Bud Light Loses Title as Top-Selling U.S. Beer | Hacker News Reader

Bud Light Loses Title as Top-Selling U.S. Beer

wsj.com

16 pointsmalshe22 comments

I'm of the opinion that if it weren't for Bud / Miller / Coors controlling the relationship with so many sports / concert arenas then they would have disappeared off the map long ago anyway. Especially among the under-50 crowd, how many would choose one of these generic pilsners? Even if you like pilsner, these aren't great choices.

A craft Pilsner is superior, but the price is also double that of Bud Lite. Also, it is, generic, which means most people will not love it, but not hate it either.

I have to wonder if InBev has a case against Fox News for making an absolute mountain out of a molehill and costing Bud millions in sales. This was some malicious propaganda. Normally I wouldn't expect anything to come of it, but InBev has deep pockets and a lot of lawyers on call and they might want to set an example of Fox News.

Fox was reporting on a boycott, not creating it. You could sooner sue Instagram or Facebook for hosting content that promoted/organized a boycott, but if you want to side with a multi billion dollar corporation trying to make boycotting illegal/financially ruinous for a consumer, that seems rather fascist. And I’m gay and not trying to justify whatever, but I don’t necessarily want to see the concept of a boycott become illegal lol, that’s not very progressive. You can’t force people to buy your product.

"for making an absolute mountain out of a molehill"

Well, it obviously wasn't a molehill if it had this effect on their sales, was it?

Yes, propaganda is effective. That’s the point I was trying to make.

The new title-holder is... Modelo Especial? I'm hardly an expert, but I wouldn't have expected it to be in the top 10.

It sounds a bit like a statistical oddity, where a bunch of contenders have split the market, and the single winner is a bit arbitrary.

Socially speaking, I'm a tiny bit sorry that a campaign of bigotry has succeeded even to this somewhat arbitrary degree -- though I guess it's heartening to know that boycotts aren't completely ineffective. I hope that ultimately the moral arc of the universe does bend toward justice, even though I'm afraid my faith in that has been severely shaken of late.

https://archive.is/U49Q4

I am reminded of a good business axiom against cultural engagement over local community engagement:

    "The only winning move is not to play.” - Wargame, movie, 1983

This reporter's entire beat seems to be complaining about woke beer brands:

https://www.wsj.com/news/author/jennifer-maloney

> Miller Lite Defends Marketing Chief Over Satirical Ad Criticized as ‘Woke’

> Conservative commentators target brewer for spot hitting past depictions of women in beer marketing

TIL Bud Light used to be America's top selling beer.

But I guess this is sort of like the long tail of beer (microbrews) being more popular than the old mass produced stuff?

Bud light accounted for over 9% of Americas domestic beer sales last year.

So the top spot goes to someone with less than 10% of the market? That makes sense why it didn't seem dominant even if it was the brand that sold the most. At my local grocery store, it is all craft beers and such, I don't think they sell Bud anything. Is this kind of beer more popular in the midwest and/or south?

I gotta think this says more about the types of grocery stores you go to more than anything. I live just outside of Seattle and any random Safeway or QFC (Kroger) is going to have all the generic big corpo American light beers in it. Something more upscale like Whole Foods, less likely.

I'm talking about QFC in Ballard, and...no bud light. I guess it is just the neighborhood I live in.

Safeway (Ballard) is a bit more low end, maybe it would have it, but I don't have reason to pass by the beer section there.

Interesting, I do my shopping out of the Bothell QFC so that's my frame of reference. It must be a more Seattle proper thing. I guess Bothell is also nominally a college town so maybe it's just students looking for cheap, bad beer. I admit I can't remember the configuration of the beer section of the U Village QFC back in the day, although I know they had a seperate entrance for harder alcohol.

> I guess Bothell is also nominally a college town

I haven't lived in Bothell in more then 30 years (graduated from BHS in '93, this is way before UW Bothell opened up, so I went to UW Seattle instead), and...it was more working class. But I don't even remember a QFC being around anywhere, even in Mill Creek (oh, the Safeway at Thrasher's corner, near where I used to live, turned into an Indian grocery store...times change).

The QFC in U Village is much larger than the one we have in Ballard. It is a tiny QFC, so I guess they just need to prioritize. Wine and craft beer make money (they also have a separate hard liquor store, but I rarely see it open).

I just checked and they have bud light and other mass produced brands in a back corner of the store, just across from the main beer cabinet. So they have it, just not as visible as the higher margin craft beers (even Modelo and Corona are at the very end of the main cabinet).

Paywall removed: https://archive.ph/RPMqG

It's a bit perverse to watch how the US is eating itself from the inside. Is there anything that isn't a culture war? Are there any more third rails left in a time when white replacement theory is on primetime TV?

It is incredibly hard watching my country devolve further and further into culture war. The fact is that culture war sells, both products and votes.

Not only is it bad for our culture, but it has made issues that shouldn't be culture into cultural issues. We haven't had a serious national conversation on any topic in decades, and genuine problems are piling up while we're unable to even begin to discuss solutions.

We survive because we had so much momentum -- vast amounts of money, enormous clout, and a system that more or less continues. But it feels like it could all give out at any moment because we've decided we enjoy hating each other more than we enjoy having a country.

It is the equivalent of TURTLE PISS!

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