BeerBorg

It is strange. The sensible thing would be to grow the company as the customers grew. Supply their needs when they wished to expand their brewing options. Seem shortsighted to alienate those you sell to.

What really boggles my mind about Mr. Beer is that they had an employee go on a podcast and talk about the 5 gallon system they are working on. Everybody was so excited to hear about it and they just started deleting questions about it. So here you are with a product that you could use to help create a more diverse user base but you won't even allow it to be talked about. And if you are developing a 5 gallon system why not let the people talk about what you can do with your future products.

It's like they want all there customers to either move on or never advance in their skills.

Brewing Gal wrote:NOW AIN'T THAT THE TRUTH!!!

After a 2 year hiatus from brewing (got married & had a baby) I go back to MR Beer. What a let down I actually cried!!! Where did my buddies go?

Go to the Assimilation page Brewing Gal and introduce your self to the borg. We are all here, mostly the same people that you knew on the MB forum. you will like it here.

berryman wrote:The MB company is still trying to market in the past, they had their hay day and they're not keeping up anymore. It doesn't take much to do a search on homebrewing to find a better way to make good beer. Lets face it if you brewed a MB batch as per, it might not be that great. They were selling lots of kits up front and really not too worried about repeat customers, one might do a few batches with them and quit, but there were always new customers to take their place and that's how they were making money.

I think that's true up to a point, Berry. But I look at my own experience, and I'm not so sure. I genuinely felt their Advanced Recipes were quite good, and I kept making them, even buying some recipes two or three times. I always prepared them as-is, and was rarely disappointed. It's true I preferred my own original AG recipes, for the reasons cited above (control over the product, quality of the product, and the pride of having done it all myself). But I didn't want to go AG every time I brewed, and having a couple of one-hour brew days was convenient.

When Coopers took over, the lack of more sophisticated recipes bothered me, and I dropped my Brew Club activity. Then the online community began falling apart, and it became clear they weren't going to invest in these things the way they had before the takeover. Fortunately, by this time, I was mature enough as a brewer to know I could move on, and Leigh was adept at building a new home for us, so I moved in.

I like it here.

Don't touch my stuff.

berryman wrote:

Brewing Gal wrote:NOW AIN'T THAT THE TRUTH!!!

After a 2 year hiatus from brewing (got married & had a baby) I go back to MR Beer. What a let down I actually cried!!! Where did my buddies go?

Go to the Assimilation page Brewing Gal and introduce your self to the borg. We are all here, mostly the same people that you knew on the MB forum. you will like it here.

Welcome back to The Borg, Brewing Gal!

Forgive me for not remembering you, though. Were you Brewing Gal on the MB site, too? This is the problem with getting old, my memory is shot.

RickBeer wrote:They make a lot more profit per unit direct to consumer vs wholesale.

true, but if it had not been on the shelves I wouldn't have one. as it would not have been there when swmbo was lookin for my Christmas gift so I wouldn't be brewing today. wonder how many lost sales for no reason other than they want every dime from the kits. seems to me to be a poor business plan. how ever I make no claims to the understanding of high finance.

I don't know why, as I follow this thread, I can't stop thinking about Chia Pets that infamous go to last minute Christmas gift.

Maybe I'll see if there is a forum for introducing new types of sprouts so it can be used year round once the ads go off the air the day after Christmas (and the CEO leaves for his castle in Switzerland for the rest of the year).

Did you guys notice too that the Technical Issues Thread on the MB Forum mysteriously disappeared right before Christmas? It's pretty obvious they didn't want the influx of new users that typically show up after Christmas to read about what was really going on in there.

BlackDuck wrote:Did you guys notice too that the Technical Issues Thread on the MB Forum mysteriously disappeared right before Christmas? It's pretty obvious they didn't want the influx of new users that typically show up after Christmas to read about what was really going on in there.

Due to technical issues?

It's pretty clear that technically they are out of their league. The forum hasn't improved, major forum features like messaging, signatures, and now Search don't work. One has to wonder if Coopers cut their staff/budgets so much they can't remedy things, or if the technical guru(s) quit, or if their third party quit, or what.

