Bud Light is offering to buy back unsold cases from its network of distributors as the beer brand continues to see sales slide. The embattled brand saw its sales fall for the sixth straight week.
During the week beginning May 8, U.S. retail sales decreased 28% compared with the same period in 2022, according to Nielsen data. Sales of Bud Light fell 23.6% for the week ending on May 6 compared to the same week last year.
Sales of Coors Light increased by 17% and sales of Miller Lite increased by about 15% during the second week of May.
Posts on social media show the beer being heavily discounted in some stores but still people won’t buy it.
The brand was the number one selling beer in America and is now dragging down all Anheuser-Busch brands.
So the desperate company is offering some concessions to its distributors. Anheuser-Busch works with 385 independent distributors across the country.
Many of these are family-owned businesses that have sold Anheuser-Busch products for generations. According to The Wall Street Journal:
By the second week of May, Bud Light sales volume was down more than 28% compared with the same period last year in U.S. retail stores, according to an analysis of Nielsen data by consulting company Bump Williams.
It was a rare case of a politically inspired product boycott working.
The company now plans for the first time to include Bud Light in the brewer’s long-running sponsorship of a veterans organization, wholesalers said.
Bud Light is also leaning back into television commercials on themes like football and country music.
The brewer recently told its wholesalers that it would buy back unsold cases of beer that have gone past their expiration date.
Del Papa Distributing, a wholesaler outside Houston, posted a statement on Facebook, trying to clarify misunderstandings about Mulvaney’s post.
“The unfortunate reality that it happened without higher-level approval exposed a concerning lack of oversight for brand marketing decisions,” Del Papa said in the statement.
“That lack of oversight has been addressed.”
The Woke, the Broke, and the Skunky… https://t.co/xXR9opYxos
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) May 22, 2023
With a single personalized beer can sent to a transgender influencer, Bud Light angered core customers. Its next steps angered nearly everyone else. https://t.co/h0eXq6dBws
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) May 21, 2023
