Okay, let's unpack this. Craft beer has grown dramatically in popularity, and now makes up 6 percent of the total market. And while no individual craft brewer, not even the largest ones like Sierra Nevada, is big enough to pose a threat to Miller and Bud, the industry as a whole, from national brands like Sierra Nevada to your favorite local brew, are taking shelf space from the Big Two. Newsflash: The Big Two want that shelf space back. The retail jargon "SKUs" stands for "stock-keeping unit," a coding system used by retailers to track inventory. "Too many SKUs" translates to "too many unique products." What the beer exec is saying is that supermarkets and corner stores might think they make more money by finding space on the shelves for independent craft beers, but they actually sell more beer and book more profits by dropping craft beers and sticking with the giants. And the giants are now peddling faux craft beers like InBev's Shock Top or SABMiller's Pale Moon. So if you're running the beer cooler of the retail outlet, you'd do better to offer a couple of corporate-made craft knockoffs than a dozen genuine craft brews. "Craft is a real threat," because it represents a growing thirst for real beer; "but it's also an opportunity," because that thirst can be co-opted by knockoffs. If the InBev exec's economic analysis is correct and retailers heed his advice, then we could be on the verge of a hard squeeze on what I consider to be one of themost promising aspects of the US culinary scene: the rise of an incredibly robust, varied, and regionally distributed craft-brew industry. They already struggle to get retail space as the once-independent beer wholesale/distribution falls increasingly under the heel of the giants. But if retailers decide they don't want craft beer, because they make more profit from corporate swill, then it's hard times for craft brewers.
