Oversaturation and YOU!

Oversaturation (n., adj.): The excessive flooding of a market with a commodity that consumers can purchase








People all over the nation have been tossing around the word "oversaturation" for a couple years now. Mind you, West Michigan does maintain a great market, we've seen our own slew of new breweries over the last two years: Vivant, Harmony, Mitten, Perrin, 57 Bistro and Grille, Sunset Boulevard, White Flame, Pike 51 and Rockford BCs have all opened their doors.

Oversaturation

This topic is referring to our current explosion of microbreweries in the US. We are getting to the point that there are so many that it may not be beneficial for the culture. This aspect effects the user (aka you), and also effects the producers and distributors (aka them).

Us and Them

As far as the producers go (especially those planning to open soon), oversaturation is a frustrating topic. Existing and soon-to-be-existing breweries are getting more frustrated with our ever-growing situtation, because it all comes down to, you guessed it - money. It comes down to customers and customer flow. Brewery owners are getting pinched because they are simply one brewery of twenty in a given area, and just can't pull in the business.

We have a bit of a unique situation locally here in Grand Rapids because we appear to have a bottomless beer culture. You open it, we'll drink it! Point and case goes to Grand Rapids BC, who just opened in early December (the second to last projected open for Grand Rapids). They were at capacity for fourteen days, and the public drank them down to around two taps for the entirety of that time.

Let's use Elk Brewing as a hyper-local example. They are slated as the last proposed microbrewery in the City of Grand Rapids. It's taken them a while to get the doors open (having taken over a year and a half and have yet to release an opening date), but reports indicate that they are brewing up a storm behind those closed doors.

Can you imagine the pressure? They are opening into a retail market that is full of breweries, world class beers, (now) loved and cherished local joints, how are they supposed to compete, especially with so many breweries with an already established local pull?

(Obviously, I'm playing the Devil's Advocate here, I know they will be open and be absolutely smashed busy, as is the Grand Rapids custom, but the point still stands.)

The other aspect of "THEM" problems include retail space. How is a new brewery possibly supposed to find shelf space amongst a plethora of international, national, regional, and local brands (especially when the beer layout of mostly every national and regional retailer is designated by AB/inbev)? How are distributors supposed to push their product when that product is only one of forty breweries represented by them, and they are one of eight distributors in the area?

You can see where this starts to get messy. But the answer is a unique one: it's us.

US

This problem takes on a much more personal note with the individual beer lover.

Oversaturation means an inevitable decline in quality.

If there were five great breweries in the city five years ago, and five years from now this city boasts over 50 breweries, how many of them do you think will be making good beer?

Every homebrewer that has picked up a paddle has said to their friend, "all I want is to open a microbrewery," and now it's easier than ever, and people are actually doing it.

The national markets are showing that Microbreweries are where a decent chunk of entertainment revenue is coming from, our national tastes are shifting, and everyone wants their own brewery. However, everyone who wants to open a brewery, doesn't mean that they should.

This is where WE come in.

It's our job as beer lovers and people who care about our industry to be honest and open with our brewers, to not be afraid of hurting feelings and openly share your actual opinion. If it's a brewer that really cares about their beer, they will respect you for sharing your opinion and (hopefully) take it to heart.

No one wants to see their beer degrade, nothing is better in the brewing industry than actually speaking your mind.

As we go forward into our oversaturated market, don't forget to share your opinion and stand up for good beer - it deserves to be stood up for!

Remember this in the years to come, as breweries come and go, open and close, undoubtedly we will see many more open than close. That's the other thing, in a very saturated market, especially one as critical as Grand Rapids, if you don't open a good brewery, you won't stay open. Make it or break it.

Just don't forget, it's US. Our voice. The buyers. We decide what we want to succeed in our city with what we pay for.

I could go on and on about this topic, but I think I'll save it for a future post.

Thanks for reading,
Cheers and cheers,
Ben