For those into the craft beer scene, it's about locality. Many local breweries simply don't have the scale (or sometimes desire to scale) to ship outside of the

For those into the craft beer scene, it's about locality. Many local breweries simply don't have the scale (or sometimes desire to scale) to ship outside of the state, or even the city in some cases. You're correct in your assessment that you can get a certain selection of niche brews almost anywhere, but for many metro cities in the US there's a huge host of options you can only find there.