Beleaguered Bud Light cheaper than water at some U.S. retailers

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Bud Light’s sales have plummeted so far that it is selling for less than water in some stores.

The former No. 1 beer brand in the U.S. is down almost 50% from its sales numbers from one year ago in the aftermath of its catastrophic partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

“It’s just not moving like it used to,” Andy Wagner, manager of Glenn Miller’s Beer and Soda Warehouse in the Harrisburg, Pa., area, told the New York Times.

“At this point, it’s cheaper than some of the cases of water we’re selling in the back.”

Bud Light’s latest gimmick was to introduce a new rebate leading up to Tuesday’s Independence Day holiday and available to use until Saturday.

It essentially gives potential consumers free beer as some areas in the U.S. are selling Anheuser-Busch products for less than $15 – the amount of the rebate.

“I’ve seen longtime Bud Light customers trying other beers,” Wagner said. “If they find something they like, they may not come back.

“It’s not that they stopped drinking beer. They just stopped buying Bud Light.”

The boycott has extended into the LGBTQ community, some of whom are accusing Bud Light of turning its back on Mulvaney in the wake of the controversy.

Last week, Mulvaney blasted the brand for failing to reach out and show its support.

“’I was waiting for the brand to reach out to me, but they never did,” Mulvaney said in a video on social media.

“For a company to hire a trans person and then not publicly stand by them is worse, in my opinion, than not hiring a trans person at all because it gives customers permission to be as transphobic and hateful as they want.”

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The severe decline in sales is also costing Americans their jobs.

Global glass producer Ardagh Group announced it was shutting down two of its locations later this month.

About 645 roles had been cut at the glass bottling plants in Wilson, N.C., and Simsboro, La., with the company citing a “multi-year performance optimization program” as a reason for the job losses.

But an investigation by North Carolina news station WRAL found Ardagh was forced to close the plants due to declining sales of one of its major contractors: Bud Light.

Longtime employees at the North Carolina plant said most of their business was making bottles for Bud Light and Budweiser.

According to an internal memo from May obtained by the outlet, two of the factory’s production lines would be shuttered “due to slow sales with Anheuser Inbev.”