I'll be visiting SF this week and am going to try and make it up to RR. Any places/ideas/thoughts of how I can ship beer I buy at RR back to myself. I won't have any shipping materials with me and can't walk into a fedex/ups store with a bunch of beer and ask them to ship it. I obviously have the option of packing beers in my suitcase but I have a feeling I may want to buy more then my suitcase will hold. I would prefer to be able to do this somewhere in Santa Rosa but I will be driving back to Oakland (for beer revolution) the following day. Any help/tips/advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Certain U-Haul's have wine bottle shippers you can buy. Not sure where the closest one to RR is though.
Go to a Wal-Mart/Target and buy a box, bubble wrap, and packing tape. Take it to a UPS/FedEx store and ship it to yourself. Your name will appear as the shipper and receiver. I did this exact process when I went to Colorado and it worked fine.
Bottle Barn and BevMo, both in Santa Rosa, sell a few different sizes of wine shippers. There is a FedEx/Kinkos across the street from RR that you can use to ship the beer back home.
Lol, I appreciate the offer but I think I'll pass. It looks like the easiest way would be to buy a shipper at bevmo and use the fedex in Santa Rosa. I appreciate all the responses, got the answers I needed.
For future reference, DON'T ship from the fedex location in Santa Rosa. To make a long story short, when I first walked in a lady asked me what I was shipping. I said "pickled okra" and her reply was "yeah, I believe you". I continue to the drop off counter and after waiting on the person in front of me, the guy behind the counter asked the same question. I gave the same answer. He then proceeds to tell me that they will open the box, as they do with most/all boxes because "we are in wine country". He went on to tell me that this fedex location doesn't have the proper licensing to ship alcohol but some of the local hotels do, whatever that means. Needless to say, I took my boxes and got the hell out of there. I shipped from Oakland. Just wanted to pass along the info in case anyone else sees this thread or asks in the future.
I hate the nosy ones... I wonder what they'd say if I told em I was shipping preserved rattlesnakes...
Strange. If you're talking about the FedEx across the street from Russian River, that's the one I always use and have never had a problem. In fact, I've only been asked a single time what was in my box, and they just asked to make sure it wasn't wine. I said nope, and they were cool about it.
I pack a suitcase inside a suitcase and then check the two bags when flying home. It cost a bit for the second bag but it is usually cheaper than shipping. Hope this helps.
