Trade war with Canada has contributed to a significant decline in U.S. liquor sales
Jim Beam, one of the largest makers of American whiskey globally, is shutting down bourbon production at one of its Kentucky distilleries for a year.
The move comes amid Donald Trump’s trade war with Canada, which has contributed to a significant decline in U.S. liquor sales after the country ushered in a boycott of American booze, and as more young adults are cutting back on drinking.
Jim Beam, owned by Suntory Global Spirits, is one of Kentucky’s biggest bourbon producers.
The Bluegrass state’s $9 billion whiskey bourbon industry has been struggling to manage its abundant supply of liquor against the drop in demand.
Ain’t that a damn shame. The Blue Grass is covered in orange shit. Zero sympathy for the neo-Nazi Kentucky voters and the Japanese at Suntory should consider dumping Jim Beam from the portfolio.
This seems to part of “making America great” (again).
Just what they voted for!
Woot! A year* long vacation! /s
* Assuming things don’t get even worse (which is a generous assumption)
Cue the “I didn’t vote for this” gomers…
“But I’d vote for him again”
Well they’ll gladly vote for whoever has the “R” next to their name, no matter what. That is if there ever are elections again.
Gomers?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gomer_Pyle#Cultural_impact
The term “gomer” has entered the English lexicon, usually meaning “stupid person” or “fool,” especially if a coworker or trainee.
TIL, thanks. Seems like a word I must have heard at some point without it registering.
The funniest thing is that ‘all American’ Jim Beam is owned by Suntory, a Japanese company.
“Make it… Suntori time…”
Back in the 1970s Suntory Whiskey had a huge sign over Times Square in New York. The sign is visible in movies like Shaft. You couldn’t find Suntory in any American bar, but the company knew that Times Square was iconic and their sign would be seen all over the world.
Even 7Eleven and Firestone are Japanese companies. Americans can’t run shit.
Even Harley Davidson is close to bankruptcy. Dealers are closing every month. Bad news for audiologists.
Fucking good. Those bikes sound like shit.
And they ride like shit and break. Their sales demographic is literally dying.
Way back in 1981, Ronald Reagan looked upon post-Vietnam America and saw too options. One was to tax the rich heavily, institute massive government controls on energy production, and push a renewal of America’s aging heavy industries. The other was to cut taxes for the upper classes and encourage wild speculation.
You say that like Reagan had some grand economic plan. He was an idiotic actor very similar to Trump. It’s true that tons of terrible policies can be traced back to his presidency but he wasn’t the mastermind of much of it in the same way that Trump doesn’t have a coherent plan now. They are both good examples of dumb, self serving outsiders being given too much power and listening to the wrong people.
Reagan had senile dementia his entire time of office. He was submissive and did what his team told him to do.
Reagan didn’t have a policy, but his team sure did.
A lot of people got really rich in the 1980s and it wasn’t by chance.
Don’t mistake the fact that bad things happened for incompetence.
The destruction of the middle class wasn’t a bug, it was a feature.
While it’s certainly true that Jim Beam can no longer honestly keep the label of ‘all American’ due to corporate structure, they have kept up much of the American tradition and culture around Kentucky bourbon by generally letting them run autonomously. However, to your point, that’s definitely not guaranteed to continue-especially if profits are gonna start being fucked with. American jobs and culture are under pressure from both trump and outside corporate organizations. It was already insulting enough that a faceless corporation took it upon itself to be a steward of a part of American culture and history, but then the shameless sellout? It’s that irresponsible behavior that makes these corporations so inherently unreliable and untrustworthy no matter how faithful they may act for however long.
If you’ve never seen it, watch Ned Beatty’s speech from the movie Network.
The whole movie is excellent, and went from cutting edge satire to quaint docudrama in real time.
Interesting. I should look it up for sure. While I’m certainly very much inherently in the camp of primarily approaching philosophy in a more traditional analytic style, I’ve become more appreciative of more artistic and “messy” packaging as of late, and this is certainly doing it for me. I love the absurd oversimplification disguised in rationality and nuance’s clothes. All that education these douchecanoes get only to never apply that same academic rigor to their worldview.
Japan has a greater appreciation for American things like jazz and bourbon than Americans do
there’s a japanese jazz scene?
They’ve got a pretty hoping rockabilly subculture too
Music is Japan is huge.
a vibrant one
I don’t know if it still does, but I know electronic jazz had a big scene there a few years back.
I occasionally travel with two people for work that love bourbon, but hate Jim Bean and call it garbage. Knowing now that it is owned by a Japanese company combined with their current understanding of blaming Biden for the current economy, really puts it together as to why they hate Jim Bean.
