Crown seal availability

Merlin · Post by **Merlin** » Sunday Oct 02, 2005 10:31 am

Is it just the supermarkets in my area (north-western Sydney), or are Coles and Woolies not stocking crown seals any more? I was about to start bottling the other day and realised I was short, tried every supermarket in my local area and not only did none of them have any, they didn't even have an empty shelf with a price tag to show where they used to be. I ended up going to the HBS and picked up some gear for the next brew as well since I was there, and they reckon that they've had heaps of people coming in just for crown seals saying the same. Anyone else found this in other areas?

cliffo · Post by **cliffo** » Sunday Oct 02, 2005 11:27 am

Same situation here in Newcastle, my local Woolworths has an empty shelf with a price ticket, the Bi-Lo near my work the same...Could this be the great crown seal shortage of 2005

gregb · Post by **gregb** » Sunday Oct 02, 2005 4:15 pm

Local HBS sells them in bags of a thousand, and has heaps on the shelf (as of last Friday when I was in there)

Cheers,
Greg

goatsby · Post by **goatsby** » Monday Oct 03, 2005 8:50 pm

Same here Coles Safeway and IGA dont stock them my nearest homebrew shop is 200kms away

I have a half finished batch of canadian blonde and only half bottled

What has happened has the australian manufacturer stopped
or are Coles Safeway making space for other products?

This is almost a national disaster!!

flosso · Post by **flosso** » Monday Oct 03, 2005 10:29 pm

It seems to me that gradually supermarkets are phasing out their home brew stocks. In the few supermarkets I normally go to they've gone from stocking kits + sugars + lids + starter sets to just stocking the kits.

Seems quite strange to me as homebrewing appears to be fairly popular at the moment so I'd have thought the nig guys would be trying to cash in - I guess it's a blessing in disguise if it drives more people to go to their local HBS, but for a variety of reasons this isn't always practical.

Big W seem to stock a decent recent and also K-Mart to a lesser extent, so there is another alternative if the supermarket doesn't have what you're after.

undercover1 · Post by **undercover1** » Tuesday Oct 04, 2005 8:44 am

It seems to me that gradually supermarkets are phasing out their home brew stocks. In the few supermarkets I normally go to they've gone from stocking kits + sugars + lids + starter sets to just stocking the kits.

You got it in one, Flosso. Over the past year or so the local supermarkets I go to have all phased out pretty much everything except very basic kits & a couple of manky looking old tins of home brand.
And (for no good reason I can think of) we go to a few places- Safeway in St Kilda, Prahran, Balaclava & Elsternwick, & also Coles in St Kilda, Prahran & Balaclava- same story everywhere. The only upside was grabbing a few bargains as they dumped finings, caps, sugars etc along the way.

Actually I do know why we go to different stores- that's her chasing down the wine specials.

silkworm · Post by **silkworm** » Tuesday Oct 04, 2005 3:42 pm

That strange because here in North or Sydney since I began HB in 2003 the supermarkets have increased the range of kits and now stock the full range of Coopers sugars and brewsters products. Was it different before 2003?
I rarely buy the Supermarket products though because its about the same price ( or sometimes cheaper) in bulk from the HB shop with a greater range.
The supermarkets are Coles and IGA.

NTRabbit · Post by **NTRabbit** » Tuesday Oct 04, 2005 7:48 pm

I havent noticed any changes in the stock at my local supermarkets, except that the Woolworths no longer seems to stock its own Homebrand cans.

All I have ever seen them sell is the basic Coopers kits, occasionally Tooheys and MSB kits, and the range of Coopers adjuncts and cleaners.

GTI86 · Post by **GTI86** » Tuesday Oct 04, 2005 8:50 pm

Ive noticed Safeway seam to have stopped stocking all homebrew gear
dunno why?
I get mine at the grain and grape they have bags of 500