Side note: who is not buying their fair share?
Anyone care for a Buck Range Light or a Big Flats?
Few beer drinkers have heard that question. But the new brands from retail giants Supervalu Inc. and Walgreen Co. are part of a growing effort by chain stores to make a hit of private-label beer, a category that has proved difficult for retailers.
Supervalu, the third-largest U.S. grocery chain by revenue, began selling Buck Range Light, a low-priced domestic brew, in December. Drugstore chain Walgreens recently began offering Big Flats 1901 for as little as $2.99 a six pack.
Costco, the Issaquah, Wash., warehouse club, rolled out craft beers under its Kirkland Signature brand in December 2008.
The retailers are trying to tempt shoppers with lower-priced alternatives to domestic mass-market brews such as MillerCoors LLC's Keystone Light. The effort comes amid
declining sales volumes for the beer industry, which has been hurt by stubbornly high unemployment.
What's are the unemployed drinking, vodka or whiskey?