These are also the same people that ask me how it’s like living two hours from the war torn and destroyed area known as Portland.
These are also the same people that ask me how it’s like living two hours from the war torn and destroyed area known as Portland.
Propaganda is a helluva drug, that’s for sure.
Tell them it’s horrible and they should stay in Florida.
Eh, Jim Beam is generally considered cheaper, kinda bottom-shelf stuff these days. Fine for a bourbon and coke, but not really intended to be sipped neat. I wouldn’t really be surprised by a bourbon-lover turning their nose up at it, regardless of who owns the brand.
They have some very premium brands as well, that definitely deserve praise: hardin’s creek, little book especially.
Anything labeled Jim beam is swill to meh (except Lineage, but you’ll never see that on a shelf). The old grandad (bonded or 114) line is bang/buck.
Jim beam was in the “cheap rotgut” category for ages. They only fairly recently started trying to make decent stuff again, regardless of ownership.
As to your colleagues… people can dislike mediocre whiskey and still be assholes.
Jim beam was in the “cheap rotgut” category for ages.
The normal white label? That was always considered middle of the road for bourbon. The cheap stuff is the stuff that comes in plastic bottles. It’s only recently that bourbon has had a renaissance where the top brands are highly sought after and there’s a perception of luxury/exclusivity with some bourbons.
Jim beam white was never, ever something I would remotely consider drinking neat. Bulleit is about the floor of what I consider drinkable in that category, and bulleit is a good bit better than jb.
It could just be they don’t like drinking shitty bourbon. Jim Beam is… not great.
Jim Beam is 80 proof, while a lot of more expensive bourbon is more like 90 proof. Personally I prefer the lesser kick, and I live in the US, but do you think I’m going to be able to stock up on cheap Jim Beam? Hah, don’t bet on it.
They make Knob Creek, which is 100 proof
I have to water that stuff down. Fine once in awhile but basic Jim or Jack is mother’s milk, for a daily half-shot.
I upvoted this twice.
I’m surprised there aren’t face indents in the tummy bulge
too full, so the leapord has to ask lions, hyenas, jackals, other small cat to eat faces. plus they have plenty of vultures to pick up the corpses.
they can drink thier sorrows away with the bourban.
"We will continue to distill at our [Freddie Booker Noe] craft distillery in Clermont and at our larger Booker Noe distillery in Boston, we plan to pause distillation at our main distillery on the James B. Beam campus for 2026 while we take the opportunity to invest in site enhancements.”
They’re going to keep making the craft bourbon, and I suspect they could coast for a decade on the barrels they have in rack houses. Bourbon doesn’t really go bad.
It doesn’t? Isn’t there something called bourbon sour?
That’s a mixed drink, the sour part of the name comes from lemon juice.
It takes 4-8 years to age it.
But it’s not that big of a deal, they’ve had fires and lost millions of gallons multiple times.
This is at least planned, and you’re probably right that they’ll prioritize the higher priced items.
They’ll also modernize the equipment so they need fewer workers. Who probably also voted red
No, but you can over-age it. Too long in oak changes the flavours and at some point it won’t taste like your product. You can bottle it as a special edition, but whether consumers like the product or not is a toss up.
I for one will never buy American again. I hope relations can improve to the point where my children can begin to normalize what was once one of the best international relationships in history.
Too long in oak changes the flavours and at some point it won’t taste like your product.
They can and do dump them into non-reactive tanks. Or bottles.
and if kept out of light, lasts forever.
At the cost of more tanks and storage space.
Sure, but if they’re reducing new whiskey production at exactly the same time, I would think that they’d basically gain a bunch of space right at the time they’d need it. A rickhouse designed for barrels might not be a perfect fit for the big polyethylene tanks, but I’m sure a major shift in operations could result in a relatively low cost switchover as necessary.
better without more of that piss in rotation
I’m not a huge fan of their product either, but it’s perfectly serviceable, affordable Bourbon. For someone who likes the occasional drink but has limited income, it beats the hell out of similarly-priced products.
Jim Beam is excellent for the price. It’s priced like a plastic bottle liquor, but its a proper bourbon. Not the best, but it’s $12 a bottle.
If you’re not an alcoholic, putting a bit more for the buck is clearly worth it.
I actually like it better than the stuff one level above it like 4 roses or bullet. Buffalo Trace or Woodford are superior, I agree. But if want to spend money I’d rather go for a Islay Scotch.
I’m more of a jameson caskmate edition stout when it comes to staying in the low price range.
Anecdotal report from my area, but a retail worker I spoke with who works 2 jobs at a dollar gen and Walmart said this is the slowest holiday year they’ve seen since the pandemic.
