From The Bruery:
Dear Hoarder and Reserve Society Members,
Yesterday, we re-released 600 bottles of Chocolate Rain and the barrel variants of Bois. Many of you tried unsuccessfully to purchase bottles, and we know that the sale did not run smoothly. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience, or issue that you may have had with our eCommerce store or the release generally. We truly want to provide you with an incredible and valuable Bruery experience, and we are equally disappointed when our service does meet your (or our) expectations.
We received many complaints related to the sale, which we’d like to address.
“Society members already had a chance to purchase Chocolate Rain. Why did The Bruery decide to re-release this beer?”
Our goal in re-releasing this beer was to make sure that the beer was sold to Society members -- which includes both Hoarders and Reserve Society members. We do our best to anticipate sales of beers, production of which frequently begins more than 12 months prior to the sale. We set an initial allocation of the beers based on our estimates of the number of Society members that will purchase the release, and the number of each bottle that each Society member will buy. Unfortunately, we cannot carry and indefinitely store beer that is not purchased, and we determined that re-releasing this to the Society members would help ensure that this beer is a Society exclusive.
“Why didn’t The Bruery put limits on the number of bottles customers could purchase?”
We probably should have put limits on this beer, and we apologize for the lack of foresight in not doing so. The vast majority of Society members did not purchase their full allotment of Chocolate Rain, and we took that to mean that demand for the remaining bottles would be lower than it actually was. While we may have sales in the future without limits, we will certainly reconsider our approach to beers that we expect to have particularly high demand, such as Chocolate Rain.
“Why didn’t your eCommerce site work?”
We transitioned to a new eCommerce site in January. For the most part, this new site has allowed us to customize a number of tools to help us serve all of our Societies and other online customers. Unfortunately, the transition has not been trouble-free, as each new innovation and tool carries complexities and unintended consequences. As these bugs are ironed out, hopefully your experience has been generally better than what our old off-the-shelf system provided. The re-release of Chocolate Rain was the first time our site experienced the load that it did, and, to all of our disappointment, it failed. At this point, all we can say is that we are looking into it with our eCommerce developer. Chocolate Rain was a small release compared to upcoming releases like Black Tuesday and fixing the functionality of this site is priority number one. We can’t always guarantee that beers will be available, but we will do our best to constantly improve the site and make sure your future eCommerce experience runs smoothly.
“Why does the eCommerce site have the 15 minute timer?”
We added the timer to help control inventory. As a customer adds a product to their cart, it is removed from inventory. If the customer doesn’t complete the purchase within the 15 minute period, the product is added back to inventory so that it is available for another customer to purchase. At least that was the plan. Unfortunately, given the load on the website, the timer became a hindrance to completing orders rather than an assurance that inventory would be available for purchase. We will be working with our eCommerce developer to ensure that the site and timer work as designed.
“I wasn’t able to get any bottles, but I really wanted to buy some. Will you be releasing any more Chocolate Rain?”
Chocolate Rain is included with all Hoarders and Reserve Society memberships (2 bottles for Hoarders, 1 bottle for Reserve Society members). We also produced enough to guarantee each member the ability to purchase an allotment during the 25 day purchase period, which ended on April 26th. After yesterday’s sale, we have depleted the majority of our inventory, saving some for future events and special cellar releases. We’re planning on releasing a new batch of Chocolate Rain will be in 2014. Until then, we have a lot of great beers coming out that we hope you’ll enjoy.
Thank you for your patience and understanding, and your support most of all. It is our focus to continue improving in everything that we do, and your feedback is certainly helpful in achieving this.
Cheers,
Matt Olesh
Director of Retail Operations
The Bruery.
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