Observations....questions.......concerns

What in wide wide world is going on here?
I love NB. I drive past a hydroponic store to shop there in person. the people are always gracious, and they never laugh at my questions to my face. I’ve taken classes there and never went away dissapointed.
My background is marketing so I have always had a conflict with accountants who look at numbers and spread sheets and don’t seem to take other factors into account.

BTV gone: I know it has been beat to death, but I thought this was the face of NB. Very much like the staff in Milwaukee entertaining, educational, enlightening.

No flat rate shipping: It doesn’t apply to me, but it seems to keep popping up as a real concern with people who don’t live 10 miles away from one of their stores.

Concerns over items not available: Gift cards have become a huge percentage of pre holiday sales. Day after Christmas sales can decimate inventories if not anticipated. Inventory crushes retail, but sales of gift cards should give retailers an indicator of future post holiday rush.

Market direction: Went in last night for a Saturday brew day. Kits finally back in stock the shelves empty right after Christmas. Rahr 2 row out of stock, Rye malt oos, Maris Otter 4 lbs. I needed 5. I could get numerous t-shirts, glass wear, pre made labels, but not base malts.

Anybody else notice something that reeks of HR patting you on the knee and saying “We’ve decided to go in a different direction”. I sure hope not.

I think NB is a good business, and just like any good business, they need to carefully weigh where they can reduce expenses, or whether to pass on costs for premium products and services to their customers, in order to stay competitive.

Regarding inventory, they might just have had a better Christmas than they anticipated. Depending on how you look at this, it might be a good problem to have! As long as they address it properly. In which case, they might indeed want to raise their prices in future crunch times in order to keep up with demand, and/or bend over backwards in some manner to apologize for not having everything their customers want right away. No business is perfect, or at least not all the time. They all take risks and make mistakes from time to time. I don’t see a nasty trend going on here, at least not yet.

I have little doubt that NB is a good business, well run by smart market savvy people, and I’d be very surprised if they aren’t better prepared for next Christmas. Some of those nice things we once had like flat rate shipping and BTV might not make the cut when it comes to budgetary expenses or whathaveyou, but the business might end up better off for it, and perhaps they will even be able to pass on some of that savings to their huge customer base that they’ve built up for so many years, and stay as competitive as possible in the free enterprise. If they can’t compete or screw up too much, then yes, we’ll just go elsewhere. My guess is that most of the loyal customer base will raise their eyebrows slightly, but ultimately won’t get turned off by the recent tweaks they’ve made, and NB will most likely come out with other means by which they will maintain customer loyalty, whether that is through coupons, or 24-hour deals, some sort of membership club, or whatever. They aren’t trying to screw us. We’re not that stupid, and I don’t think they are either.

I’m sure most of the changes come down to dollars and cents. That’s the cold hard truth and the world we live in. I’m sure the loss of BTV and flat rate shipping fall into this category.

BUT, a homebrew supply shop should NEVER run out of base malts. I can understand running out of a certain yeast, hop, fruit puree, etc… but base malt? If they underestimated the post Christmas rush, well then someone f’ed up and that’s on them.

  • proper planning prevents poor performance -

This is a little off topic, a little not though, but I hate their recent “deals”. Everything is geared towards addons for big ticket purchases. Need a free carboy? Why not just spend $150 and get one for free. Maybe I’ve just been missing them but I wish there were more deals on some small stuff.

Just an observation and no I don’t expect that stuff I want will always be on sale. That said, it’s still my go to store. I’ve always enjoyed it more than Midwest for some reason and while they are cutting back on some things it’s not affecting my decision to continue giving them my business.

Just wondering aloud here because there are no stupid questions, did you ask them if they were out of basemalt? Maybe some just bought out everything in the bin which had not yet been refilled??? Making sure we are exhausting possibilities here because I would too be pretty peeved if they didn’t have basemalt.

That said, there are plenty of substitutes as far as basemalts go. I hope you at least took this opportunity to experiment a bit.

This has been my concern, I understand the need for cost cutting, but with the loss of flat rate shipping(and non-existent as far as I can tell price reductions that were promised) NB just isn’t as enticing an option(at least for online shoppers). I generally check all my orders, at least the larger ones, on a couple different sites before ordering and NB never comes out as cheap as the others I’ve been using. Generally the prices are a bit higher on balance and the shipping rates aren’t competitive…I envy those of you who have big time stores like this in your backyard. You want to talk about running out of base malt, geez you should see my LHBS :roll:

Yes, and they helped me to substitute in a way that will probably make it better. This LHBS will always be my go to place if for nothing else than the service and the people. I was just making observations especially the increase in glasses, growlers, and t-shirts vs grains and kits. I don’t want to turn this into a bitch session I was just wondering if other people are noticing these things also.

I know I posted it before, but this is an intentional shift to ever expanding the newbie/small batch market, rather than to the old guard. Just look at the catalogs. Thankfully the online store seems to still have most, if not all, that I look for. But, most of my brew club are looking at other, cheaper alternatives online.