A couple years ago I worked the holiday season at a JC Penney, and worked Black Friday.
It was damn near dead. Like maybe no more than 15 people shopping at the busiest time of the night. It was bullshit. And this was like 2018.
Brick and mortar retail might be struggling, but it’ll take a larger set of data to try to tease out trends about whether that means a shift to online retail, a shift away from goods towards services, or an actual reduction in spending.
I went to three different grocery store today (they don’t all sell the same things) and was shocked to find them all mostly empty. I had expected them to be packed with people preparing for Christmas dinner.
You voted for this!
Bon Appetit leopards 🐆
Only a year? Let’s make it permanent Canada. Elbows up.
Not just Canada. I haven’t bought bourbon since last year here in the U.S… which was my go-to drink of choice.
I was a bourbon fan when I drank. Been 5 or 6 years though. Glad I don’t support that industry anymore. Fuck ‘em.
By far the best bourbon, winning awards worldwide, is from British Columbia. Okanagan sprits.
Technically, “Bourbon” only comes from the U.S., some say only Kentucky… like Scotch only comes from Scotland, Champagne only comes from France… but always good to hear of some alternatives.
It’s just a style of distilling. Anyone can do it.
They may have voted for this, but I don’t think anyone deserves this and I derive no joy from people being hurt because they allowed themselves to be misled.
Canada and the U.S. have since agreed to launch formal discussions to review their trade agreement
I don’t think that’s gonna make a difference anymore. Reverting the 2025 decisions will not revert things. The sentiment has changed among the common people.
Canadian here. I don’t think trade discussions will improve much about the booze sales when the leader/rapist/businessman ruling america with an iron fist waves his pecker in our face and tells us how much he wants to own us. Bathtub gin is my drink of choice now. Who needs quality when you have freedom?
Yup. It’s something that won’t be fixed for decades. Trump has seriously damaged the ability for the US to do international trade.
Yup. It’s something that won’t be fixed for decades. Trump has seriously damaged
the ability forthe USto do international trade.He went way beyond just trade affairs.
It’s abuser logic. “If I stop hitting you, we’re cool. There’s no problem, anymore. That is until I decide to hit you again.”
That doesn’t work on everyone and eventually someone will hit back harder or gang up and take them down. Unfortunately, people let them get away with it for too long.
Trying that shit on Canada of all people was the dumbest shit imaginable.
Trying to shit on the entire world was the dumbest shit imaginable.
Ah, you’ve met the average MAGAt I see.
Yeah, but try explaining to an abusive narcissist that… they have to actually show a real dedication to changing themselves, and making things right.
You basically can’t, because the idea that they could be flawed or mistaken in a fundamental way… well, that’s basically incomprehensible to them, beyond being some kind of insult toward them.
That does seem to be the logic of even people on the left of American politics.
They seem to think that voting for democrats will change anything. Nah, they need to fix their damn stupid political system before anyone will trust them again. Except of course they won’t because of a 250-year-old document who’s authors would be amazed to find has become almost religious dogma.
plus canada can just choose other countries alcohol menu instead.
The common people have the memories of goldfish and will go back to throwing billions across the border.
… also the price of things.
Corporations especially grocers just got a big chance to raise prices … even if the tariffs go away, none of them will bring the prices down again. They’ll just pocket the difference and let everyone pay the new high prices which will stay in place.
what they did during/after covid was shrinkflation/cheapflationed thier products. it was very noticeable in consumables like toileteries/laundry, toothpaste, etc.
So far Canadians have been smart enough to hold the line. Don’t bend and don’t believe the liars in charge of the US. This administration would gladly invade anyone and subjugate them.
Never 51. Elbows Up, Canada. It’s time to line brawl on the ice.
Canadian products are generally superior quality anyways
That I can definitely agree with. US manufacturing is so crippled by capitalism that the results are squeezed into barely functional pieces of shit. Efficiency for the shareholders is king.
I’m always glad to see when someone like Canada has some pride in their products and not just making the shittiest thing that’ll still sell.
What Canadian products?
Can’t speak for manufactured products but our food quality is typically on the better side due largely to higher standards and regulations.
https://impact.economist.com/sustainability/project/food-security-index/
Canada has got this. They have shifted to trade with more stable countries and had ramped up local distilleries. They are not being mean but rather strategic.
not enough to not go to disney though.
Even if I thought like that, there are other Disney parks in other parts of the world where they don’t arrest you for trying to enter legally.
Why the fuck would anyone go to a Disney park at the best of times?
NOOOOO!!!
Winning?
