Ready to sit down to dinner but forgot to pick up a bottle of wine? Postmates has the perfect solution. The San Francisco, California-based company – which already delivers everything from lunch from your favorite restaurant to groceries to office supplies — is offering alcohol delivery in certain markets.
To compete with other booze delivery services like Drizly, Postmates is including an added bonus. They promise to have the party at your front door in 25 minutes or less if you live in San Francisco or Los Angeles. In addition to lightning-fast delivery speeds, Postmates also offers free delivery to unlimited subscribers and to those who place orders for over $30.
How does alcohol delivery work? You may picture a giant room filled with tons of booze, but to fill all those orders, Postmates partners with a variety of local merchants, and those merchants are able to handle their own inventory and packing. Drizly uses a similar method. Currently, Postmates has more than 7,000 partnerships with local businesses, Tech Crunch reports.
While alcohol delivery may sound like fun, Postmates has strict policies that aim to prevent underage drinking or over-serving. “You must be 21 or older to receive alcohol and the account owner must be present to accept the delivery,” Postmates states on its website. The company also tells customers to be “ready to show valid photo ID (state, military, or passport). Your Postmate may take a picture of your ID, but it won’t be saved on their device.” Customers who are intoxicated will be denied, and in the event that the alcohol cannot be delivered, the customer will be charged a return fee.
Postmates has seen rapid growth. As of October 2016, the company was completing more than 1.5 million deliveries per month. Recently, the delivery business raised an additional $140 million, and has already grown to 2 million deliveries per month. Being able to add a six-pack onto your ramen delivery just might give people more incentive to order, too.
