Nowadays, people can get pretty much anything delivered straight to their doorstep—whether it’s groceries through Peapod, take-out through OrderUp, or transportation through Uber.
Well now, if staggering to and from the corner bar has become too much work, Drizly has a solution. The company, which was founded in Boston last year, works with liquor store retailers to deliver alcohol straight to consumers’ doorsteps. Drizly is launching in Baltimore on Thursday, which will be its 12th market to date.
As the story usually goes, Drizly’s founders were sitting around their Boston College dorm rooms wondering why they couldn’t get alcohol delivered with the same ease they can order an Uber.
“There are a lot of regulations surrounding alcohol; it’s a controlled substance,” says Bryan Goodwin, Drizly’s VP of sales and retail partnerships. “So they took an academic approach to see how it would be possible. The simple answer to what makes us legal is we don’t touch the alcohol or the money.”
Essentially, Drizly works like many on-demand services, in which the consumer downloads an app, puts in their credit card information, and places their order.
Where Drizly differs is that the delivery drivers are actually employees of the liquor stores. These employees get Drizly-issued iPhones, where they can keep track of inventory, see orders coming in, and, most importantly, verify IDs at the door. The company does charge a $5 delivery fee and most consumers tip the drivers.
“We’re trying to make the shopping experience better, not trying to promote any negative behavior,” Goodwin says. “If a driver ever feels like a consumer is too intoxicated to receive a delivery, they have every right not to complete that transaction. We’re just trying to make it easier for you to plan your dinner party.”
On February 5, Drizly will launch at Canton Crossing Wine & Spirits, Wine Underground, and Dulaney Wine and Spirits—strategically covering a lot of ground in the Baltimore metro area. The company hopes to expand to other liquor stores and says that, for now, it only partners with off-premise liquor establishments.
“Any time we launch in a new market, we look at different criteria,” Goodwin says. “And Baltimore checks a lot of boxes: big millenial population, booming craft-beer industry, and thriving young companies. We thought there was an appetite in Baltimore for this kind of-on demand lifestyle.”
I suppose we will take that as a compliment!