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SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years

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Re: SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years

#31
post #4

I'll be surprised if none of the bigger beer companies ends up buying it for the brand and history alone. But maybe it doesn't have as much name recognition as I thought.

Anchor Steam had its place, 20+ years ago. It had a long-standing tradition of being a beer that stood the test of time, head and shoulders above the usuals of the time.

The problem is they failed to continue to keep up with the times as the proliferation of truly fantastic beers hit and later dominated the scene. Take a look through their flagships; they look more like what any new and likely-soon-to-close brewery will start with (a hazy, a west coast, a porter, a lager, and an ale) rather than a brewery steeped in 100+ years of history and brewing mastery.

Anchor Steam may have had the brand recognition necessary to survive in an overcrowded market say 10 years ago, but now people are flocking to the breweries themselves and are not as tied down into a single brand as they used to be.

It's sad but in the same way that any long-standing brand that couldn't keep up with the Joneses and went out of business is sad. Not really in any other way.

Re: SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those people are delusional. They should see how the doom loop worked out for detroit.

Detroit is now a fun and affordable city.

So only four decades to go before it’s fun again?

Works for long term planning. In the meantime it won’t be fun for locals.

Re: SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those people are delusional. They should see how the doom loop worked out for detroit.

Detroit is now a fun and affordable city.

It is not.

It is a city that he lost 3/4 of its population, GDP and is still spiraling down.

It has huge abandoned districts. It is hyper-violent.

It has an urban revival that has failed in numbers by population and revenue. But sure, for now it’s “fun”.

Re: SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years

#36
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard quite a few SF people say they welcome this, once all the rich dudes leave it might actually return to being a fun and affordable city again. Let's see :)

Those people are delusional. They should see how the doom loop worked out for detroit.

While I think the people who think this is a good thing are out of their minds, Detroit had entirely different issues, and probably is not a good example for what could happen to SF in the worst case. 1. Detroit has none of the natural advantages SF does. 2. Detroit was hollowed out largely because of the white flight that drove the tax base to the suburbs. 3. Detroit was uniquely built as a highly car friendly city, which meant that once the jobs were gone, there was no good reason to be within Detroit itself. 4. Detroit had no political power at the state level, and if anything, was held up as a punching bag for the rest of the state. This is unlikely to be the case for SF, which is likely to have political support at all levels.

I'd say the worst case scenario for SF is probably a city like Philadelphia, which also went through bad years, but has rebounded and has become a pretty great city in many ways, even if it doesn't have the cachet of its past. And I'd imagine that would be the worst case scenario for SF, and the more likely case would be something much better than that, even if all the wealthiest people left SF.

Re: SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years

#37
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has nothing to do with politics: > “We recognize the importance and historic significance of Anchor to San Francisco and to the craft brewing industry, but the impacts of the pandemic, inflation, especially in San Francisco, and a highly competitive market left the company with no option but to make this sad decision to cease operations.” You really think California is "collapsing economically" or are you just t…

Do you expect these corporate announcements to contain anything but PR and euphemisms?

Exactly.

One of the cardinal sins in statistics is:

Self-reports are biased.

A corporation is telling you about that same corporation? You can expect some bias ;)

I find it quite telling this attitude of "If someone tells you something, it's got to be true! Especially if it's a corporation!!" quite telling, regarding those folks who are saying "Hey you can't criticize California! You conservative!"

It's like... Really? California is some gleaming pinnacle of perfection? It's with great hesitation that I say this: Californians... get out-- and ask people in other states how they feel about California & its citizens-- and then go right back and stay in your confinement zone lol (I kid! I kid! Dang plz don't ban me :))

Re: SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years

#38

A shame they weren’t able to adapt to modern beer tastes. As long as I can remember, I've thought of them as the mediocre beer I’ll begrudgingly drink only if all other options are exhausted.

Anchor steam on tap is very good IMO

In the bottle it seems to lose everything for some reason

I never buy it in the bottle, but I get it on tap

But I’ll admit there are a zillion options that are similar or better now. The market changed a lot

Re: SF's Anchor Brewing Company shutting down after 127 years

#40
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Guess you missed > especially in San Francisco San Francisco had some of the most restrictive covid policies in the country.

And lowest rates of death, especially for the density. A choice was made to trade off companies (which can be replaced) for lives (which can't be replaced).

Companies that provide store fronts that law abiding customers living in those neighborhoods can't live without.
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