Wow! Just finished watching a documentary about the beer market, i am dumbfounded. Did you know there are over 37,000 beer laws? It seems the post-prohibition the beer market was divided into three separate overarching governments or a three-tier system.
Brewer, Distributer and Wholesaler
The brewer: can only sell to the wholesaler (not directly to the consumer). And micro breweries were of course outlawed until the Carter administration.
The wholesaler must order from the distributer assigned to their congressional district, but since the big beer companies donate the most money to the district representative they get more space on the trucks and first picks in a wholesaler for shelf-position. This is why every single conv/ grocery store keeps the Bush, Miller, etc at eye level. Therefore, if I want to buy a beer from a micro brewery in Iowa there must be a distributer willing to deliver and a wholesaler willing to sell to me.
So, essentially the deregulation of the beer industry created a huge monopoly for beer drinkers that lobby to keep the three-tier system alive
I used owned a bar,for 6 yrs, the laws were the most difficult and discouraging thing to keep up with. Many laws vary (sometimes significantly) from county to county and most certainly state. Off the top of my head I do not recall much in the way of federal law being a bitch though
I’ve always wondered how beers such as Budweiser and Miller could stay in business, considering how god awful they are. If what you say is true, it now makes a lot of sense.
And yet it’s cheaper than here in Oz? lol. I guess that’s because of taxation then.. or more demand here… or less suppliers.. or it’s not as watered down.. [:p]
I’ve always wondered how beers such as Budweiser and Miller could stay in business, considering how god awful they are. If what you say is true, it now makes a lot of sense.
I drink MGD a lot because its cheap and really pretty good considering.