Yesterday, I handed out a reading assignment. Today, I offer up some ideas to fix independent beer distribution (or at least improve it a little).
1. No More 1 Way Street
In too many brewery and distributor agreements, the brewery is at a vast disadvantage. In many states, they can only opt out of a distributor if it can prove that the distributor is a hot trash mess. That needs to change. Any agreement, anywhere, needs to have specific deliverables negotiated by both sides. No laundry list but, for example, four key points (two for both sides) that would allow an amicable split with no payment from either side. Say, distributor must not have more than a certain number of craft breweries or will patrol shelves for old IPA’s. This would make distributors who let brands languish stay on their toes but also slow down distributor hopping.
2. More Interlocked Companies
It would be great to see Distributor A in Santa Barbara have an agreement with Distributor B in Los Angeles to bucket brigade beer from one locale to another via a trusted partner. This may be pie in the capitalist sky but if there were a chain of distributors up and down the state that were coordinated, the flow of California beer might rival the big players.
3. Get Into the Big Box Stores
Maybe there could be a coordinated, #independent section in your local Target or Ralphs. This might be even more of a reach than goal # 2 but instead of fighting for shelf space mano e mano, a push that has one or two beers for a month and then switches to two new ones focusing on local might be a play that could work.
What will come to pass might not be as rosy but hopefully the bottles and cans can keep on moving from brewery to store.