Beer is one of the dichotomies of the current recession. As you’d expect, with thousands losing their jobs and consumers cutting back on spending, premium-beer sales are down or flat at best at c-stores (down 1.4% for the year ending May 17).
Logically, if premium is down, the pendulum swings for subpremiums: The subcategory is up 7.4% in sales for the same time period, according to Allscan Convenience Data from Information Resources Inc. (IRI), Chicago.
And yet here’s the real dichotomy: Sales of superpremium beer are up 21.4%, and craft beers 9.0%.
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