Real Deal or promotional gimmick

[Bourbon Geek]

Should we be running to the stores and buying it up like Y2K is comming?

Pick up some Spam, while you're at it ... I hear they go great together when you are dining by candle light.

[OscarV]

They can keep the empty bottle, but I'll gladly take a free t-shirt if they want to send me one!

Thomas

[bonneamie]

To make sure everyone knows about the impending shortage, there's a full page ad in section A of todays New York Times to explain the shortage.

[fishnbowljoe]

Hey Thomas, did you know they sending out free t-shirts?

I got mine yesterday, it has a picture of an empty bottle Knob Creek with one drop being poured and a caption above it says "I survived the drought of 2009".

[OscarV]

How did you get the free t-shirt Oscar? Joe

[HighTower]

but I want a free Tshirt! :grin:

Scott

[p_elliott]

As a member of the Knob Creek Stillhouse.

Link below.

http://www.knobcreek.com/lpa

I wonder if I will get one being a member as well? But I still think this is a poor way of going about this t shirt or not. I would think the humble aproach would be much more effective. I know I'm not a commie (Chuck) so I must just be old fashion.

[p_elliott]

I wonder if I will get one being a member as well? But I still think this is a poor way of going about this t shirt or not. I would think the humble aproach would be much more effective. I know I'm not a commie (Chuck) so I must just be old fashion.

Guess what i just got in the mail? but my post still stands I still think if it was me, I would be apologizing instead of making lite of it. It's just me it's the way I was raised or something. If I say I'm there on Monday I'm there on Monday not Friday.

[smokinjoe]

Paul, on sheer principle, you should return the T-shirt with a note saying, "Thanks, but no thanks. My disappointment in your stock-out cannot be assuaged by this cheap gimmick. Only after a clear showing of humbleness from you, will I consider your products again."

[kickert]

Got my shirt today - it was even in my size.

[SBOmarc]

Just got back from vacation, no shirt. There is Knob Creek in these parts though.

[camduncan]

I've been a member for some time now, but I seriously doubt they'll send a tshirt to Australia :cry:

[kickert]

The nit-picker in me is frustrated by the shirt. It says "I survived the drought of 2009."

Well technically I have not survived it yet. There is still a chance I could keel over from lack of Knob Creek well before this drought is over. Given the fact that I have not purchased bourbon in 2 months and I haven't bought KC in over a year, I think I will be okay... but the fact remains...

[fishnbowljoe]

I got mine today too. It might fit my daughter in-law. It sure looks awfully small for a large. But what the heck it was free. I will say that when my wife saw it, she said it was lame. :slappin: Joe

PS. So far there's still plenty of KC on the shelves around here. Price seems to have gone up though. $30-$35. Hell, WR is cheaper in some places.

[Kendall]

Got my shirt today, nice graphic, cheap shirt.

There is plenty of KC here in central Kentucky. Will see how long it last.

Kendall

[independant]

I have not got mine yet but unless they are sending a XXL what is the point. I guess it will make a good rag.

[CygnusX-1]

The nit-picker in me is frustrated by the shirt. It says "I survived the drought of 2009."

Well technically I have not survived it yet. There is still a chance I could keel over from lack of Knob Creek well before this drought is over. Given the fact that I have not purchased bourbon in 2 months and I haven't bought KC in over a year, I think I will be okay... but the fact remains...

Ive been thinking the same thing

[p_elliott]

Paul, on sheer principle, you should return the T-shirt with a note saying, "Thanks, but no thanks. My disappointment in your stock-out cannot be assuaged by this cheap gimmick. Only after a clear showing of humbleness from you, will I consider your products again."

