When beer is cheaper than bottled water, it’s going to make headlines. Embroiled in ongoing controversy, this particular beer in question is Bud Light, which cost just $8.99 for a 30-pack of cans thanks to deep rebates available at a store in Lemoyne, Pennsylvania.
The low-low prices for Bud Light were found across the country in the past six weeks as a response to the right-wing backlash over a promotional relationship with trans actor Dylan Mulvaney. But it’s not only Bud Light that’s been offering rebates this summer: Its national competitors and even craft breweries have been offering deals that are notable in their frequency. Walk down the beer aisle at a Target or your local grocery store and you’re likely to see cooler stickers or flyers advertising beer rebates you can score by using an app or scanning a QR code.
Why the uptick in these discounts? And how do they work, exactly?
On an episode of the Good Beer Hunting podcast, the Sightlines team spoke with Maria Behr, director of retail market at CMC, who has years of experience in the ins and outs of alcohol rebates. You can listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other podcast platforms, including right here:
Behr says that there are a number of reasons beer rebates are having a moment.
There’s the ubiquity of the QR code as a result of COVID. Where shoppers once had to mail in their receipts to receive a rebate, the process is nearly instant now: Scan a receipt and money appears in your Venmo or PayPal right away.
Companies of all stripes—breweries included—are putting a greater emphasis on getting shoppers’ data. In some cases, those details might be as important to a brand as the beer purchase itself.
Beer volumes in general are down. That’s true of large, national brands as well as craft beer sold in grocery stores and other chain retail. Summer is the critical sales period for beer, so breweries are eager to move as many cases as they possibly can while shoppers are stocking up for cookouts and camping weekends.
Shoppers need to redeem the rebates in order for them to work, of course. Behr says there’s no one-size-fits-all answer as to how steep a discount will actually get shoppers to make a purchase.
“Things like a BOGO, where legal, are super popular. But even with something like that, sometimes redemption rates aren't as crazy as you might think,” she says. “Probably half the price of the pack would be an aggressive, really strong rebate that should get some good play. If a case is $10, doing a $5 back [rebate] that's a really good deal and consumers can see that.”
Learn more about how such rebates work and what they look like in real stores on this episode of the Good Beer Hunting podcast, also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Words by Kate Bernot