Barbara “Doobie” Foley, who owns the Shamrock in Gabriels, and longtime Shamrock bartender Mina Clark said ordering and receiving beer from their distributor has gone from a weekly to a biweekly occurrence, which has resulted in fewer satisfied customers, difficulties placing orders and limited storage space.

“We have had a few people walk out because we didn’t have Bud Light,” Clark said. “For most of our loyal customers, if we don’t have Labatt, they’ll get a Labatt Light, but they won’t like it.”

Saratoga Eagle Sales & Services, based in Saratoga Springs, is the distributor for North Country businesses looking for popular, easy-drinking beers. They sell Anheuser-Busch’s Land Shark, Busch, Natural Light, Stella Artois, and of course, Budweiser and Bud Light, which are two of the most popular beers in the U.S. They also distribute Genesee and Labatt, which may not be the highest-selling beers across the country but hold a special place in the North Country.

In April, Saratoga Eagle cut back its delivery frequency to certain businesses, raised its minimum sales amount for filling orders and began focusing more on telephone and internet sales. While many bars and restaurants haven’t been negatively affected by the change, a few say it has created obstacles. One business went as far as dropping Saratoga Eagle entirely as a provider.

Mike Wubbolt, left, and Julie Boyer drink beers at the Shamrock Bar and Grill in Gabriels Friday. (Enterprise photo — Griffin Kelly)

Saratoga Eagle President Jeff Vukelic said his business has made changes for efficiency purposes and that this is the direction the industry is heading. He said he doesn’t see the business strategy changing and that he’s willing to speak with any businesses directly about issues they might be having. He can be reached on his cellphone at 518-744-9319. Saratoga Eagle is a subsidiary of western New York-based Try-It Distributing Co. Inc., which serves 13 counties.

Why can’t these businesses just spare themselves the headache and buy from a different distributor? Well, they can’t. Brands and distributors have regulatory deals that prevent it. For example, if you want Bud Light at your bar in Lake Placid, you have to buy from Saratoga Eagle. High Peaks Distributing and Saratoga Eagle both carry Labatt, but they can’t sell those products in the same territory. This is the norm for the alcohol distribution industry in New York.

“It almost feels like you’re dealing with a monopoly,” Clark said. “If Sysco (food distributor) is screwing us on a price, we have three other options, but with this, there’s nobody else we can go to.”

Buying alcohol from a supermarket or convenience store and reselling at a bar or restaurant is also illegal.

Chris Ericson, who owns and is the brewmaster for both Lake Placid Pub & Brewery and Big Slide Brewery & Public House, said he dropped Saratoga Eagle as a distributor to Big Slide because of the delivery changes.

“They were coming every week, sometimes twice a week,” he said in a phone interview Thursday. “This is a relatively new way of doing business for Saratoga Eagle. The deliveries became less frequent around the summer, and we dropped them as soon as it happened. The Pub hasn’t changed, though.”

Because the Pub & Brewery and Big Slide make their own beer and only about 5% percent of their sales come from bottles from distributors, Ericson said the changes haven’t impacted his business badly. However, he does see how it can make problems for non-brewery and less-craft-beer-based establishments.

“There are very few businesses that place orders every other week,” Ericson said. “It’s not something people have been dealing with. No one is used to two weeks of planning. You’ve also got to think about the empty bottles. They smell and attract flies, and you have to deal with that while you’re waiting on the distributor to come to pick them up.”

Vukelic said it’s easier to deliver to businesses in a cluster. If a Saratoga Eagle delivery truck comes into Saranac Lake, it can make drop-offs at Bitters & Bones, the Waterhole, Grizle-Ts and the Downhill Grill in a day or two. Getting to a more isolated place like the Shamrock can be trickier, Vukelic said.

“We have a depot in Plattsburgh that we service Essex and Franklin counties from. We deliver to the North Country Tuesday through Friday,” he said. “So we’ve got trucks hauling a lot of product, and we need to think about efficiency.”

Johnny Williams, who co-owns Bitters & Bones in Saranac Lake, said his bar gets one less delivery per week. Like Ericson, he doesn’t see it as the worst situation, but he can understand the struggle.

“Our customers are fine, but an every-other-week delivery would be tough,” he said in a text message.

Saratoga Eagle’s minimum order amount also increased in April from $150 to $250. Vukelic said that’s on the lower end of the spectrum for a minimum order when it comes to alcohol distributors.

Eric Munley, who owns the Waterhole in Saranac Lake, said there were a few occasions when he had to buy one or two extra cases of beer from Saratoga Eagle to fulfill a minimum order, but it wasn’t a big deal.

“I don’t mind having an extra case of Bud Light or PBR around,” he said.

The Shamrock is a smaller bar. Clark and Foley said if they want to place a $250 order, they’re essentially buying two weeks’ worth of beer, which can make storing all the product difficult.

“Sometimes we have to stack the cases up so high, I can’t even reach it,” Clark said.

Clark said the Shamrock added a small extension to its roof, under which they can store empty bottles outside after it got too crowded inside.

Joseph Downs, who manages the bar at the AuSable Inn in Keene Valley, said he’s had storage issues, too.

“It’s almost like they want you to warehouse their product for them,” he said in a phone interview Friday. “We’re not a large facility. Our dry storage for packaged goods like that is pretty limited. Realistically, you don’t not want to carry things like Bud and Bud Light, but we’ll have 73 bottles of each in the fridge when space could be used for bottles from four different beer brands.

“I’ve spoken with people at other restaurants, and they all seem to be echoing the same sentiment,” he added.

Downs said ordering for two weeks can be hard, especially during the busy summer season, and there have been a few occasions where they ran out of popular beer. The fall and winter should be easier to manage, he said.

Vukelic said Saratoga Eagle still has on-the-ground salespeople in certain areas, but now a lot of their sales have switched to phone and online.

“Some people prefer that,” he said.

Munley said he’s noticed minor changes in the way he deals with Saratoga Eagle but nothing detrimental to his business.

“I never really dealt with them directly anyway,” he said. “I normally just place our orders online on Monday, and the beer shows up Friday. I would probably see the sales rep maybe twice a year.”

However, Foley said this has caused some problems for her business.

“If my salesperson calls me Monday afternoon during lunch, I’m in the kitchen, and I say I’ll call the next day,” she said. “I’ll call the next day, and they’ll say I can’t get an order this week. I know she’s probably busy with 1,000 clients, but I’m busy cooking in the kitchen and I have customers, too.”

Vukelic said it can be difficult to place and deliver orders quickly.

“We’re not Amazon, but we’re doing the best we can to manage the territory and our customers,” he said. “It’s impossible for us to place an order one day and deliver it the next.”

The Shamrock doesn’t have any draft taps. It sells only bottles and cans. It carries a few craft beers from the Craft Beer Guild NY distributor based in New Paltz, but for the most part, its customers are looking for Bud Light and Labatt, Clark said.

“When this first began, I started writing every beer company about lack of services — Genesee, Labatt, Busch, Yuengling — not one got back to me,” she said. “I’m going to write to the governor, too. He’s always promoting small business in the state, but a lot are just trying to make it through the week.”