I’ve heard from three sources in the beer industry that In a recent effort to make their stores more uniform and scale back slower selling SKUs, Kroger has scaled back it’s craft beer offerings. Due to the current laws and distribution challenges that face new breweries, it will now be hard for new local craft beer offerings to gain distribution in Kroger. Kroger used to be one of the easier distribution outlets for local breweries to get into. Now each store has less allocated space for craft beers and more instruction from their corporate office as to what products should be on the shelf. Kroger is the second largest grocer in Mississippi, next to Walmart. Kroger’s craft beer offerings often exposed people to craft beer for the first time. There are very few stores throughout the state that specialize in craft beer, thus this scale back will greatly affect the state.
“So what, this doesn’t affect me, I buy my beer at Hops & Habanas.” Well, most areas of the state don’t have great stores dedicated to craft beer like Hops & Habanas. Some cities only exposure to craft beer is Kroger, and now their selection is smaller.
Once we get more Mississippi breweries in production (Crooked Letter, Gordon Creek, Lucky Town), distribution in the grocery segment will be instrumental in the growth of these breweries.
Please take the time to let Kroger know that you would like more craft beer offerings available in their stores not less.
You can do so by filling out this form.
Please take the time to do this to ensure that future Mississippi breweries will have an outlet to sell their products.
