Down in the supermarket at midday. Craft beer in the chiller cabinet
I’ve been meaning to write something for a while about craft beers move into supermarkets for the Culture Matters site. It remains on my (lengthy) pending list.
However a brief post on one interesting aspect of it is below.
I stop by Lidl once every 10 days or so. As many will know they are essentially undercutters on price but not particularly on quality. Rather their business model relies on selling many fewer products than the usual supermarkets and shifting a core range plus ever changing and sometimes mystifying temporary items.
For some while they’ve been running craft beer weeks. These have mostly focused on Scottish brewers (including Brewdog from time to time) but more recent ones have expanded the range. The one underway this week features for example Salt and Gypsy Hill(330ml cans £1.49).
Of course there is an argument that the price is undercutting bottle shops and craft bars. However I’m not sure there is a huge audience crossover. As likely its introducing craft beer to people that otherwise might not come across it, at least at accessible price.
Anyway to the point. Looking for the craft beer week items I couldn’t see them on shelves. That’s because they were in a chiller unit. This is something much called for by craft beer producers and paid lip service to by supermarkets. Here however Lidl were actually doing it.
Combined and uneven development
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