Bud Light sales have taken the steepest tumble in North and South Carolina — and least in California — as the embattled beer brand enters its fourth month in boycott as a result of its catastrophic partnership with Dylan Mulvaney, according to hospitality consumption data platform Union.
Union’s latest “OnPrem Insights” report found that from April through June 30, Bud Light’s sales share in the Carolinas fell 6.9 points, from 19.4% to 12.5%.
In the same three-month period, Miller Lite’s sales share popped nearly three points to 16.4%.
Chris Dimattia, the owner of Recovery Room Tavern, a quintessential alehouse in Charleston, S.C., told Union that he used to sell 10 cases of Bud Light each week.
Lately, he sells anywhere from one to three cases of the boycott brew, he told the platform, making a 70% to 90% drop in sales.
At another Charleston bar, Blind Tiger Pub, sales of Bud Light are “almost non-existent,” general manager Clayton Dukes told Union.
“At first I thought this might blow over pretty quick, but I think it is pretty apparent that this isn’t going anywhere for a long time,” Dukes said, noting that the low sales caused him to swap the Bud Light draft with Michelob Ultra.
Bud Light also lost ground to its Molson Coors-made rival in New York and New Jersey, where Union reported its sales share fell a combined 5.1 points as Miller Lite’s sales share jumped about two points.
Bud Light now has a 10.5% sales share across the two states.
The beleaguered beer lost more points in New York and New Jersey than it did in Texas.
As of June 30, Miller Lite has a 12% sales share in the Lone Star State — well above Bud Light’s 5.6% share, which fell 2.4 points from the 8% sales share it enjoyed ahead of Mulvaney’s controversial posts.
In Texas, Miller Lite’s shales share is now more than double Bud Light’s after the fallout from Mulvaney’s April 1 posts where she promoted Bud Light’s March Madness offers — and shared a custom beer can the brand sent her to celebrate “365 Days of Girlhood.”
Oregon and Washington also saw a dip in Bud Light sales share in favor of Miller Lite.
In California — the state where Mulvaney was born and raised — the calls for boycott were practically negligible, Union reported.
However, there were still some changes in market dominance, with Bud Light’s sales share sliding 0.8 points, to 6.6%, and Miller Lite’s sales share increasing 1.7 points, to 12%.
The impact of Mulvaney’s marketing campaign also knocked Bud Light from its No. 1 spot across Union-affiliated venues.
The Austin-based company, which also provides point of sales systems to high-volume restaurants and bars across 36 states, has a network of 1,100 venues that do about $2 billion in annual transactions.
In the second quarter of 2023, Bud Light ranked fourth among Union’s customers. Miller Lite, Michelob Ultra and Coors Light — which ranked first, second and third, respectively — benefitting from Bud Light’s downturn.
Bud Light’s tumble down the rankings marked a 34.2% slide over the past six months.
The Post has reached out to Anheuser-Busch for comment.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
