Beer Store with Delivery/Subscription Service

Discussion in 'Beer Talk' started by itshanney, Aug 30, 2012.

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  1. itshanney

    itshanney Initiate (0) Aug 30, 2012 Washington

    I'm curious to hear the thoughts and feedback from people on the forums regarding having a beer store in your city that delivered the products directly to your doorstep. Grocery stores usually do this, but their selection is limited. Obviously, limitations may apply and it would have to conform to state alcohol laws.

    The goal here would be that your beer selection is almost limitless. You could even potentially have a subscription service where beer would show up automagically when you wanted.

    Thoughts? Comments? Rude remarks?
     
    #1 itshanney, Aug 30, 2012
  2. WillsBeer

    WillsBeer Initiate (0) Aug 30, 2012

    The website is the key. Give me an awesome site where I can browse an up-to-date selection, choose what I want, pay online, and have it delivered, and yeah, I'm all for it. Not sure about the subscription side. So I'd pay $20 a month and get to choose from a selection, or is it more of a traditional "beer of the month" club where I'm subscribing for a set selection? How about growlers? Can I get those delivered?
     
    #2 WillsBeer, Aug 30, 2012
  3. VncentLIFE

    VncentLIFE Initiate (0) Feb 16, 2011 North Carolina

    in NC, you go get it. If you know the right people at the right stores, you might get a call when it comes in. Or youll just be told theres some on hold for you, irregardless of whether you asked for it (i wanted it anyway). If I could have it delivered, well hot damn id be a drunk riding a bike to work.
     
    #3 VncentLIFE, Aug 30, 2012
  4. itshanney

    itshanney Initiate (0) Aug 30, 2012 Washington

    Re: website, it would be top notch and would include a smart phone app.

    Re: subscription services, it could be either a "beer of the month club" but this is kinda lame. The more appealing model is the Netflix model where you build a queue based on the inventory stocked by the store. Each month you get so many bottles (based on subscription) and then they come from your queue.

    Re: growler, this is definitely up to the alcohol laws per state. Washington state, for instance, won't allow this. You can only fill growlers on premises in the physical store location.
     
    #4 itshanney, Aug 31, 2012
  5. SChen55

    SChen55 Initiate (0) Mar 18, 2008 California

    i agree with willsbeer. i hate trying to find a good beer on a website only to find the store hasn't updated their site in 3 months. if you don't have a constantly updating site, then what's the point?

    re: subscription services - again, it would have to do with what sort of selection would be available and if it can be tailored to your individual tastes. i was going to get a subscription to a "rare beer of the month" club but the beers were so obscure and odd that the novelty and interest quickly waned.
     
    #5 SChen55, Aug 31, 2012
  6. jesskidden

    jesskidden Grand Pooh-Bah (3,145) Aug 10, 2005 New Jersey
    Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    How so? A "beer store in your city" will still only be able to offer the same beers every other local retailer carries, bought from the area licensed wholesale distributors. How would offering home delivery change that?
     
    #6 jesskidden, Aug 31, 2012
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  7. ant880

    ant880 Savant (1,179) Nov 7, 2010 New York
    Trader

    Unless I am missing something, I was thinking the same thing. There are several local bottle shops by me that have a delivery service but you are obviously limited to, not only the distribution that is in the area, but the specific distributors that the individual bottle shop uses. Its not like offering home delivery means I can suddenly get Russian River beers in NY.
     
    #7 ant880, Aug 31, 2012
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  8. brewbetter

    brewbetter Initiate (0) Jun 2, 2012 Nauru

    Yeah, I'm not interested in local delivery of off-the-shelf brews my local bottle shop. Show me where I can sign up for a delivery service for west coast brews though - I'd over access to alpine, rr, BP, fw, bruery, etc...
     
    #8 brewbetter, Aug 31, 2012
  9. itshanney

    itshanney Initiate (0) Aug 30, 2012 Washington

    The alcohol laws are different in different states. Since we are in Washington state, we are currently only focussing on the laws defined by the WA Liquor Control Board, which happen to be very liberal and consumer-friendly.

    Retailers in WA can buy alcohol from both distributors and individual breweries, wineries and distilleries who self-distribute. These retailers can also then ship beer, wine and liquor to customers who purchased over the Internet to any state where they have a license to ship to and, obviously, use a carrier that will ship alcohol to that state.

    In WA, the distributors have a very wide selection due to the distinct and eclectic brewing culture in Seattle. This means that, yes, you could RR beers and have it shipped elsewhere. Shipping would be expensive because of Fedex rates, but you could get it. Unfortunately, the delivery service would only be limited to WA state and all deliveries out of state would be handled by Fedex.
     
    #9 itshanney, Aug 31, 2012
  10. ant880

    ant880 Savant (1,179) Nov 7, 2010 New York
    Trader

    Now I guess I understand a little bit more what you mean. This sounds similar to what beerjobber.com does in a sense. They basically have dropship relationships with participating breweries. Customers order online and the brewery ships direct to the customer...not sure if that is the way you would be looking to do this also. I know the one limitation I have seen from browsing beerjobber's site is that everything is sold by the case, since it would not be worth it for a brewery to send a bottle or two to a customer at a time. Would you be stocking merchandise and running an actual brick-and-mortar store?
     
    #10 ant880, Aug 31, 2012
  11. itshanney

    itshanney Initiate (0) Aug 30, 2012 Washington

    Yes, complete brick-and-mortar as well as online presence, with predominant focus on online. As the BnM retailer, you can ship what you have in stock and sell. So you're not limited to a case.

    Deliveries within a 50 or so mile radius of the store would be handled directly by the store, not Fedex or a 3rd party. Deliveries outside of the state, would obviously delegate to Fedex with limitations on which states can be shipped to according to those states laws.
     
    #11 itshanney, Aug 31, 2012
  12. ant880

    ant880 Savant (1,179) Nov 7, 2010 New York
    Trader

    So it looks like you are trying to be a bottle shop that also ships out of state? I think there are a lot of BAs who do order products that they cant get locally from an online store (there are plenty of these stores right now...France44 ships Surly, beeronthewall.com, letspour.com, as a few examples). Of course the drawback to ordering online is the high costs that are inevitably tied to shipping alcohol so a lot of BAs feel its not worth it, or its something they would not do all the time. I personally have ordered beer online on two separate occasions to get stuff that I could not get locally (Surly and Lost Abbey), but I went in knowing that shipping is going to be high and was ok with it as its not something I would/could do very often. Good luck!
     
    #12 ant880, Aug 31, 2012
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