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Beer Prices Going Up
By Harry Kimball
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Posted Aug 25, 09 4:23 PM CDT
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(Newser)
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The nation’s largest brewers plan to raise beer prices in the fall, the Wall Street Journal reports. Anheuser-Busch InBev—maker of Budweiser—and MillerCoors will further test the notion that beer is generally recession-proof. “The environment is very favorable, we think,” says an Anheuser exec. Both companies have been able to offset sales slumps by raising prices in the last year.
The increase will likely keep pace with last fall’s, insiders say—about 4% in most markets. Though executives see an opportunity, one industry analyst says it's a dangerous game when consumers are pinched. “There's a lot of trading down going on,” he says, noting that while Bud Light sales were off nearly 9% in the last month, sales of Busch, its cheaper cousin, were up 3%.