Walmart is taking a page from Whole Foods’ playbook — and small craft brewers are drinking it up.
Starting next month, Harlem Brewing Co. will be stocking its Sugar Hill Golden Ale next to cases of Michelob and Budweiser in 39 Walmart stores in New York — a turn of events that brewery owner Celeste Beatty never saw coming.
“I didn’t know a lot about Walmart’s interest in craft beer, and I didn’t think of it as a store where I’d sell my products,” said Beatty, who has been brewing beer for the past 15 years.
Manufactured in Saratoga, her beer is sold in such stores as Fairway Market, Whole Foods and local restaurants in Harlem. But the Bentonville, Ark., retailer sought her out after seeing her interviewed on TV, adding her to its growing stable of craft brewers across the country.
“Craft beer is a growing category for Walmart,” said a spokesman, adding that the program is part of the company’s $250 billion investment over 10 years supporting American manufacturing jobs.
“With changes in energy and labor costs overseas, it is increasingly cost- effective and efficient to manufacture closest to the point of consumption and it is just good business,” he said.
Walmart declined to provide the number of craft brewers supplying its stores, but its city stores now carry beer from Saranac, Southern Tier, Saratoga and Mendocino breweries.
In contrast to its contracts with mass merchandisers, the breweries don’t have to lower their prices to be sold in Walmart. Beatty said her six- packs cost between $10 and $12.
Harlem Brewing Co.’s sales will likely increase by as much as 20 percent because of the New York deal, which Beatty hopes she can leverage to supply other Walmart stores out of state.