I was wondering if any of you that offer carry-out and/or delivery do you also offer beer? Is it a good idea to do it?
That isn’t legal in my state, be sure to check with yours.
Same here. Here in Kansas, it cannot leave the store in any way, shape, or form, unless its in the trash or recycling.
My license allows only for consumption on premises. I would need a retail package license for this sort of thing. I would find it more problem than I am looking for. In house, I and managers have some semblence of control over age verification and such . . . drivers doing delivery may not be as through and are in more hurry . . . could get duped easier and leave me with huge liability. We have dram shop liability laws as well that could drive my liability insurance still higher.
I would also not want the added restriction of space and business requirements doing it for purchase at the counter. We have 7 places already that sell beer at retail (in our town of 2500 people!), so the return on investment would be lousy.
If you have a huge demand for it, you can afford the licensing, and the zoning/structure configuration is amenable . . . then your situation could very well be better for it than mine.
We can do beer and wine carryout. Actually a cheap license to get. Much cheaper than mixed beverages or onsite consumption. Delivery is not allowed.
Many years ago I delivered pizzas for a smaller chain. I think we all were a little bit stunned when Corporate Ok’d deliveries of beer. I remember having to get a bartenders license as a delivery guy.
It was a real “Wow factor” in the suggestive selling department. “…Okay, would you like some drinks with that? Maybe some beer?..”
“Wow, you can do that!?..” Even if they didn’t want beer that night, they had filed the info away.
Word got around pretty fast. One of the thing I recall was that we’d get more people asking about the minimum food order for delivery. They just wanted the beer, but generally weren’t too concerned about paying for the food because although they were paying a premium for beer delivery, they actually got something for it.
I can’t quite recall how it all turned out, but I think the legality continued to be an issue. My (decidedly non-expert) impression was that while the corporate lawyers were initially correct, it wasn’t long before communities started to get wind of it and started to put up a fight.
In Texas, I believe the only ones who can deliver alcohol are the ones with Distributor licenses.
I would not want the headache or liability of checking IDs at the home anyway.
Then the religious folks would go ape as well.
The original Wing Zone delivered beer for a while, you can imagine that since their primary product is hotwings, it seemed like a natural move. From talking to one of the co-founders, what I heard is that they had huge problems with ID verification, as it was all too tempting for underage customers to attempt to bribe the drivers into not checking their IDs. I know that I would have a hard time turning down an extra $20 do look the other way, though I’m not sure who the liability falls on in such a case. I’m sure a lawyer will find a way to go after the party with the most money if something bad should happen, so I can’t recommend the idea, just too many headaches for the money.