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DoorDash Expands Its Alcohol Delivery Services To 20 More States And Canada

Image Credit: iStock, SeventyFour

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Bars and restaurants are stuck in the drawn-out days of Delta-variant limbo. And Summer is crawling to an end, threatening to take al fresco-friendly weather with it. For the covid-cautious, it appears the restaurant experience may be driven back into the dark days of the early pandemic. Which means one thing: takeout. Lots and lots of takeout.

Luckily, for thirsty libation seekers, the takeout experience is about to have a new twist this Fall thanks to DoorDash and the loosening of some state and local laws. Soon, the food delivery app is set to massively expand its alcohol delivery service, which was previously limited to a handful of select markets. After all, if you can order a 6-course Italian dinner straight to your doorstep, why not a bottle of Merlot to go with it, too?

Alcohol On-Demand

When the pandemic began, DoorDash drivers only delivered alcohol in the state of California. But, as the pandemic shuttered in-door dining services and local officials looked to prop up the industry, laws surrounding alcohol delivery slowly began to loosen across the country.

On Monday, the food delivery app, aiming to take full advantage of the new normal, announced its expansion of on-demand alcohol delivery from restaurants, grocery stores, and convenience stores into 20 additional states, as well as Washington D.C., Canada, and Australia:

  • The app will soon be able to deliver alcohol to over 100 million adult customers worldwide, though the company has yet to announce which specific markets it is moving into.
  • DoorDash also said the addition of alcohol delivery projects to boost the average value of customer orders by nearly 30%– roughly the same proportion of revenue standard brick-and-mortar restaurants take in from alcohol sales.

But don’t worry, parents. DoorDash alcohol delivery didn’t create a digital loophole for mischievous teens. Customers will still have to present a valid ID at both virtual checkout and upon delivery.

Keeping Up With The Competition: DoorDash isn’t the only delivery service to tap the beer taps. In February, rival Uber eats bought alcohol delivery service Drizly for $1.1 billion. Instacart and Postmates, meanwhile, have been slowly adding alcohol delivery across markets for a handful of years.