An interesting post from US writer Jay R. Brooks on the concept of price versus value.
I regularly hear beer lovers complain about the cost of craft beer compared to even a similar style of beer from Matilda Bay and James Squire as if the smaller craft brewers are gouging our pockets just because we love good beer and going home at night to count their riches. I am yet to see a small brewery owner driving around in a BMW or Mercedes...people who complain about the cost of craft beer forget that everything that small brewers buy costs an order of magnitude more for a small brewer than for a large brewer because of scale...bottle, labels, malt, transport, everything. Small breweries close with monotonous regularity - and not just because, as I have heard some big brewers suggest, they make bad beer or are bad businesspeople.
No one likes to pay more, but if all that we look at is the price on the sticker and not what's in the bottle that we're buying, then we can only blame ourselves when we only have a small number of brewers and no variety of beer. Same for where we shop. If we only look for big chain super specials - which are often beers sold as loss leaders below cost - rather than be willing to pay a few dollars more at a bottleshop where the staff actually know something about beer, are willing to get in the beers that you want and stock an interesting and diverse range, then we can only blame ourselves when there are only chain stores selling only beer from the big suppliers.
I know it's not that easy, and a willingness to pay a few dollars more won't guarantee the viability of independent small brewers and bottleshops...but it's a start.