As the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic fallout foment anxiety in the beer industry, moments of generosity have peeked through the darkness. Drinkers have spent lavishly to help local breweries. Small businesses have banded together to seek financial relief from lawmakers. Communities have pledged money to GoFundMes for hospitality staff in need.
But there have also been missteps among quick decisions and snap reactions. Previously innocuous actions like shopping at a grocery store or leaving a Yelp review are imbued with moral weight. Every discrete movement affects neighbors. People’s safety, self-sufficiency, and economic futures are on the line.
Such mistakes can at the least act as cautionary tales during a trial-and-error time when everyone’s just figuring shit out.
On March 19, Bradenton, Florida’s Darwin Brewing Company posted photos and a message to its Facebook page: “We have sanitizer! Darwin Brewing is canning and giving away six packs of sanitizer in light of the shortage.” The post went on to say that the sanitizer is Perasan A (“NOT a hand sanitizer)” and the solution was diluted before canning.
Diluted or not, the liquid poses dangers. The American Industrial Hygiene Association states that peracetic acid, a key component of Perasan A, is highly irritating to skin and that acute exposure can cause a variety of respiratory problems.
The chemical wasn’t put in squirt bottles like other hand sanitizers—the Facebook post showed it being packaged in the brewery’s lager beer cans. One photo posted online showed a can with a note taped to its top: "HAND SANITIZER. DO NOT DRINK!"
If that wasn’t enough confusion, what the brewery didn’t clarify was that Perasan A is an industrial sanitizer containing peracetic acid (PAA), hydrogen peroxide, and acetic acid. A brewery employee told The Sarasota Post the sanitizer could be used for “household surfaces, doorknobs, countertops…. all hard surfaces.”
A day later, another post stated that the brewery cancelled future giveaways due to overwhelming demand.
The act was coming from a place of earnestness, but also revealed some naivete. Packaging an industrial cleaner in beer cans creates a real risk that a person could accidentally ingest the substance, which could kill them. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s database of hazardous chemicals, the probable human oral lethal dose of PAA is between 1 teaspoon and 1 ounce for a 150-pound person.
A day after Darwin’s first post about the sanitizer, the Brewers Association trade group issued its industry guidelines for sanitization during COVID-19. They stated, in part, that “sanitizers used in beer production are not appropriate for bar and kitchen sanitation” and that industrial sanitizers including PAA and chlorine dioxide “cause adverse skin reactions, and can induce respiratory distress.” The BA’s Safety Subcommittee recommends they not be used for front-of-house sanitation.
Other breweries and distilleries have found ways to support the ramping up of hand sanitizer production; Anheuser-Busch InBev and Diageo have both pledged to ship neutral alcohol from their plants around the country. Maumee Bay Brewing Company in Toledo, Ohio; Brickway Brewery & Distillery in Omaha, Nebraska; Brewdog’s Aberdeen plant in the U.K.; Chicago’s infamous Malort producer; and many others have pledged the same.
If the country’s divisive political atmosphere wasn’t creating enough tension among Americans, the COVID-19 pandemic has certainly heightened it. And with small businesses facing enough challenges in the real world, trouble in the digital space was going to be next.
"This place is horrible," user Brittany K. wrote in a Yelp review of Chicago's Piece Brewery and Pizzeria on March 14, when the city had 66 reported cases of COVID-19. "They communicate poorly and don't deliver food for 2+ hours. Ridiculous and poorly managed."
Examples like this are why Google and Yelp saw the writing on the wall this month—there was a good chance people were going to start behaving badly in spite of these extraordinary circumstances. And low-star reviews can have negative reverberations beyond just now, when businesses are overwhelmed with orders, pivoting daily operations, and employee safety.
So the companies set up firewalls to protect their customers. For Google, that meant that as personal, financial, and social stressors mounted for people in recent weeks, Google took away that option for negative reviews.
