Demand for 12-pack beer ‘slowly starting to build’
Eighty Four Distributing now sells a variety of craft beers in 12-packs.
Taylor Haskins, an employee of Eighty Four Distributing, carries two 12-packs of Great Lakes variety beer, which has proven to be a popular option for customers.
Those 99 bottles of beer on the wall have been taken down, passed around and repackaged into more convenient bundles. Pennsylvania distributors are beginning to sell 12-packs, affording customers more options and giving store owners an edge to compete against grocery chains and bars that sell smaller quantities of beer.
“For people who are trying new things, they like the choice,” said Taylor Haskins, an employee at Eighty Four Distributing Inc., along Route 519. “It’s a small quantity, but at the same time, they get to try something new.”
Lawyers for the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board determined last month that distributors are permitted to sell 12-packs if they are manufactured to be sold in individually contained packages.
Haskins said 12-pack sales are “slowly starting to build, but not everyone knows yet.” He said smaller packs of brands such as Penn Brewery, Blue Moon, Magic Hat and Heineken have been especially popular. The 12-packs are a more feasible option for customers who have always wanted to try a craft beer, but were reluctant to gamble on an entire case.
“A lot of my craft beer drinkers who want to try new things, they’ll probably come in quite often because they can do 12-packs of certain things now,” Haskins said.
Travis Lutes, manager of Lone Pine Beer, said the store just started selling 12-packs Wednesday. The store opened in December, and customers “were coming in early and asking for (12-packs)” once they heard the law changed, Lutes said.
While a case of beer has the same quantity as two 12-packs, it’s often cheaper to buy a traditional case. A case of Coors Light bottles at Valley Brook Beer in McMurray costs $22.41, while two 12-packs cost $23.38.
“We want to sell more cases than we do the two twelves, but we still want to have them for the convenience,” said manager Tim Byers.
He said 12-packs were selling well the first weekend they were offered, but sales “slowed down” considerably since then.
Mary Ellen Gregg, whose husband, Franklin Jr., owns Eighty Four Distributing, said the store is popular among out-of-state workers and truck drivers who can easily pull into the store’s large parking lot. Long gone are the days of having to turn down customers looking for a 12-pack, she said.
And once more beer lovers learn that 12-packs are available, “I’m sure this will really take off,” she said.