Craft Beer In The Supermarkt or The Change We All Saw Coming

Specialty / Craft beer in the supermarket. A topic that lately has led to a discussion between those are for and against it here in the Netherlands. Does it lead to the end of the liquor store? Will it lead to the end of small breweries or will it only give the revolution a new boost? An short overview of the most overheard (overread?) statements.

It’s the economy stupid!

That craft beer was going to make onto the shelves of the supermarket was only a matter of time. Anyone with just the slightest of knowledge of craft beer and some general economic principles could have seen this coming years ago. Whenever something sells, supermarkets step in to offer it, and often for a lower price.

What’s actually in the supermarket?

It is definitely not the case that the shelves in most specialty beer stores were just copied into the supermarket. Bottles I have seen so far were either from abroad (Brooklyn, BrewDog, Goose Island, Bass) are the Dutch breweries you’d expect to be in the supermarkets

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