Warnings and Surprises in Bellevue Whole Foods' Beer Aisle
We stopped in at the Bellevue Whole Foods today to pick up a breakfast burrito with bacon (best on-the-go $5.49 breakfast in town) and a salad for lunch (to balance out the bacon) when we happened to walk past the beer aisle at 8am. OK, so maybe we didn't walk by on accident; we check out their beer selection every time we stop for breakfast and often end up buying a few bottles next to our burrito and salad, which draws very odd looks from the cashier at 8am. This morning, it didn't help that this Seattlest was out late for his 30th birthday at Pike Brewing last night and probably looked like he was going straight home to pop the purchases open.
The very first thing we noticed in the beer aisle was a few small signs spread out among the bottles:
Attention Beer-Lovers,Due to a failed crop of hops in Europe & here in the Northwest this year, hop prices worldwide have sky-rocketed, leaving many small craft brewers struggling to acquire the beloved herb. What this means to our valued guests will be dramatic price increases in beers across the board. We will endeavor to keep the brew flowing of course, constantly searching for great values from around the globe.
As we (and many others) have mentioned before, we will be seeing prices go up. Funny enough though, Whole Foods had quite a few great deals right now on some fantastic beers. All of their Lost Abbey ales are on sale for $8.99 (usually about $11 or $12/ea). We picked up a bottle of Devotion Ale. Full Sail Old Boardhead Barleywine was on sale for a very reasonable $3.99, and the Full Sail Slipknot Imperial IPA was $3.49. We also grabbed some Alaskan Big Nugget Barleywine, which is being distributed in bottles this year for the first time. At $3.99/22 oz bottle, it is another great deal. They also had numerous six-packs on sale.
Seattlest obviously loves beer. But, do you know what we love even more? Beer on sale. We plan to enjoy whatever deals we can find from here on out.
Photo thanks to Cedric Paris on Flickr.
