Walmart’s craft beer “wholesale fiction”?
Why did he bother? In early February 2017, news spread quickly on social media that Matthew Adam of Cincinnati had filed a lawsuit against retailer Walmart, alleging its craft beers under the Trouble Brewing label fail to meet the qualifications for craft beer.
“Defendant’s craft beer has never been a ‘craft beer’, nor has it been produced by a craft brewery,” the lawsuit says. “Rather, it is a wholesale fiction created by the defendant that was designed to deceive consumers into purchasing the craft beer at a higher, inflated price.”
Reportedly, Mr Adams requests an injunction to prevent Walmart from advertising its brews as craft beer and that the company pay unspecified punitive damages.
In our view, there are two bizarre aspects to this story. For one, why did Mr Adam wait until 2017 to file his suit? After all, the beers have been around for about year and are stocked at more than 3,000 Walmart stores in 45 states across the US.
The labels give no evidence Walmart has anything to do with them. They only say that Trouble Brewing is based in Rochester, N.Y., which happens to be the address of the Genesee Brewing Company. Genesee is not a craft brewery, which the Brewers Association defines as a small, independent and traditional operation; it’s owned by Costa Rica-based Florida Ice and Farm, which brews that country’s Imperial Lager and other brands.
So Trouble Brewing is just a label and the beers are contract-brewed. Well, where’s the beef? This is the second mystery. Has Mr Adams never heard of supermarket own label beers? There’s nothing illegal about them. And according to the volumes sold, consumers like them too. Walmart’s own label craft beers sell for USD 7.96 for a six-pack and USD 13.86 for the variety pack. That’s USD 3 to USD 5 cheaper than other craft beers on the same shelf.
Teresa Budd, a senior buyer for Walmart’s adult beverage team, was quoted as saying that there’s no intention to deceive consumers, pointing out that Walmart doesn’t put the company name on any of its private label brands, whether camping gear or cat food. “We were intentional about designing a package that conveyed a look and feel you’d expect of craft beer,” she said.
Had Mr Adams wanted to buy a real craft beer, he should have checked out the craft breweries in his home town. There are over a dozen. Then he would have known who’s who, what’s what and where his money is going. That might have been wiser than paying a lawyer good money for a lawsuit that’s likely to be thrown out.
