Bud Light is now selling for less than water in some places after weeks of sales plummeting following the brand’s disastrous partnership with Dylan Mulvaney.
Sales of what was once America’s best-selling beer are down nearly 50 percent from a year ago.
The brand has lost over $20 billion since it sparked a massive spate of controversy over its partnership with trans influencer Mulvaney in early April.
“It just doesn’t move like it used to,” Andy Wagner, manager of Glenn Miller’s Beer & Soda Warehouse in Pennsylvania, told the New York Times.
“Currently it’s cheaper than some of the cases of water we sell in the back.”
The manager of Glenn Miller’s Beer & Soda Warehouse told the New York Times that Bud Light has been selling for less than the price of cases of water lately
Bud Light sales continue to fall. Since the controversy surrounding the brand began in April, the numbers have steadily deteriorated
Wagner added that the drop in sales was not due to a general lack of interest in drinking beer by American consumers.
Cases of Miller Lite, for example, are available for $24.99 — far more than the heavily discounted $8.99 now available for cases of Bud Light.
“I’ve seen longtime Bud Light customers trying other beers,” Wagner said. “If they find something they like, they might not come back.”
“It’s not like they stopped drinking beer. They just stopped buying Bud Light.’
Wagner added that one of the basic “bar rules” in the beer industry doesn’t become political at all. “No politics, no religion,” he said.
Sales at Bud Light continue to fall, falling almost 30 percent last week — the brand’s worst 7-day period since the controversy began, and the situation appeared to be getting worse as we head into the July 4th holiday weekend .
In addition to the large faction of beer drinkers who have chosen to boycott Bud Light over its limited partnership with Mulvaney, members of the LGBTQ community have also turned their backs on the brand for their apparent lack of support for the influencer in the wake of the scandal.
Last week, Mulvaney slammed the brand for not responding following the backlash.
“I’ve been waiting for the brand to get back to me, but they never have,” Mulvaney said in a video. “I think it’s worse for a company to hire a trans person and then not publicly support them than not to hire a trans person at all because it gives customers permission to be as transphobic and hateful as they want .”
Some gay bars have also decided to boycott the beer over the apparent lack of support for Mulvaney and its community.
Boycotts at Bud Light ensued after a limited promotional relationship with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney
Bud Light continued with its Pride Monthly program, despite being rejected by members of the LGBTQ community for failing to adequately defend Mulvaney in the wake of the scandal
As of April, boxes of Bud Light still lingered on grocery store shelves across the country
Even drastic price reductions could not move the beer crates
The huge drop in Bud Light sales is also costing Americans across the country jobs. A glass bottling company recently had to close two of its plants and lay off 650 employees.
The Ardagh Group, one of the world’s largest glass manufacturers, announced last week that it would close its plants in Wilson, North Carolina, and Simsboro, Louisiana on July 17. The Wilson plant employed nearly 400 people and the Simsboro plant 245 – all of whom are now unemployed.
The company gave no reason for the closures in its statement, saying only that it was part of a “multi-year performance optimization program.”
However, an investigation by WRAL found that Ardagh was forced to close the plants due to declining sales of Bud Light – one of its prime contractors.
Workers at the North Carolina and Louisiana bottling plants said they have been dealing with a drop in production since Mulvaney’s promotion went online in early April.
Both plants have been forced to take some of their machines offline due to lower demand, which “obviously points to the bud light situation,” James Munhall, a journeyman machine repair mechanic, told WRAL.
According to an internal memo obtained by the news channel, company executives said by May 18 they would close the two plants “due to slow sales with Anheuser-InBev,” Budweiser and Bud Light’s parent company.
Longtime employees explained that the bulk of their business is making bottles for Budweiser and Bud Light.
At a meeting at the North Carolina plant last week, they said the plant manager had told them the boycott was forcing them to close.
“Since Budweiser stopped selling the bottle, they no longer needed our product,” David Williams, a machine repair mechanic, told WRAL.
When the company announced the closures last week, it said simply, “Our multi-year performance improvement program, which includes targeted investments in expanded capacity and ongoing cost optimization, underpins our ability to continue to provide existing and potential customers with high-quality, US-made sustainable products. ‘ Glass packaging.’
According to Ruston Leader, existing customers will continue to be served from alternative locations in the network.
Anheuser-Busch executives have previously said the ongoing boycotts of Bud Light have hurt frontline workers and wholesalers as conservatives stopped buying the beer after the Mulvaney ad.
Anti-bud light beer graffiti is seen scrawled on a gate in Arco, Idaho on June 21, 2023
As new developments continue to unfold in the nightmarish Anheuser-Busch saga, the brand released a statement saying it remains “committed to the programs and partnerships” it has forged with the LGBTQ+ community.
The statement said: “The privacy and security of our employees and our partners is always our top priority.”
“As we move forward, we will focus on what we do best – brewing great beer for everyone and securing our place in the moments that matter to our consumers.”
This comes just days after CEO Brendan Whitworth was criticized for refusing to rule out the company’s partnering with Mulvaney again – and avoiding an answer about how much the marketing blunder had cost Bud Light.
Speaking to CBS Mornings, Whitworth was asked if he would send Mulvaney another can, knowing the tidal wave of backlash it was causing.
But rather than provide a definitive answer, the CEO instead began a pre-rehearsed speech about the “societal conversation” that the disastrous campaign had sparked.
Whitworth added that they need to “understand the consumer deeply” and “recognize” what they expect from the brand. The manager was subsequently criticized on social media for his “gloomy work”.