My biggest beef with the Mr.Beer is that it undermines local homebrew supply shops which I rely on. Not only does it take away from holiday equipment sales but it also sours a lot of people on the hobby.


Eh...everyone starts somewhere. As a kid started with snap together models, they looked terrible and I wasn't happy, so learned to glue models. Then I realized that decals only went so far, if you wanted better looking you had to learn to paint.

(Then it was down hill as I learned you could blow them up and then rebuild them and see how close you could get...LOL.)

But, if they get put off because of a Mr. Beer, then they would never had made a good customer anyway. There are customers that want to be better and they will make their own shopping decisions, then there are customers that just want to be hand held and take up all the vendor's time. I'd rather those people not be at my LHBS when I am there with a grain order and three very specific questions about yeast strains.