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Craft Beer Cellar’s Suzanne Schalow and Kate Baker
The beer biz never sleeps at American Craft Beer. And here’s some more of what’s been happening in the beer world while you were drinking your way through the weekend.
Franchisee Backlash At The Craft Beer Cellar – In 2010, partners Suzanne Schalow and Kate Baker, launched Craft Beer Cellar in Belmont, Massachusetts and with a selection of 1,000 craft brews it fast became a destination for beer geeks in the Boston metropolitan area. By 2013, the married entrepreneurs had expanded to five stores in Massachusetts and begun offering franchise opportunities which now “boast 30 locations across the country.”
But Craft Beer Cellar’s original mantra of success based on “amazing beer, hospitality and education” hasn’t translated into success for many of the franchise owners and boiled over into sharply worded e-mails and online screeds.
Angry Craft Beer Cellar franchisees have accused Suzanne Schalow and Kate Baker of “providing them with overly rosy financial projections, and of belittling them instead of offering guidance when the numbers didn’t pan out,” according to the Boston Globe. And its founders have responded to the growing criticism by suing 20 unnamed franchisees in US District Court (that suit was dismissed) and positioning those complaining on their blog, as mostly white men “fueled by their own internal rage and hatred of women and sexual orientations that are different from their own.”
Words To Drink By (Belmont, MA) “There is a group of people, many of whom are still ‘internal’, that have spent countless hours trolling our socials, writing offensive and fictional reviews on sites such as Glassdoor, Google, and Yelp. All telling stories that put them in the victims seat, and pointing a shameful finger in our direction.” Craft Beer Cellar Co-Founders Corner 2/14/2018
Groupon Ranks Best Beer States (USA) – Groupon recently ranked the Best States for Beer Lovers based on Quality (each state’s top 5-rated beer on BeerAdvocate), Affordability (the cost of Miller Lite or Bud Light in bars and stores) and Enthusiasm (the total number of beer-related Groupons sold in each state in 2018).
And here are some of its findings…
- California narrowly takes the top spot, just ahead of Colorado. Of the two, California produces better beer, but Colorado’s beer is more affordable.
- The Great Lakes Region earns major bragging rights when it comes to suds supremacy—5 of the top 11 states border at least one of the Great Lakes.
- Nobody loves beer more than Nevada, even though the state comes up nearly dead last in beer quality and affordability.
Banner image credit: Craft Beer Cellar
