How Important is Distributor Alignment?

Dear Client: Our story on Boston Beer Co. and Dogfish Head's challenges in distributor integration elicited a response from a craft brewer which started:  "Harry, cut to the chase …. this is a Sheehan - Boston Beer issue and then a whole lot of little issues." We don't like to report on ongoing deals that are still in negotiation -- we try to stick to reporting the news, not create it. But we can comment in general that today distributor