Beer industry experts, wholesalers, and a former Anheuser-Busch executive told ABC News Friday that places like 7-Eleven, QuikTrip, and Walmart may decrease Bud Light's refrigerator space in stores.
“During a busy shopping period on a Friday or Saturday night, if you don’t have the beer available cold on the shelf, consumers pick something else,” former Anheuser-Busch InBev executive Anson Frericks, a frequent critic of his former company, told the outlet. He noted that shelf space is “the single largest determinant of sales in a store," and warned there will be a "dramatic shift" for Bud Light.
Dave Williams, vice president of analytics and insights at Bump Williams Consulting, said that retailers often watch for sales figures to determine what brands would be given the best shelf space.
“There’s explosive growth on one side and sharp decline on the other,” Mr. Williams said, according to the broadcaster. “This does have that ripple effect where if Bud Light loses space on the shelf, that could make it a longer-term endeavor to claw back to where they were if they’re ever able to do that in the first place.”
According to a report from Drinks Market Analysis from several years ago, about 80 percent of beer sales occur at retailers or similar locations where consumers take the product home. The other 20 percent of sales occur at restaurants and bars.
Over a month period ending in early September, sales for Bud Light dropped about 27 percent year-over-year, according to Bump Williams Consulting. Those figures are consistent with Bud Light's previous weekly sales figures since the boycott erupted in early April.
The Epoch Times has contacted Anheuser-Busch InBev for comment on the report Friday.
A general manager at a Wisconsin Anheuser-Busch distributor, who wasn't named, told ABC that retailers do not expect a "drastic change" anytime soon. But he warned that the Bud Light "boycott has lasted longer than anybody thought," adding, "Every retailer has their own opinion for what sales warrant on their shelves. Time will tell."
Last month, Anheuser-Busch's American division revealed in its quarterly earnings report that it lost about $395 million amid the boycott and that U.S. revenue dropped about 10 percent year-over-year. Meanwhile, Bud Light lost its No. 1 spot to Modelo Especial, which is owned by Constellation Brands in the United States, in June.
Adding more fuel to the fire, a beer industry expert, Harry Schumacher of Beer Business Daily, told Fox News some Bud Light drinkers may never come back and have switched to other brands.
The boycott, he warned, is "actually worse than just lost sales because now it’s getting to the point where it’s becoming systemic within the industry, and they’re losing the confidence of the retailers, and that’s when it starts getting bad."
