Making of a Beer Vendor

Good day friends, it’s your buddy BeefLoaf, with a little inside baseball for all of you out there.  This is part instructional pamphlet for the aspiring beer vendors out there and a little bit of sharing with our follower base on the 108 experience.

 

Listen up Beer Vendors!!!  and you fans, listen up too……

What makes a 108 preferred vendor???????

Customer Service

 

This goes without saying, but it manifests itself in a variety of ways.  For the most part, the 108ers have 1-2 beer vendors on the text so that we can get a beverage on the quick.  The customer service goes beyond that, to coming around and making sure to take care of us for last call or to routing a different vendor (say margarita or cotton candy for the kids) our way.  Some of our favorites over time have even run to a vendor stand to grab a coke or something for the kids when they are out with us.  Our current favorite beer vendor even switched from Bud/Bud Light to Modelo/Corona, at least in tiny part because that was our preference.

The Gift of Gab

 

Our favorite vendors past, present and future can all chew the fat with the best of them, whether it be discussing the team we love, or heavy metal cover bands or even discussing life in general, our preferred vendors are able to do this with no problem.  They could easily fit in sitting with the 108ers for a ballgame, just so happens that they are selling product.  One of our past vendors would alert us to the exceptional ladies at the ballpark that night, which, even though 60% of the 108ers are married, it was still nice of him to do it.

Freebies

 

Some of our vendors are better than others about doing this, but freebies for the crew are almost always a great deal for the vendor.  We tip well anyway, but when we get hit with a nice bit of free brews, we tend to tip even more.  I can remember a time when a vendor regularly would drop off a six pack at last call.  We chipped in for an extra big tip some other game when he wasn’t even our vendor, just tracked him down and hit him with a big toke.

Other Stuff

 

Our favorite vendors have not only provided free booze on occassion, but they might also invite us to a party where we can partake in some boozaments or they might run the memorabilia stand at a different kind of event and be able to lock down some goodies for one of the 108ers before it gets sold out.  Or they might get a souvenir baseball for your daughter, just because.  In fact on Mark Buehrle day, an old vendor friend stopped by with a bag of ice for us to keep our beers cold in during the game as it was quite hot out that day.

You just don’t know, but the best ones are the best ones for a reason.

 

You are probably sitting there and saying, “Hey BeefLoaf, that’s all well and good, but how the fuck do you end up getting in good with the vendors like that??”

 

If you are a fan and wish to get yourself some good vendors, here are a few tips……

 

Drink

 

You will need to drink.  A LOT.  The 108ers don’t often hit it as hard as we used to, but there are plenty of games where we get into the 6 or 7 rounds of brews during a contest.  Usually it is more like 5, because our pre-game tends to leak into the ballgame, but there are still plenty of games where we’ll look down and we’ve had 6 beers and 2 margaritas in the 6 allotted innings of boozing (we usually arrive in the bottom of the 1st and even though we have written Rob Manfred to change this rule, they still only sell alcohol until the end of the 7th inning).

Don’t Be an Asshole

 

As much as we laugh and grab ass and curse here in this blog and elsewhere, the 108ers are a pleasant and courteous bunch and I suggest you be the same.  Be friendly, chat up your vendor, but most of all, don’t be an asshole.

Tipping

 

If it wasn’t clear, the 108ers are good tippers.  Despite how handsome, smart, well dressed and good smelling we are, it is truthfully our above average tipping that leads us down this path.  It makes sense too, if the vendors are going to give you excellent service, you should provide a little more compensation to garner said service.

So be a sport, tip your vendors and you can be living it up like a 108er!

-BeefLoaf