recipe kits and ingredient kits. A lot of people will be repeat customers but the big sales are the early hobby purchases.

The markup on ingredients is also huge. A sack of grain might cost them $20-40 and then sold for twice as much per pound. A $10 pound of hops can be broken up and sold per ounce at $2/oz which turns $10 into $32. That's why stores want to sell by the pound/ounce over bulk if they can.

[Oiscout]

Have y'all had any interactions with AleCraft HBS and brewery?

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[JonathanEL]

Just my opinion, but I feel the best way for "today's" small homebrew shop to stay in business is to also run a brew pub similar to The Homebrewer shop in – San Diego, CA

Your ingredients would rarely go bad, if the yeast is about to expire brew with it, hops getting old brew with it, grain going stale brew with it.

That being said, someone in Northern Alabama, please steal this idea and open up a homebrew shop/pub

[BrewBama]

...
That being said, someone in Northern Alabama, please steal this idea and open up a homebrew shop/pub

+1



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[tommymorris]

Just my opinion, but I feel the best way for "today's" small homebrew shop to stay in business is to also run a brew pub similar to The Homebrewer shop in – San Diego, CA

Your ingredients would rarely go bad, if the yeast is about to expire brew with it, hops getting old brew with it, grain going stale brew with it.

That being said, someone in Northern Alabama, please steal this idea and open up a homebrew shop/pub

I spied some open bags of grain over at Bee Zr. I thought about helping myself...

[Drewch]

...
That being said, someone in Northern Alabama, please steal this idea and open up a homebrew shop/pub

+1



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Or southern Alabama. Montgomery suffers from a shortage of breweries.

The real advantage a LHBS has over the online stores is to position itself as a center of gravity for the local homebrew community.

[majorvices]

Just my opinion, but I feel the best way for "today's" small homebrew shop to stay in business is to also run a brew pub similar to The Homebrewer shop in – San Diego, CA

Your ingredients would rarely go bad, if the yeast is about to expire brew with it, hops getting old brew with it, grain going stale brew with it.

That being said, someone in Northern Alabama, please steal this idea and open up a homebrew shop/pub

I have been kicking around some ideas ... that's one of them. However, I have no money at the moment.

[majorvices]

Just my opinion, but I feel the best way for "today's" small homebrew shop to stay in business is to also run a brew pub similar to The Homebrewer shop in – San Diego, CA

Your ingredients would rarely go bad, if the yeast is about to expire brew with it, hops getting old brew with it, grain going stale brew with it.

That being said, someone in Northern Alabama, please steal this idea and open up a homebrew shop/pub

I spied some open bags of grain over at Bee Zr. I thought about helping myself...

I can introduce you to the brewer he'd probably sell you some

[Oiscout]

...
That being said, someone in Northern Alabama, please steal this idea and open up a homebrew shop/pub

+1



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Or southern Alabama. Montgomery suffers from a shortage of breweries.

The real advantage a LHBS has over the online stores is to position itself as a center of gravity for the local homebrew community.

I worked down in dothan at a nuke plant. Their beer selection was 211 steel reserve you could buy at the dollar store lol

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[Drewch]

Or southern Alabama. Montgomery suffers from a shortage of breweries.
...

I worked down in dothan at a nuke plant. Their beer selection was 211 steel reserve you could buy at the dollar store lol

Dothan has more breweries per capita than the Montgomery Metro Area now.

[Oiscout]

Holy s***!

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[Drewch]

By which, of course, i mean they both have one. But Dothan has like 2/5 the population (~145k vs ~373k).

Whereas Huntsville, a bit larger than Montgomery (444k), has something like a dozen.