Bud Light just suffered another massive and painful decline in its beer sales, seeing a 25.7% plummet in sales as the boycott of its products by consumers furious over its abortive attempt at a marketing partnership with transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
That disastrously bad sales plummet not only is bad for Bud Light from a profit and stock market perspective, but could imperil its current position as the number one beer in the American market. In fact, according to the New York Post, the latest Bud Light sales plummet seriously narrows the gap between it and the number 2 beer, Modelo Especial.
In fact, Modelo has seen large gains as Bud Light has seen painful plummets, with its sales increasing by more than 9% in the week ending May 20th, the same week that Bud Light’s crashed by over 25%.
And so that puts Modelo on pace to overtake Bud Light this year, as the New York Post quotes Bump Williams of Bump Williams Consulting as saying. According to his data, Modelo has been gaining on Bud Light and now is outselling it, which means it could outsell Bud Light in total this year.
Speaking on that, Williams said, “While Bud Light loses week after week, Modelo Especial gains week after week and now Modelo outsells Bud Light on a national basis across all trade channels combined.” He added, “If this continues Modelo will surpass Bud Light for the year.”
Williams then added, “That’s a monumental decline. Modelo has surpassed Bud Light for the first time since it was launched in 1982.”
More importantly for Modelo, it’s still well-liked by most people, so it can sell its products at full price and still draw in customers at an increasing clip. Bud Light, meanwhile is resorting to all manner of desperate price decreases to sell its unwanted product.
"*" indicates required fields
For example, it is not giving customers a $15 rebate for buying 15-packs of beer that usually sell for $15 or less, meaning that it’s essentially giving beer away for free. Additionally, anecdotal data and pictures from stores show that some locations are now selling 24-packs of Bud Light for as low as $3.49, which is about 15 cents per beer, far less than Bud Light used to sell for. Meanwhile, Walmart is currently selling a 24-pack of Modelo for about $25, meaning it commands about 7x the price of Bud Light in some areas for the same amount of beer.
Displays seen in two different stores in Wisconsin, a state known for drinking a lot of beer: pic.twitter.com/x3vMD4Tp1r
— Haz (@Michael_Haz) May 24, 2023
Unfortunately, the uptick in Modelo sales isn’t necessarily a good thing for the boycott, as Anheuser-Busch InBev owns both Bud Light and Modelo Especial. However, in the United States, Modelo is controlled by Constellation Brands, a New York-based conglomerate.
Still, even if AB InBev is ultimately profiting to some degree from Modelo’s success contra Bud Light, the overall situation could lead it to shy away from further Mulvaney-based advertisements or like marketing partnerships and instead stick to adds that are less aggravating to its traditional consumer base.