The weakness at Inside Value pick Anheuser-Busch (NYSE:BUD) that my colleague Rich Smith admitted to is largely due to the company's problems maintaining its market share. To remedy that, this summer the brewer sparked a pricing war to defend its position. Although Bud slightly grew its share, the cost to its bottom line was tremendous.

Yet the price war highlights two key problems that it faces. First, it is not the low-cost provider. If it were, it could have let those lower prices stick to maintain its higher market share and force its competitors to suffer. Second, the fact that the price war worked indicates that beer consumers are price-sensitive and willing to shift brands if they see a superior value in a different beer. Those two facts together mean that lower-cost providers at Molson Coors (NYSE:TAP), InBev/AmBev (NYSE:ABV), and SABMiller just might have the upper hand, should they choose to aggressively price their products for an extended period of time. Anheuser may currently be winning on the revenue and profit line, but if it can't win on the total delivered cost per can, that's a potential Achilles' heel that the company's newly scaling-up competitors just might be looking to exploit.

Don't underestimate the demographic shifts, either. Along with other Inside Value members, I doubled my money in lead analyst Philip Durell's recommendation of pharmaceutical distributor Omnicare (NYSE:OCR) in just over a year. A large part of that gain came from the stock market's realization that our aging population would be increasing the need for Omnicare's business. The same shifts that have boosted Omnicare's fortunes are working against Anheuser-Busch. The beer giant may claim that a turnaround is imminent, but I'm staying away until it shows me some proof.

Wait! You're not done. This is just a quarter of the Duel! Don't miss the Bull and Bear opening arguments and the Bull rebuttal. Even when you're done, you're still not done. You can vote and let us know who you think won this Duel.

At the time of publication, Fool contributor and Inside Value team member Chuck Saletta owned shares of Omnicare. The Fool has a disclosure policy.