The ongoing thread asking “How’s your local beer store doing?” got me thinking on this topic. Perhaps each state is different in this regard (only some states permit beer delivery?) but in my home state of Pennsylvania I can have beer delivered to me. But I have a very good selection of beer at my plethora of beer retailers and I personally refuse to pay shipping costs for buying beer. How about you? Are you willing to pay the shipping costs to get beer delivered? Is it only for special beers/releases? Other? Cheers!
Not yet, but I probably might in the future. I have thought about ordering from Half Time but have just never pulled the trigger. Every once in a while I’ll browse their site to see what they have. Nice to be able to shop for beer from the couch! I also downloaded the Tavour app but their prices aren’t nearly as attractive as Half Time’s, but again, still an enjoyable site to look through.
I did a lot of this during COVID, but more recently I have only done it a couple of times from Half Time, and a few other times while abroad I had beer delivered to my hotel.
Beer can't be shipped into Michigan, and I've never heard of local stores offering delivery here, so my answer is never. As a 'juvenile delinquent' where grew up in small town Ohio, my friends and I used to call the local beer and wine store to have a couple cases of beer delivered to our local high school football coach. Fun times. Don't know if Ohio still permits delivery or not.
I worked with a guy and he told me that when he was a kid he could get a case of beer for his father and in the wintertime he would use his sled to carry the beer from the Retail Beer Distributor to his house. My guess is that his father had an account with the store? On a similar note my mother smoked cigarettes and she would send me to the corner store to buy her a pack of L&M cigarettes. Needless to say but things are quite different today vs. the times of yore. Cheers!
God, I miss Hidden Bottle Shop in this area. I guess it was COVID times... a non-brick+mortar beer delivery service out of Portsmouth/Churchland. I would imagine gas and the tolls destroyed their business model.
I used Tavour quite a bit a few years ago. Most of my favorite out of state breweries won’t ship direct to Texas. I buy most of my beer directly from my local breweries or bottle shops now.
I had my Big Beers Box delivered to my mom's house in Ohio since they don't deliver to Iowa. Not counting trades, I think I ordered beer only one other time and that was from Craft Beer Kings IIRC. I thought briefly about ordering some Westy once. Very briefly.
I do more often than my wallet. to get some of the better beers in Kentucky without driving a fellas’s gotta order from halftime and beercollectibles. gotta do what we gotta do
If Iowa changed their laws to permit home delivery, do you think you would more frequently order beers for delivery? Cheers!
I get a box from Tavour almost monthly. $14.99 shipping regardless of whether 1 or 100 beers. I shoot for 15 beers a box, so $1 a beer. Cheaper than the same beers sell for in my favorite bar. I have friends who order directly from Other Half, and from Burial, and pay little for shipping. And many of the beers I/we get don’t distro to Florida. Cheers!
Um, yep, I order beer to be shipped to me. A lot. I just placed an order with AleSmith. Purchased YuleSmith, which is a season imperial red IPA I've wanted to try for a LONG time, and a couple of Speedway Stout variants, including Rye Barrel Aged Vietnamese Coffee and Toasted Coconut Vietnamese Coffee. That's a beer nerd Festivus miracle!
Occasionally I'll order ones for shipping that aren't available to me locally. That being said I did have quite a few deliveries from local breweries during COVID although that's not necessary now. I don't think a lot of the local places even offer local delivery now like they used to then.
Yes! In the States, I had brews delivered to me in Florida by Half Time (including BA Big Boxes), and west coast stuff from Craft Beer Kings. Never had a problem. Here in France, I’ve had deliveries from two different French breweries, and am considering buying direct from breweries in Spain and the Netherlands next year. All offer free delivery throughout Europe on orders over (on average) €70.
I used to do a lot more shipping back when I was chasing whalez but as I've been cutting down on my drinking, the amount of beer I've been shipping has dropped as well. Also didn't help that some stores that offered shipping either closed (City Beer Store in SF, Good Hop Bottle Shop in Oakland) or no longer ship to CA (Alphabet Beer Co. in NYC).
Sorry to read that news. Hopefully you will still regularly participate on BA. I know that a number of years ago Dave (@cavedave) had to greatly reduce his consumption of alcohol (beer) and I appreciate that he still participates on BA. Cheers!
Great topic—I’ll answer it twofold. Since my wife and I are still in Philadelphia for family reasons, and in an area where most macros are easy to find, I’ll occasionally order from GoPuff—mostly for NA beers my wife enjoys, as she rarely drinks alcohol for health reasons. For myself, it’s usually classics like Sierra Nevada, Tröegs, Dogfish Head, and the like. When it comes to buying directly from a brewery, I haven’t done much of that lately. When I do, I strongly prefer going to the brewery itself and bringing some home rather than ordering remotely.
