Let me qualify first by saying that this review is based on one experience in this place, but one that will preclude me from ever returning. Admittedly I have been there a few times before and apart from one occasion when their sixtels selection was really limited, I couldn't have said anything bad about the place. As the other reviews here point out, they have a huge selection of good quality brews.
My last experience was so bad it was laughable. In fact, when I recount it to anyone, we end up in laughter, so in a way I am thankful for it.
I went to the Beer Yard to replenish my kegerator in which I keep two sixtels. When I walked into the place, the dude at the register was busy doing something so I just walked back to the cooler where they keep the sixtels. The cooler is small, cramped, cold and dark. A lot of the kegs are in corners under shelves and hard to reach to identify. So after a few minutes of trying to find something I wanted, I left to ask for a list of what they had. When I got back to the register, the hipster clerk guy was helping someone else but asked me what I needed. When I asked him if he had a list, he said they didn't and asked if I needed something in particular. I told him I was kind of poking around but it was really hard to see in the cooler. His response was to hand me a flashlight. As I turned to walk back, he did say that he would come back to help me.
After a minute or two of poking around with the flashlight, he did come back and ask me again what I was looking for. I rattled off about 5 or 6 names, none of which they had. OK no problem- I don't expect them to have exactly what I am looking for. So he asked me what sort of beer I was looking for, and I told him that I generally like to put something really hoppy on tap, alongside something less bitter for folks who don't dig on really hoppy stuff. So he points me to a summer wheat beer, and I said I wasn't a fan of the wheat and then said "I kind of have a problem committing to a sixtel of something I have never tried in the event I don't like it (which was the case with one of the beers I was replacing), know what I mean?" He looked a me and said "no, but whatever." So he points to a couple of others that didn't excite me, at which point his beer snob act became condescending to the point of being uncomfortable. I did however think of a few more popular names that they might have. Visibly annoyed, he said he would check the computer. So we walked back to the front of the store and he checks and none of the other names are in stock either. I then thought of another name, which he then informed me was not available in sixtels. I said that I thought it was but he assured me that it was not. So sort of scratching my head I just said , "you know I have had it on tap in a sixtel" to which he responded, "not in the last 5 or 6 years you haven't." Well, I had, but wasn't going to do battle with the guy. At that point, I decided that my trip was a bust and I didn't feel like dealing with the guy anymore. I may not be a true aficionado, but I buy a couple of sixtels a month of very good beer and my money is green. So in lieu of just walking out, I said that I would check back- trying to diffuse the tension that had clearly arisen to which he responded "you mean there is nothing back there that you can drink?" in a way that made it seem unreasonable for not buying anything. I told him that there wasn't anything that day to which he responded, "whatever."
Not really sure of what had just happened, I got in the car, drove to Exton Beverage where I was handed a remote control that allowed me to scroll through their entire list of sixtels, indicating which ones were in stock and which were not, picked two, which were brought out to me and put in my car and was thanked for my purchase. That whole affair took about 6 minutes.
If I owned this place and saw this interaction between my customer and my customer service representative, I would smack him upside his hipster head. Just sayin'. read more