Maybe I should. Actually I took time out to think about this last night how I am one of the few on this side of the fence. So I decided to look at it from JB point of view and here what I came up with. They have to plan years in advance for best case, worst case scenarios for how their product will sell and distill and barrel accordingly. They did this with KC, apparently their product out sold their best expectations. They have reasons to celebrate but as we were taught in sports growing up don't over celebrate in front of the losing team. The losing team here is the consumer on many angles. one they may run out of KC, 2 the the distributors and stores may take advantage of the situation and raise the prices. JB has picked a road to go down with this shortage they had to pick one do I necessarily agree with it no. But they have picked it and now they are stuck with it. Have all their decision been bad in my humble opinion no as some one has already point out the best decision they made was to go ahead and run out rather than change it from a 9 yr bourbon to an 8 or 7 yr bourbon that would have ruined KC. I get a little caught up in myself from time to time and take a little while to see the whole picture, I'm still not sure this would have been my course of action had it been me but time will tell how it pays off for JB.

[cowdery]

The template for this sort of thing was set decades ago by Jack Daniel's. In the 50s and 60s, Jack's popularity soared and as a result it was constantly in short supply. Brown-Forman had just bought the company and they didn't want consumers to lose interest because the shelves were bare. That's when they created the Tennessee Squires, which was a way to keep a dialogue going with consumers, to reinforce the brand choice even when the product itself was not available. That shortage, and the way BF handled it, helped the brand in the long run. Beam is just following that template.

We all know supplies are tight right now and may continue to be for a long time. That's not a bad thing. It means we're all geniuses because we discovered how good American whiskey is before the rest of the world did. Beam is trying to make the best of a bad situation. They would rather have whiskey to sell but, in its absence, they'll sell the brand as best they can.

Remember, too, that they are competing for attention, with consumers and also with the trade. Even a top whiskey brand like Knob doesn't do the volume of a Captain Morgan Rum or Absolut Vodka. If something like this makes a retailer pay attention to Knob, that's good too.

I got the empty bottle, which is what they are sending to the trade. The "thanks for nothing" theme is a clever (I think so, anyway) way of saying, "because you did such a good job selling Knob Creek, we ran out." There is still product in the pipeline, of course, but if this publicity causes a run on Knob, so the shelves really do empty out and the retailer can't get more, what do you think will happen when November comes? Will the retailer place his usual order? Or will he maybe increase that order by 5% or 10% or more?

[Waiahi]

We should keep a "KC RUN" watch here on this thread. People should post the prices of KC in their area and we can see if in fact the price does start rising as the current stock in the pipeline starts to run out.

Here in Hawaii, it's typically around $35.00. I'm going grocery shopping today, and will look to see if the price is still around that range.

[pepcycle]

I just bought KC futures at $36.00.

They're listed on the commodities exchange between pork bellies and feed corn.

I've protected my ability to buy KC at no more than $36. If the price goes up, I make a profit on my futures. If the price goes down, I get my KC cheaper and offset my losses on the futures.

Speculators are going to catch wind and oil will come down as KC goes through the roof.

[camduncan]

Maybe they could start selling the "Jim Beam Small Batch with Port added" crap to the US market that they started sending Downunder a few years ago in place of Knob Creek :skep: No offence to Beam..... I love their products. but this stuff is (in my opinion) the worst product they have on offer.

[Bourbon Geek]

Maybe they could start selling the "Jim Beam Small Batch with Port added" crap to the US market that they started sending Downunder a few years ago in place of Knob Creek :skep: No offence to Beam..... I love their products. but this stuff is (in my opinion) the worst product they have on offer.

Have you tried Red Slag ... er ... Red Stag yet?

I hope this is not a trend ... run out of the good stuff but keep pumping out the odd ball stuff ...

[whskylvr]

Hello Everyone,

We have over 1700 cases of KC 750's and 200+ cases of KC 1.0L in inventory. No 375's though.

This inventory is in Northern California Distributor warehouse

[p_elliott]

Maybe they could start selling the "Jim Beam Small Batch with Port added" crap to the US market that they started sending Downunder a few years ago in place of Knob Creek :skep: No offence to Beam..... I love their products. but this stuff is (in my opinion) the worst product they have on offer.