Beer distributors’ warehouses must be overflowing with unsold Bud Light. Just keeping inventory in stock costs money – the capital tied up in the product and keeping the lights on, property taxes paid, and the opportunity costs associated with not having ready stocks of beer that is selling, such as Coors Light.

That must be why a promotion currently underway in the Chicago area, and probably many other places, shows the company offering a $15 rebate to customers who lay out $13.99 for a case of 24 cans. A reader sent us this picture:

Even without the rebate, that’s only 58 cents per can. And if we factor in the Illinois sales tax of 6.25%, the customer walks away with a 13-cent profit for every case of Bud Light they take off the store’s (and distributor’s) hands.

There’s an old joke saying for terrible products that “you can’t pay customers to use it.” That is no joke as far as Bud Light is concerned. I am not betting on a recovery in “sales” over the big Memorial Day selling season, as barbecues take place all over America.

I notice there is an awfully ample stock of Budweiser taking up retail space, too, with no rebate on offer.