It’s happening. The Corona Virus is canceling or pushing back events and forcing beer places to temporarily close. As a consumer, I really don’t know what to do here.
On one hand, I want to respect the prevailing advice of simply staying home. Don’t move about town unless you have to.
The other? I don’t like seeing local businesses suffer. Nor do I want to see workers, that live paycheck to paycheck and sometimes rely on tips to make ends meet, suffer.
A couple weeks of little to no business can kill a small taproom and max out employee credit cards, really quick.
Damn. (That’s Fox Farm Brewery, by the way)
As I write this, I am in the camp of waiting this out a week or two. Staying home as much as I can (even though I have to go to work and have to go out for food). It changes almost by the hour so I might be doing something completely different tomorrow.
After my government recommended, “social distancing” (as an anxiety-filled loner, this is not that hard) is over and things have passed, I will go back to the breweries with a vengeance!
I’ll spend all the money I would have in the past two weeks, in one shot! Tip bigger than normal! Live. it. the. hell. up.
At this moment, the prevailing thought on Beer Twitter is to get out there and support right the hell now.
I can’t argue with that. But, then again, there is taking things too far as well:
Myself, I’m notebooking how much I think I would have spent during this time if it was a regular-ass week. Remember that. And when it’s deemed safe to get back out there, spend that, plus a little more.
Some folks are suggesting buying gift cards right now and spend them later. This is a great idea, but I don’t know of too many little breweries that have gift cards available to purchase online.
Unfortunately, I have not stocked up enough for two weeks. This would have been a start:
I just hope everyone is still there when this damn thing is done. In the meantime, I’ll just be buying beer from the store I had to go to anyway and washing my damn hands.
(This plan may be completely different in two days. It’s crazy out there)
