Things have not been going well for Bud Light since they stepped on the third rail of endorsing transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney’s “365 Days of Girlhood” at the beginning of April. We’re now into the fourth month of a punishing boycott that seems to have no end in sight for the company.
NielsenIQ sales data, obtained by Newsweek via industry consultancy firm Bump Williams Consulting, showed that over a four-week period ending July 1, Bud Light saw a 28 percent decrease in revenue sales. Bud Light’s volume—the number of units of beer sold—was down 31.2 percent compared with the same time last year.
They were booted out of the number-one beer-sold slot as well, with Modelo Especial rising to the top and now holding that place for the past two months.
Now they’ve even dropped out of the top ten most popular beers.
In fact, the brand has fallen off the list of the 10 most preferred beers in the U.S., according to a recent poll of American drinkers conducted by YouGov. Having been awarded ninth place in last year’s survey, it has tumbled to rank as the 15th most popular beer in the country.
The dip is being attributed to a boycott of the brand started on April 1.
The company doesn’t seem to understand how to dig themselves out of the mess that they’ve created. They keep putting out ads, like the one I wrote about earlier, that just show how clueless they are on the matter. The ad showed a storm during a picnic blowing over a Bud Light can and a woman devouring a watermelon, oblivious to the consequences of that storm. It was a perfect metaphor for the storm that hit the company and the oblivious way in which they responded.
But if new reports are accurate, they may be facing some more trouble from one of the biggest chains in the country, Costco.
Reports are now circulating, with pictures indicating some Bud Light products in some locations have gotten the “Death Star” from Costco. You can see what it is — the little asterisk in the upper right-hand corner of the sales description (click on the tweet to see the full image).
The number 97 in a price is another Costco code that indicates the product is being subjected to a big discount.
The Death Star is a code that Costco uses to indicate that the product so marked is no longer going to be carried in the store.
It wasn’t clear where the stores were and if it applied to other Bud Light products than those marked, but the media was seeking an answer from Costco on the matter. It did seem to be on different Bud Light items in multiple different stores.
We’ll keep you updated on that report. But if Costco is no longer going to stock it, that would be a huge hit to the brand. Add one more hit to their continued plunge.
