Burgers tonight, but a quick glance in the reefer revealed no tomatos, no lettuce, and only one beer. So, off to the grocery. The vegetables (I realize tomatos are really a fruit) went into the cart without a hitch, but the beer aisle was another matter. There was no Guinness.
I thought I was in the wrong aisle; they didn't have even an empty space where it had been. I looked and looked; I read every label. There were many dozens of beers on both sides of the aisle, but no Guinness.
After fifteen minutes of futile effort, I picked up a half-rack of a tolerable amber and headed for checkout. If the cashier had been one with second sight (Stephen King calls it shining), she would not have asked whether I "found everything okay." I unleashed my pent up rage upon her--politely, of course.
She had recently learned from another customer that the store was no longer carrying my beer, but did not know why. "A name and address is all I need," I told her, "we'll take care of this little problem." Then I made some diparaging remarks about the "marketing geniuses" who confuse quantity with quality, and rendered a comparison to Walmart, which, I admitted, "didn't seem to be suffering too much." Ever the good cashier, she smiled and agreed with everything I said, no matter what she may honestly believe. But she also wrote a note to herself to find out why. This simple gesture brought me back to the recognition that a line of customers awaited the end of our conversation. I know she'll have an answer the next time I'm in that store, or I would be done with them.
But the central problem remains. Competitive merchandising of groceries demands a certain variety, as well as shelves well-stocked with the hot selling items. But who caters to the connoisseurs who demand a certain quality. For my tastes, beer, as coffee, must be black. And if it is not black it should be a bitter, or an ale that is crafted in small quantities by someone with discriminating taste buds. Slow but steady sales of beer worth drinking may get crowded out by by something that tastes just like two dozen others next to it with different labels. This problem exists in restaurants as much as grocery stores. For example, there are many fine, gourmet chain restaurants in every city across North America--Boston Market, Red Robin, the Onion--that have forty or more beers on the menu, but I can see through every one. Forty ales with no bitters, no stouts. All that variety offers too little diversity is much ado about nothing, even if it works to please the "great unwashed"--the vast majority of consumers who have never cultivated a taste for the finer things.
Originally posted by Wulebgrit sounds like you should discover the pleasures of home brewing !
Burgers tonight, but a quick glance in the reefer revealed no tomatos, no lettuce, and only one beer. So, off to the grocery. The vegetables (I realize tomatos are really a fruit) went into the cart without a hitch, but the beer aisle was another matter. There was no Guinness.
I thought I was in the wrong aisle; they didn't have even an empty space where ...[text shortened]... washed"--the vast majority of consumers who have never cultivated a taste for the finer things.
Originally posted by flexmoreI've considered it, but the folks at Guinness know what they are doing. It would take me years of making undrinkable swill to create something approaching a fine stout.
it sounds like you should discover the pleasures of home brewing !
A few years ago a friend was always looking for someone to help him with his beer making, which he did once a month. I often joined him, for it meant sampling several of the recent batches. One batch in three, as I recall, was a drinkable bitter. I don't recall him ever brewing a stout.
