The Beer Industry’s C-Store Problem

Dear Client: As Ad Age reported last week, big beer sales have been "brutal" amid the coldest wettest Spring we've seen in a long time. First quarter sales at A-B and MillerCoors were nothing to write home about. And nowhere was that more apparent than in the industry's largest channel, particularly for the two largest brewers, c-stores. Looking at IRI scans through April 21, convenience store beer volumes are down 4.5% year-to-date, compared to being down only 0.7% in supermarkets.