Is it all over for Bud Light?

They've just another released two crappy ads, insulting their customers yet again, and signaling that they aren't about to apologize.

The best beer is an open beer pic.twitter.com/OESFCgVxRv

— Bud Light (@budlight) July 10, 2023

I wonder if they wanted a black overweight woman in the Bud Light's latest commercial just like Victoria's Secret new ads.
https://t.co/T8hVkZLNVZ

— Gerardo (@gerardo_001) July 11, 2023

Which would explain why they aren't buying that product. Which makes sense -- people aren't buying the product, and Axios is marveling at the "staying power" of the beer's three-month consumer boycott, which isn't really a boycott -- it's customer flight -- to the Mexican beer Modelo Especial of all things. Back in April, the smart money quoted by NPR confidently proclaimed that "such boycotts are often short-lived."

One ad seems to peg Bud Light customers again as stupid, given that Modelo Especial can just as easily be that open can of beer they speak of. The other, depicting a young woman drinking her beer as chaos flies around her, appears to depict the state of Bud Light's corporate suite, where the company's executives just keep doing what they are doing as company sales keep going down.

Well, to paraphrase economist Herbert Stein on economic activity: Anything that can't go on, will stop.

Latest news is that Bud Light has earned itself an "asterisk" on Costco store shelves, meaning, the item will not be restocked.

According to the New York Post:

Social media users shopping at Costco posted images showing an asterisk — which customers have branded a “star of death” or “death star” — had appeared on the price display above shelves stacked with cases of Bud Light.

The asterisk is thought to be an ominous sign that Costco either doesn’t intend on restocking the shelf with the item in question.

And it would make sense that they would.

According to Yahoo! Finance:

The beer has now fallen from number one in the U.S. in terms of sales, to number 15.  Should Costco be using its store shelves to promote America's number 15 beer? The big box retailer typically promotes just a few top choices to its customers for bulk purchases, and leaves the boutique stuff to other retailers. 

The boycott, spurred by a public relations partnership in April, appears to have had a huge impact on Bud Light’s sales. In just one week, sales dipped 17%.

And they’ve continued to trend downwards. By June, Bud Light fell second place behind rival brand Lager Modelo Especial in terms of U.S. sales volume, based on data from Nielsen and Bump Williams Consulting.

In the most recent week reported by Nielsen, the brand sold 28.5% fewer cans and bottles than the previous week.

(Side note: Note that howler of an error in the piece claiming that the beloved Goya Foods brand had been boycotted by conservatives, instead of crazed leftists).

Fifteen places in three months? And analysts now saying it is expected to spiral down even further?

Why would any sane store stock this beer? Store shelving is a critical commodity for retailers of all stripes -- stock something that isn't selling and the space is wasted -- and profits go down as a result. Stock something the customers want, and watch the profits rise.

Which brings us back to Bud Light.

The death star obviously signals that Costco has gotten tired of this and wants that underperforming brand out of there. 

For Bud Light, that is no small thing. Costco is a gargantuan retailer of beer and other alcohol-content products in the U.S. with its wine sales alone amounting to some 15% of the entire market. Wine sales make up 30% of its alcohol sales, and beer sales make up 20% of its alcoholic beverages share. While I don't have data on how much of the U.S. beer market it controls, the other figures suggest it's a large share that could take make or break any product.

And like WalMart, which is famous for its hard-nosed approach to suppliers performing, Costco also has a tough reputation in the industry of demanding performance from its products.

Bud Light isn't making the cut. And it's still insulting its customers. Why should Costco even stock them when customers won't buy? Gained shelf space is considered a great prize to manufacturers of products. And conversely, lost store shelf space is a big blow -- and worse still, almost impossible to recover.

Bud Light seems to have been issued its "death star" now, so it seems it won't be long before it's put out of its misery.  It's going down with an asterisk.

Image: Twitter screen shot