In announcing limited functionality to its Google My Business platform—which shows listings for all kinds of businesses when you search—Google says a focus on the "quality and reliability of information" is tantamount. Reviews, replies to reviews, and similar features have been throttled down or disabled because of an increase of negative reviews since the COVID-19 outbreak began.
This step has also been taken by Yelp, who implemented “special review content guidelines to protect local businesses from reputational harm related to these extraordinary circumstances.” Low-star reviews complaining a business was closed or claims of contracting the coronavirus from an establishment are receiving “zero tolerance” from the company. In addition to a $25 million pledge for waived advertising fees, and free advertising, products, and services, Yelp also automatically set up GoFundMe links on business pages without asking members to opt-in. A move intended to be altruistic, for sure, but still earned the ire of some bar and brewery owners because there was no consent.
“I was like, what the fuck?” bar owner Andy McMillan told Eater. “They hadn’t called; They hadn’t emailed; I hadn’t heard from them at all.”
And there’s still the issue of customer complaints. One diner at Raleigh, North Carolina’s Brewery Bhavana took to Facebook to voice concern that their takeout order was 25 minutes late. For business owners, reacting is now another to-do item. Several days after the angry message on Yelp from Brittany K., Piece Brewery and Pizzeria founder Bill Jacobs had time to reply.
“We are doing our best during this time of crisis—our phones are busy, people are home, anxious, upset, and hungry,” Jacobs wrote. “Our delivery and takeout business is slammed and we are trying to get to everyone as quickly as possible.”
So unless a negative review is providing critical info to patrons in this new context—maybe save it. You’re not Yelping.
Plenty of business owners have had to break bad news to their staff in the last few weeks, but few have done so in an unscripted, rambling video like Wetherspoon founder Tim Martin.
Martin used a three-minute speech to justify his decision to not pay his staff for work they had done since their last paycheck. He wanted to wait until money from the U.K. government’s plans to pay 80% of furloughed workers’ wages came through to him first. That would have left 43,000 employees without pay for several weeks, and an unrepentant Martin finished the video by suggesting his employees go work for a supermarket if the time lapse presented a problem.
Wetherspoon Limited made a £50.2 million ($60.4 million) profit in 2019 and had big expansion plans for 2020, indicating it does have liquid cash reserves. Martin is worth around £40 million ($48.1 million) thanks to his 900-strong chain of low-budget pubs, but has given no indication he will use his wealth to help his employees, the bulk of which is made up of bar staff paid £8.26 an hour—£0.5p above the legal minimum wage.
His approach to the crisis caused uproar in the press and on social media, and resulted in his Crystal Palace branch being graffitied with the words “Pay Up” and “Pay Your Staff”. There’s also a “Fuck Wetherspoons” found on a wall around the corner.
Over 90 Members of Parliament (MPs) signed a letter demanding that Martin pay his employees. Most significantly, Rachel Reeves used her position as chair of the Business Select Committee to demand an explanation of why he would not be paying his staff for hours they had already worked. Rather than face a summons and risk further harm to his reputation, Martin relented, telling staff they would be paid. He also confirmed that, subject to any delays in government, he would be passing on the 80% of wages for furloughed staff on April 3.
The matter is not over yet, however. Martin has not confirmed whether he will pay the other 20% of worker’s wages, and is adamant he will not pay any suppliers until the pubs open again.
There is little purpose to calling out bad behavior if such attention doesn’t also include prescriptive suggestions. If there is opportunity to be found during times of uncertainty and upheaval, it’s the chance to work in new ways, to discard our base impulses and respond with intention.
We can resolve to hold off on the Yelp rants, the resource hoarding, the impulses to take as much as we can for ourselves. We can take breaths to consider our options and make choices that are safe and mutually beneficial. There will be a beer world left at the end of this crisis; let’s make it the one we want.
Additional reporting for this story courtesy of Bryan Roth and Jonny Garrett.
Words by Kate Bernot