In short - I think Coopers doesn't have a freakin' clue how to make money over the internet, nor is it a priority for them. Their own site is a piece of garbage.

I did a Search just now for a rather hard-to-find term on the Mr. Beer forum:

RickBeer wrote:

BlackDuck wrote:Did you guys notice too that the Technical Issues Thread on the MB Forum mysteriously disappeared right before Christmas? It's pretty obvious they didn't want the influx of new users that typically show up after Christmas to read about what was really going on in there.

Due to technical issues?

It's pretty clear that technically they are out of their league. The forum hasn't improved, major forum features like messaging, signatures, and now Search don't work. One has to wonder if Coopers cut their staff/budgets so much they can't remedy things, or if the technical guru(s) quit, or if their third party quit, or what.

In short - I think Coopers doesn't have a freakin' clue how to make money over the internet, nor is it a priority for them. Their own site is a piece of garbage.

I did a Search just now for a rather hard-to-find term on the Mr. Beer forum:

beer.JPG

You JJ you make a great point there. I remember when I got "The Kit" for Christmas I was extremely skeptical about it making good beer and I didn't even open it at first.
With the intention of returning I jumped on the internet to investigate and found the Borg.
As a lurker I found enough information to convince to keep the kit and give it a try. So I registered to the old site and with the help of all the great mentors started on a new adventure.

There is such a sense of enthusiasm here that lurkers can be made comfortable enough to want register so they can join the party.

This forum takes doubt and confusion off the table.

It just boggles the mind. When you buy another company, it is usually for two reasons. First ala Microsoft, to buy out your competition and then "integrate it" (aka shutter the doors and windows). The other is to actually gain some synergies between the two companies so as a whole it is stronger than its parts. Coopers in theory made a wonderful decision purchasing Mr. Beer since there was no cross competition between the two plus Coopers could then cut out the old malt company and keep all the profits (hmmm, did they just buy Mr. Beer ONLY to sell them malt???).

In theory all they had to do is change some of the labels on their supplies and dump it on the Mr. Beer site as a way to naturally progress into a larger scale. With the forum (as it was), it was simple to LISTEN and see what people want and then go out and get it for them. Hmmm, next progression for most is steeping grains? Well duh, start selling them. Although I buy everything locally that I can, not everyone has a LHBS that is convenient. It would be very easy for them to learn and grow with their customers. Shoot, with a whole new group of newbie brewers every year and a huge mailing list, it would not be that difficult to slowly become sort of a Northern Brewer.

But, perhaps the margins are so high on their extracts they simply are happy and profitable doing the ole' pump-n-dump and churning their customers. Its either that, or the people now running the show aint that smart (or running around confused).

yeah, we need a like button...

Brewbirds wrote:

RickBeer wrote:

BlackDuck wrote:Did you guys notice too that the Technical Issues Thread on the MB Forum mysteriously disappeared right before Christmas? It's pretty obvious they didn't want the influx of new users that typically show up after Christmas to read about what was really going on in there.

Due to technical issues?

It's pretty clear that technically they are out of their league. The forum hasn't improved, major forum features like messaging, signatures, and now Search don't work. One has to wonder if Coopers cut their staff/budgets so much they can't remedy things, or if the technical guru(s) quit, or if their third party quit, or what.

In short - I think Coopers doesn't have a freakin' clue how to make money over the internet, nor is it a priority for them. Their own site is a piece of garbage.

I did a Search just now for a rather hard-to-find term on the Mr. Beer forum:

beer.JPG

can't find beer on Mr Beer site? I thought Coopers bought them not Budweiser.

actually as long as it has been and the (that I can see) lack of anything getting fixed.(even obamacare is makin' some headway) I don't believe the whole "technical issues" thing. I suspect your seeing exactly what they paid for, and I doubt seriously it ever will be "fixed"

BlackDuck wrote:Did you guys notice too that the Technical Issues Thread on the MB Forum mysteriously disappeared right before Christmas? It's pretty obvious they didn't want the influx of new users that typically show up after Christmas to read about what was really going on in there.

Hey, Duckie, no I didn't cuz I don't go there anymore/