BeerBorg

I ordered my hops from NB for the RCE recipe MrBandGuy and I are doing. My LHBS doesn't carry one of the hop strains, but I would prefer to give them as much business as possible, so I got my grain and yeast there.

I ordered the hops quite a while ago, opting for the Brewsaver shipping, since I didn't want the shipping to cost more than the product. No updates, no way to track that I could find. It arrived today (which is nice, since I wanted to brew this recipe the Sunday after Thanksgiving), and I went to my email to check on the order status, and it still said they were working on it.

Kind of shoddy, if you ask me.

I posted something similar recently which was not the norm for me. To sit on an order so long wasn't to my liking.

FWIW: I can tell you that I often get stuff at my door 2 days after I order it when using MoreBeer's free shipping if I can get everything out of their PA distro center. MoreBeer seems more efficient as far as "getting it done".

Beer-lord wrote:I posted something similar recently which was not the norm for me. To sit on an order so long wasn't to my liking.

Yeah, there's a difference between "Not in a hurry" and "I'll have to will this to my children".

With my last two Morebeer orders, I've had to wait on at least one item to come from their weat coast location. Kinda defeats having an east coast location.

Haven't used NB in a long time. I like Nikobrew for hop orders. $5 flat rate and has always had what I was looking for. Usually shows up before my grains no matter where I order grains.

I suspect this is an issue of "the customer gave us permission to wait, so let's wait" versus good management. Sending it via the least expensive way possible should not be "waiting as long as we want to send it", except in peak times and IF they communicated it. Remember that Northern and then Midwest were bought by a private equity firm some time ago...

Interesting comparison - the company that is going to destroy all other companies (Amazon) did something similar to me. I don't have Amazon Prime, and didn't bother to use my son's account. I placed an order on Thursday morning for 5 items. All are in stock. I chose "Free Shipping". That evening it said "Preparing to Ship". As of this morning it has not shipped, and the detail (if you clicked on it on 11/20) shows that it was intended to ship today (11/24). In short, this is Amazon saying "you want Prime, don't you", intentionally holding my order to try and get me to sign up for Prime.

I believe that over time Amazon is going to destroy most competitors. They have unlimited funds. They don't care if they lose money. They are spending a fortune building a new norm - that of immediate gratification where your order ships same day and sometimes arrives that day, often the next day or within 2 days. With their infrastructure, they can spend money that no one else can come close to, and beat everyone into submission because they cannot compete with the same benefits to the customer. Many companies cannot pick an order same day. They don't have robot carts picking orders, and can't have many immense warehouses, and they cannot afford to staff up hugely at the holidays. As time goes on, our expectations will drive us to Amazon, and the smaller players will shrivel up and die. This allows Amazon to then raise prices and screw us all.

Example - I order Meguiar's foam waxing pads last December. Package of 2, $2.70. That same package of two is now $5.91 (you can buy a 4 pack for a bit more, but it's still 9.5% more expensive. And try their Subscribe and Save items. Seems like a great deal, till the next time comes and the price is higher by a bit, then a bit more. Or look at an item for a price today, then every week. Amazon tracks your "looking" and tweaks the price up. I just bought a cabin air filter for my wife's car, and the price went up from $12.58 to $13.49 in two weeks.

Rant over. But if a company like Northern plays games with you, give someone else your business.

Pudge wrote:Haven't used NB in a long time.

Me neither. Up until the hop demands of this RCE, I've found everything I wanted at my LHBS, and I prefer that to paying for shipping and having to order X days ahead of brew day. I drive to my LHBS on Saturday, pick up the ingredients for a couple of batches, and brew on Sunday.

Support the local guy or one day he won't be there. I'd love to have a LHBS.

I try to - I get my small bags of specialty grains from my local guy, and some yeast, and some hops. Sometimes if I'm in the neighborhood I go to the Dawgs LHBS. But I can't get extract that is fresh through any of them. It's all canned stuff of unknown condition. So when I am ordering extract I go to MoreBeer, or sometimes Northern if I have a coupon. And some yeast I want they also simply don't have and would have to special order, or simply will not order (Wyeast I have to get from MoreBeer or somewhere else because LD Carlson owns the distribution channel here, and they only do White Labs). MoreBeer has fastest path to my door, so for liquid yeast that's where I go.

Pudge wrote:Support the local guy or one day he won't be there. I'd love to have a LHBS.

I definitely appreciate my LHBS! Good people who also appreciate the brewing community. I count myself lucky to be in an urban area with 3 local shops; with more available within a 25 mile radius. The closest one has the best prices, 'hands down'; but doesn't have as much gear (with the exception of kegging parts). Not too far away, there are several others with more hardware with the name brands.

Lots of active brewers in and around town so freshness at my LHBS is not an issue.

And lots of selection in hops, grains and yeast, parts and accessories, fittings hoses etc.

Good pricing, no shipping and since I'm a regular, good deals.

I buy a lot of Pilsen LME and it seems I'm not alone as it is always fresh, even when I get the 33lb growlers!

There's another one cross-town that I don't usually get to (location, location, location), and a KegWorks nearby as well where I get my CO2 filled.

Rebel_B wrote:

Pudge wrote:Support the local guy or one day he won't be there. I'd love to have a LHBS.

I definitely appreciate my LHBS! Good people who also appreciate the brewing community. I count myself lucky to be in an urban area with 3 local shops; with more available within a 25 mile radius. The closest one has the best prices, 'hands down'; but doesn't have as much gear (with the exception of kegging parts). Not too far away, there are several others with more hardware with the name brands.

I totally agree. It takes me around 45 minutes to get to my LHBS, and most of it is highway driving; i.e. 65 mph. But it's totally worth it for me, because the ingredients are fresher, the gear is there if I need to shop for it, and they are willing to spend the time giving me advice and/or answering questions. They may not know me by name, but that doesn't bother me. They do know me, though (how many guys with handlebar mustaches and fedoras come through their door?), and they've done a special favor or two for me, like the time they got three of those wooden six-pack holders with the bottle opener on the side for me in time for my daughter's fiance to give them to his groomsmen. I was so happy when I walked through the door, and the guy just reached back and set one of them on the counter.

Having a LHBS like this is worth it, without a doubt.

Yes!

That's the design, yes. But they get theirs from a guy who crafts them from scavanged wood, so they look all rustic and extremely cool. So the ones I got were sort of commissioned, since they had to ask the guy for them on my behalf. The ones I got were made from wood from a 200-year-old barn. There was still some old red paint on some of the slats. Extremely cool.

And then my daughter took a wood-burning kit and put the guys' names on them, which I thought was an elegant touch.