As the newly elected Treasurer of my fraternity at the end of my sophomore year, it was my duty to negotiate directly with the breweies for a new beer contract for the next school year for our tap system in our fraternity house. I was only 20 years old (not legally allowed to drink). The way it worked, we sign a contract directly with the brewery for a set price and any of their distributors would have to honor that price when we called in an order for delivery.
So I go to the Iron City plant in Lawrenceville and meet in a fancy, wood-paneled conference room with their Sales Manager.
He said he could sell us a half keg of beer for $17 each for all of next year. I balked and replied, I have $13 half keg in my budget. His response was that his best bars in town pay $17, but he would throw in some free neon signs to decorate our bar with. I replied, $13. He said, "No." I said that "Iron City wasn't good tasting enough to pay $17 and I'll seek a better deal with a better beer elsewhere...good day!"
Long story short, Schaefer Brewing Co. from Baltimore wanted to break into the Pittsburgh market. They were more than happy to contract us for $12 per half keg.
Plus they gave us a ton of free T-shirts, free windbreaker jackets, free plastic beer cups for the entire year with their logo on it, free neon signs & tap handles plus hundreds of free frisbees to pass out to other fraternities and sororities.
And Schaefer was a better tasting beer too!