Online Beer?

din0saur

Beer in Germany is as you might expect cheaper than here, e.g a crate of Franziskaner helles Hefe 20x0,5 costs €13.20 (€16.20 including €3.10 bottle deposit) which works out at €0.66 a bottle.

Over at www.realbeers.ie they charge €50 for a crate of 20 Schneider Weisse Original. That works out at including shipping €58 for 20 or €2.90 a bottle. The difference between that and your local off licence is negligible. The difference compared against Germany is over 400%!

There was some talk of the EU increasing the limits of what can be carried cross border for personal consumption so shouldn't it be possible to buy beer directly from Germany and save some money? Shipping will be expensive but there's a fair bit of leeway there. The alternative is to drive over in a minivan and do it the old fashioned way. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Blub2k4

Drive over in the minivan, it is the best way to do it, unless you are filling the van it would hardly be worth it however.

rubadub

No doubt shipping will be very high, is there any place selling spirits? I know a place in spain legally sells cigarettes withing the EU. If a litre of vodka cost €10 to post it would still be a good bit cheaper than here. I imagine some eastern european countries may have low postage costs, in line with the cost of living.

rubadub

duty free online
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=311756

brianw

just checked that beers.ie site. what a rip off!

if you shop around decent beers (usually german) can be found for as little as 1€ per 33cl bottle, or less than 2€ for a 50cl.
warsteiner is common now. lidl even have decent german beer in bottles.
also saw staro 50cl bots in tesco the other day for 1.99
for the classier, more interesting beers, just drive over and stock up.
apart from saving yourself money, think of it as avoiding paying money to the rip off merchants at home.
and its an interesting adventure for a few days!

The Sweeper

Erm, depending on the distance, it might be an idea to calculate your petrol costs first...

Realbeers

As the "Rip off Merchant" in question I have to laugh at the Boo Boy mentality of BrianW. Good luck Brian taking your car across to Germany filling it with beer and bringing it back cheaper that Realbeers.ie.

The facts of the market in Ireland is that aside from the big Heino like distributors, there are a number of small wholesalers bringing in speciality lines. They are owner managed, and typically it is the owner driving the van; the van is usually their private transport too.

I know them all and know the struggle in the market they are in. They are certainly not ripping anybody off.

Realbeers.ie does not import beer itself, it represents the small speciality wholesalers. We have a mark up smaller than most businesses, and too small in fact to afford a van, a premises, or for the owners to take ANY value out of the business.

The issue, and there is an issue, is that the distribution chain from the brewery has so many intermediaries for the smaller players, and the Customs duties when you land it are high. So we are never going to meet the needs of Brian Soap whose Hypermarket is down the road. But if you are in a small town in Ireland and you want a case of Weltenburger we can put it to your door. It is going to cost you, but nobody is ripping you off.

Tescos model is different. Take a couple of key lines, convince the brewery to go for volume, push them down in price, buy in bulk centrally, discount to capture market share, and change the bottle sizes and pack sizes to muddy the waters on what you are getting for your money. This is the Warsteiner story you cite.

As a consumer you can get value from this approach, and good luck. We have our own market whose needs we meet, and we will work harder to be more efficient with a better service. But I can tell you we are ripping nobody off.

Good luck in Germany, enjoy the holiday.

noby

Well said.

While I've never bought from realbeers, I do buy good beers from good off-licences when I've the chance (usually world wide wines in Waterford). I also buy boxes of beer for my everyday budget beer stock. To compare both is just ridiculous.

bigears

Hi Realbeers,

Having thought of buying from your site a few times it's interesting to hear your perspective. I guess it's all to do with expectation - I thought that ordering from your site by the crate would work out cheaper than ordering per bottle from my local off licence. As it turns out it's much the same and in some cases the off licence is cheaper. Having said that maybe I'm lucky that I have a good off licence in my area.

