Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Monday, November 28, 2011
Food & Drink Price-gouging on Venetucci Pumpkin Ale
Posted by Matthew Schniper on Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 5:44 PM
I swear we will quit talking about Venetucci Pumpkin Ale soon, but I want to briefly revisit Bryce Crawford's Oct. 24 blog post, which in part follows up on some pumpkin ale prospecting done earlier by our friends at UpaDowna.
- Matthew Schniper
- What is the most you would pay for a bottle of Venetucci Pumpkin Ale?
The above links will walk you through the story of local price-gouging at certain liquor stores, and what I wanted to personally follow up on was a comment made on Nov. 23 to UpaDowna's post, in which an anonymous person claimed that Colorado Liquor Outlet (1615 Briargate Blvd.) was charging $25 per bottle for the locally coveted brew.
Remember, that's for a beer that cost about $6 at many reasonable purchase points.
Anyway, to sort fact from potential fiction, I gave the store a call a few minutes ago and got on the phone with owner Wayne Harris, who at first didn't care to give comment, opting instead to offer a colorful opinion on the quality of the Indy.
Pushed to at least verify the UpaDowna post's comment, Harris said he sold several bottles at the $6 rate, but then admitted to selling his last case at the $25 per-bottle rate.
His final quote: "Capitalism is a wonderful thing."
Personally, I'm surprised that anyone was actually willing to pay that rate for the beer. In a way, those consumers are equally to blame if inflated liquor store prices continue in 2012. A message has been sent to liquor stores that they can get away with that maddeningly high rate of mark-up. Our fault.
We're talking about a community ale (that benefits Venetucci Farm) with high community demand.
Unfortunately, it will take a community effort to boycott the places that in the prevailing opinion are trying to profit too much as middlemen.
As always, vote with your dollar to affect the change you wish to see. That too, is a wonderful thing.
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