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The annual NBWA convention just concluded in Las Vegas.  This year represented the 75th year of the organization that started in Chicago in 1938.  From those humble beginnings, the NBWA now represents 3,300 beer wholesalers and has become a successful lobbying force in Washington DC for the beer wholesalers. The first NBWA convention I attended was […]

From the time prohibition was repealed, until the mid-1970, beer was delivered to retailers the same way: either off the truck which is called DSD.  Almost all distributors had only one vendor with limited packages.  Most accounts only carried one package, and grocery stores carried just two or three packages.  This made selling easy.  The first changes came […]

Much of my second summer working through college was spent on the draft trucks at Coors in Dallas.  Tapping those kegs took a skill set which today seems crazy.  To tap a keg, you had to insert a rod thru a wing nut into  a cork on top of the keg, squeeze the wing nut, […]

In an attempt to reduce injuries and workman’s compensation costs during my first year at Coast Distributors in Oregon, we instigated a program run by the Oregon State University athletic department’s physical therapists.  The program started every work day with a series of 10 to 15 minutes stretching exercises.  We implemented this practice and made […]

When speaking about the beer industry, whether to college students or to Wall Street, I almost always start with the analogy that beer is one of, if not the most recognizable, consumer product available.  I mention that not everyone can afford to buy a Rolex or a Mercedes-Benz or even a Brooks Brothers suit, however, if […]

 The very first US Warsteiner distributor was Paul Murray in Denver.  Paul, a very outgoing and engaging man, had a nice portfolio during the 1980s, including Schlitz-Strohs, Pabst, Modelo, Warsteiner and others which enabled Paul to conduct a very good business.  At that time, Pabst was not the brand it is today; in fact, it was […]

Many college students have no idea what career path they want to pursue when starting college; however, by the end of my second summer as a college helper for Coors, I had decided that the beer business was my future.  I was determined to own a distributorship by the time I turned 30.  By my late 20s, […]

By the time the 21st amendment was ratified in 1933, the country was in the Great Depression.  Unemployment numbers were not sugar-coated in those days as they are now, and the jobless rate was reported as high as 25%.  One in four adults was out of work.  Once the depression had reached its depth, the brewers got smart.  By […]

It was in the mid 1960s that Coors decided to expand into North Texas which made Coors available in 10 states and a portion of Texas.  Ten years later, they expanded into the remainder of Texas.  At the time, Coors was so popular that people would drive miles out of their way to pick up […]

  Right after college I was a Falstaff route salesman in Austin.  My route was the east side of town, in fact; I had east 3rd street before it was the place to party.  Most of my accounts were bars, usually one to two cases per stop, but I did service Bergstrom Air Force base and […]