I could definitely see myself using the service if I couldn't find the beer I'm looking for locally. RealBeers is a great concept and has a great selection. For a country with such a reputation for pub culture the range of beers available in pubs is pretty small and there is still a lot of resistance to 'funny' beers/microbrews etc. I reckon anyone making good quality beers available should be commended and is worth supporting as long as they're competitive.

Maybe you could do 'specials' now and again though - a crate of Schneider on special offer would do for starters :-)

noby

bigears,

Looking at their site, last months offer, Budvar, will land on your doorstep for €2.70 (normally €2.90) a bottle. My local supermarket charges €2.65 or so, so not a bad deal.

bigears

That's not bad. I guess it's all relative too, any of these will cost over a fiver in the pub. I've just had a look at the site again, nice selection of ales...

chump

Realbeers wrote:

As the "Rip off Merchant" in question I have to laugh at the Boo Boy mentality of BrianW. Good luck Brian taking your car across to Germany filling it with beer and bringing it back cheaper that Realbeers.ie.

The facts of the market in Ireland is that aside from the big Heino like distributors, there are a number of small wholesalers bringing in speciality lines. They are owner managed, and typically it is the owner driving the van; the van is usually their private transport too.

I know them all and know the struggle in the market they are in. They are certainly not ripping anybody off.

Realbeers.ie does not import beer itself, it represents the small speciality wholesalers. We have a mark up smaller than most businesses, and too small in fact to afford a van, a premises, or for the owners to take ANY value out of the business.

The issue, and there is an issue, is that the distribution chain from the brewery has so many intermediaries for the smaller players, and the Customs duties when you land it are high. So we are never going to meet the needs of Brian Soap whose Hypermarket is down the road. But if you are in a small town in Ireland and you want a case of Weltenburger we can put it to your door. It is going to cost you, but nobody is ripping you off.

Tescos model is different. Take a couple of key lines, convince the brewery to go for volume, push them down in price, buy in bulk centrally, discount to capture market share, and change the bottle sizes and pack sizes to muddy the waters on what you are getting for your money. This is the Warsteiner story you cite.

As a consumer you can get value from this approach, and good luck. We have our own market whose needs we meet, and we will work harder to be more efficient with a better service. But I can tell you we are ripping nobody off.

Good luck in Germany, enjoy the holiday.

I think some people mistake your relatively high prices for you being rip-off merchants. But I'm sure if they were to look at your limited market, huge overheads, and the general logistics they'd understand you're not ripping people off.

All said, you'll never make much money in this business, for all the above reasons:
- small market
- huge disribution costs
- stiff competition
- lacklustre product (in terms of product competition versus say what's available in O'Briens off-licenses or various others)

Can I ask how in the name of jebus do you expect this to eventually earn you any meaningful profit?

ps. your website doesn't view properly in mozilla


Oh yea and just an idea.
Why don't you sell a special product called the Beer Tasting Extravanganza, and basically set up a special crate with a huge variety of beers in it and market it towards groups of lads or whatever who are staying in playing poker or something, and they all chip in and get a few crates with about 12 different beers and they can try em all...

jimi_t

chump wrote:

Why don't you sell a special product called the Beer Tasting Extravanganza, and basically set up a special crate with a huge variety of beers in it and market it towards groups of lads or whatever who are staying in playing poker or something, and they all chip in and get a few crates with about 12 different beers and they can try em all...

Best idea I've heard in YEARS
If people are looking for speciality beers/ales/ciders and are Dublin based, Redmonds in Ranelagh have a very decent selection (and are just off the LUAS line). I'm starting to get a taste for Weiss beer and am very glad it's my local (Also, know anywhere in Dublin that sells Paulaner? Was in East Germany at Easter and loved it)

byte

He said Realbeers only represents the importers. So I assume unless the various importers get together and offer a Bit-o-everything, RB won't be doing it.

bigears

Paulaner is pretty widely available at good off licences. Not too up to speed with offies in Ranelagh but they should be able to order it for you if you're prepared to stump up for a half/full case.