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Rick has never written a serious thing in his life, some of which can be found at ESPN the Magazine, McSweeney's, Radar Magazine, Deadspin, Flak Magazine and The Morning News. The rest can be found here. He lives in Los Angeles, is a White Sox fan, and maintains a personal blog.

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Some interesting news from the Wall Street Journal blog. According to Ad Age, while sales of most beer brands have declined, in some cases dramatically, during the days leading up to the 4^th of July – usually the biggest-selling period of the year for beer – sales for awful, bottom-of-the-barrel, gut sewage (known in some circles as “subpremium” beers) went way up:

Heineken sales sank 18% from the previous year in grocery, convenience and drug stores during the two-week period ended July 5, followed by Budweiser at 14%. Corona Extra sales dropped 11%, while Miller Lite declined 9% and Bud Light fell 7%. Coors Light sales held up better, falling less than 1% from a year ago.

Meanwhile, sales of “subpremium” beers including Busch, Natural Light and Keystone posted “substantial gains”, according to Ad Age, which didn’t provide the specifics.

The recession has made us, once again, not-so-picky college students.

The numbers make complete sense though: When people want to get drunk, people want to get drunk. They could care less if they’re shoving a high-class, multi-hopped, barrel-aged, triple-malted dark ale or a 40 oz. that costs $1.50 at the local 7/11. With that extra money you could buy actual food to live off of!

So, what say you? Has the recession hit your bar allowance and forced you to forgo some of the better tasting microbrews for watered-down “subpremiums”? Or are you past the “a buzz is a buzz” mindset and would rather save your pennies for a few less of the high-class beverages? Or are you super-rich and don’t have to worry about this problem at all? (If it’s the latter, feel free to send us money. Or beer.)