Maker's Mark to water down their bourbon?!?!

A great restaurant owner told me that the key to the restaurant business is consistency.  Consistency is the magic trick, by having the service, food, cleanliness all superior and consistently so-the business will always thrive.  Ever since, I have paid keen attention to those businesses who have stood the test of time and those who have failed-and he's right.  The humor I find is, consistency can be created with expectation and vice-versa, but this relationship cannot be created without limited availability.  All too often businesses believe they need to over-expand and complicate their business model, to appeal to the masses, when their exclusivity was their appeal.  Thus, ruining their entire business.  Our culture is one of consumption, we live with caviar tastes in a Wal-Mart world and refuse to see the irony of it. 

Yesterday was a prime example of such irony.  Eatocracy posted the story about Maker's Mark-who was considering watering down their bourbon (decreasing the alcohol content by 3%) in order to keep up with demand.  After public outrage over their announcement, Maker's agreed not to make any changes to their bourbon.   Diane Stafford pointed out how most businesses who are not meeting their demand, choose to raise prices in order to balance the scales-did Maker's not take basic economics?

Recently, Emily Smith and Justin Lear's article on Hopslam was featured on Eatocracy and being someone who regards conservative business practices-I appreciate Bell's approach to Hopslam's popularity, Bell's believes that [increasing production] would take away from some of their other beers and they’re not prepared to do that, at least for now.  A fine example of maintaining the dignity of the business and the product.

Hopefully, Maker's has learned their lesson.