In my May 14 column, readers were treated to a brief look at the cost and pricing structure of a lucrative business that trails only the international petroleum conglomerates in effortless price gouging.
Namely, Americas sports concessionaires, who parlay restricted competition and megabrewery complicity into what I noted after a visit to a Reds game: At least $900 clear on a $120 keg of beer, although I failed to mention that the concessionaire probably didnt pay full price for the keg in the first place why quibble over $50 when youre clearing 18 times that sum?
But isnt it great to be read and appreciated? Consider the following e-mail, which Ive edited to protect the senders identity:
Today my wife and I had lunch in St. Matthews. Over a club sandwich and two craft beers, we observed the Budweiser rep at the bar across from us with the LEO open to your column. The manager was beside him. They initially discussed a recent beer promotion for a Budweiser beer masquerading as a craft beer made in Williamsburg, Virginia. Then the rep began to read aloud your column, with disparaging remarks about your ancestry, sanity and beer knowledge, accompanied by the rolling of eyes. It was quite entertaining, and almost worth sticking around for a third beer.
Thats rich, especially since precious few mass-market wholesalers of the Bud variety can discuss beer with any degree of proficiency at least beyond that required to calculate windfall profits from restricted competition.
Yes, there are reasons why the big guys got to be big, and theyre worth remembering for each and every consumer currently pounding a bottle of industrial Cartel-Brau on the counter, all the while railing against the evils of The Man.
Guess what, guys: Your beer is The Man.
Roger Baylor is co-owner of the New Albanian Brewing Co. in New Albany. Visit www.potablecurmudgeon.com for more beer.
This article appears in June 4, 2008.