Posted on 09/08/2009 8:53:55 PM PDT by Wardenclyffe
Both Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors, are raising prices at the same time. And with an 80% market share between them it almost begs for an antitrust review of the industry.
Both companies typically readjust the price tag on a six-pack every year to reflect changes in the cost of barley or hops. But the ability of the two big brewing groups to do so now, while their customers are hurting most, highlights the tremendous pricing power that has accompanied consolidation in the industry in recent years.
While Anheuser-Busch, has long held a dominant share of the American market, the number of big players in the industry has steadily decreased over the years. From 1947 to 1995, the number of beer companies fell by more than 90 percent. Though a surge in craft brewers such as Samuel Adams followed, few of them tried competing directly with companies like Budweiser and Miller.
Taking on Big Beer might be politically popular because the three big brewers are now foreign-owned. Moreover, there's precedent for doing so: The DOJ has already dismantled a number of beer deals in the past. Anheuser was the target of one of the first cases in 1958, when it bought American Brewing Co. The government forced it to divest the purchase and refrain from buying any other brewery for the next five years.
A similar verdict was reached in the case of No. 2 Schlitz, which was challenged in court in 1966 after having bought California's third-largest brewer, Burgermeister, in 1961 and a 40 percent stake in Canada's Labatt in 1964. The company was ordered to sell both holdings and refrain from acquiring new plants for the next 10 years.
In 1959, the DOJ sued to prevent the merger of Pabst, then the 10th-largest brewer, with the 18th-biggest, Blatz.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
People should buy American beer instead.
But the ability of the two big brewing groups to do so now, while their customers are hurting most,”
what is it with journalists? why not discuss how hops barley and rice and corn and whatever other adjuncts are used are priced relative to the last year.
I had a Chimay blue tonight actually. Not American, and not cheap. But awfully good.
What I don’t get, honestly, is why anyone cares, or why it matters, even if they are collaborating on screwing with the price tags.
No one *has* to drink beer. No one requires it for survival. We’d all probably be better off without it (yes yes, jokes aside).
Someone please explain it to me if I’m missing the point here.
Let ‘em.
I brew my own, and when I buy the stuff, I prefer higher quality from smaller brewers.
AB can keep Amber Bock, I’ll drink Shiner. And hell, anybody can make a pale lager that’s worth pounding with a brat or some ribs.
No offense to Brother Adolph Coors...Colorado is my adopted home.
I'm just looking out for you guys... :)
To answer another poster's question about why it matters that the big three increase their prices, I can only say that there are many people in the country who aren't lucky enough to have local micro-breweries, and HAVE to give their hard-earned money to foreign interests (along with the tax man.)
Yes, it's easy to say "Just give up beer!" but for the hard-worker who busts their butt all day, a cold beer waiting for them in the fridge is a welcomed sight.
Beer Ping!
A low to medium ping list aimed at all of us who, well, love our beer…
FReepmail rzeznikj at stout or GOP_Raider to be added or struck from the list…
The government should look into Budweiser and Miller for trying to claim that weak yellow liquid is actually beer.
If you start today, about a week from now you could be bottling 5 gallons or so.
(about 7 6 pack’s worth)
I have to flush my bottles out soon and start another batch.
I'll drink to that!
Cheers!
My fellow FReeper friend, to paraphrase a familiar phrase...”If we have to tell you...you just wouldn’t understand”
Beer is above politics, but politics likes to dabble with beer.
:
BTW, you’re right. I make malt at Coors. The price did go up for the barley. :
Any idea what % of components barley is for AB versus say rice? (I ask about AB because they are much bigger than Miller or Adolph Coors in terms of US Market share)..
:No one requires it for survival.:\
There is a fair amount of speculation that beer (and fermented beverages in general) were very important in human diet from ancient/pre-history well into medieval times. Unfiltered beer can have substantial nutritional value.
I have read some speculation based on finds in Iraq (from about 4000years ago) that bread may have been predated by fermented grain beverage.
So I guess my point is that no, no one requires absolutely beer for survival, but no one requires the potato either, but both have had significant impacts in human diet, positively, in history.
Big Beer? Now we have Big Beer? Good grief.
In my opinion, no. I could supply my beer needs quite effectively with microbrews. So unless Bud starts buying them all up, raises their prices, and starts working to make home brewing illegal, I think no antitrust probe is in order.
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