If NB were my LHBS, though, I would be a little nervous. I stopped there on a December trip to Milwaukee with a couple buddies and was dismayed at the focus on small beer kits and glassware - but we found what we needed and dropped pretty big coin on ingredients, nevertheless, since it was a special trip to Beertown.

Their focus has definitely switched and it may have to do with satisfying new investors, cost accountants or marketing experts, but the change is here to stay, if I were to venture a guess. Ultimately, this forum is why I patronize NB and yet, I wonder how well the NB service department would do if it weren’t for the experienced homebrewers calming the fears and answering the questions of the Newbies…

:cheers:

I’m new to brewing but I’ve been browsing Northern Brewer’s catalogs for over a year now since a co-worker gave me one. Northern Brewer does appear to have a solid customer base but you can’t just rely on those who already brew. You have to always be reaching out to potential new customers. If they start to over price compared to other vendors then new brewers who have not yet established any loyalty will take their business elsewhere. I like NB but if they get to be cost prohibitive I’ll just start purchasing everything at the LHBS (which I may do anyway) because their prices are competitive to begin with. The shop is about 35 min away but I’m up in that area a lot anyway because it’s the closest developed shopping area to me. I’ll also look to other on-line outlets. Reputation only goes so far.

Alright, let’s test them, everyone stop posting answer’s to basic questions on the forum. Let’s see how many employees run out on them under the stress and weight of a barrage of questions from the masses that can no longer get answered on the forum.

Seriously though, this forum is great. One of the first things I thought was really cool about it when I discovered it is the DIY section of the forum where I learned to build a bunch of things that I could have purchased in the store for a lot of money. Example A is my $10 stirplate but there are more.

I see how that can be upsetting. But if you look at the other way it might make sense. Those shirts, glasses, and etc. arent flying off the shelves the actual homebrew supplies are. I thought it was a little strange that they started making BTV shirts. Really? People want a shirt that has a youtube channel on it? I loved BTV but I didnt need a damn t-shirt.

For me the shipping hasnt really changed much. I live in Duluth so the shipping is always fast and they are probably the closest online retailer to me (Midwest is probably the other one closest). I use to live in Milwaukee and as soon as that store opened it drove the other LHBS outta business that I use to go to. I was kinda pissed till I went to the NB shop. It was awesome. As for right now I’m gonna stick with NB.

[quote=“ynotbrusum”]I know I posted it before, but this is an intentional shift to ever expanding the newbie/small batch market, rather than to the old guard. Just look at the catalogs. Thankfully the online store seems to still have most, if not all, that I look for. But, most of my brew club are looking at other, cheaper alternatives online.

If NB were my LHBS, though, I would be a little nervous. I stopped there on a December trip to Milwaukee with a couple buddies and was dismayed at the focus on small beer kits and glassware - but we found what we needed and dropped pretty big coin on ingredients, nevertheless, since it was a special trip to Beertown.

Their focus has definitely switched and it may have to do with satisfying new investors, cost accountants or marketing experts, but the change is here to stay, if I were to venture a guess. Ultimately, this forum is why I patronize NB and yet, I wonder how well the NB service department would do if it weren’t for the experienced homebrewers calming the fears and answering the questions of the Newbies…

:cheers: [/quote]
I agree that they are refocusing on newer brewers and extras- which as I relatively frugal long-time brewer and customer I don’t need. Still, they don’t appear to have dropped much, if anything from their inventory so I can still get the Golden Naked Oats that I want. Their aesthetic has also changed, which I don’t really like- there used to be really unique & original artwork on the catalog covers with a distinct sense of humor there. Now it looks like any other generic catalog you might get from any store. This, along with the loss of BTV, decreases the value of the business for me. Life goes on…

Just got an order from NB and they didn’t include 4 items. Upon emailing NB customer service, the items that were missing are on their way on the same day of the email and they are letting me keep an extract kit that was included by error. My faith in NB’s direction has been restored, since customer service is still their priority, but I hope that doesn’t change somewhere along the way.

:cheers:

I was just in the Lyndale store for the first time this year and their hops were pretty depleted. Didn’t have Galaxy (which isn’t super surprising) for my galaxy pale ale and I had trouble finding something for a “replacement”. Also out of Challenger for my ESB and I wanted to switch to EKG which they are out of now after I snagged the last two bags.

That’s strange because I was just in there too and they said they had a couple dozen EKG in the back. Did you ask for help?

I think the biggest thing you guys are missing is just how much this hobby is growing, and how busy this time of year is for homebrewing.

[quote=“Vaughn_S”]Did you ask for help?

I think the biggest thing you guys are missing is just how much this hobby is growing, and how busy this time of year is for homebrewing.[/quote]

I did ask, although I asked specifically about the galaxy and they said everything that’s out is out so I assumed that meant all hops but I guess they were responding to my specific request. Fun you ask that to my comment though considering I asked the same question to the OP. I get how it’s a busy time of year, just thought I’d comment to agree a bit with the post.