5 ms·

Huh. I guess no one really wanted alcohol delivery... or at least was willing to pay a considerable surcharge to have things brought to them.

Accujack 3y ago
My brother used it to keep getting alcohol while he was home bound due to complications from diabetes. He was able to hide his consumption from us during the last few months of his life because Drizly delivered for him. I'm not attacking them or anything, I'm sure there are people out there who are home bound who love to get a bit of a tipple now and then for whom such a service is wonderful. It just wasn't in my family's case.
yurishimo 3y ago
But is that true? Or did Uber just buy it up to remove another competitor that might expand into delivering other things besides booze? Let's not kid ourselves, these features will be rolled into Uber "Eats" soon if they haven't been already. The only thing shutting down is the overhead of running another brand on top of the Uber platform.
- runnr_az 3y ago
  No idea. You're probably right. I do wonder, though, how far the average American is from a place where she can buy alcohol. At least where I am, every gas station has a pretty solid selection of beers and whatnot. Have we already reached optimal convenience?
  - lickmygiggle 3y ago
    Massachusetts has some pretty weird laws surrounding alcohol. I've seen it in the occasional gas station, grocery store, or convenience store but for the most part here if you're looking to buy alcohol you're going to a store that specializes in that.
    - fulladder 3y ago
      A funny Massachusetts crazy laws story. When Apple Computer IPO'ed in the early 1980s, Massachusetts residents were not allowed to own the stock. Like it was actually illegal for them to buy this stock. The reason was that Massachusetts runs its own state-level version of the SEC, and the Massachusetts regulators felt that Apple stock was too risky to be made available to ordinary retail investors. This situation persisted for several months before the Massachusetts regulators finally backed down. As everyone knows, Apple went on to become one of the best (maybe the best?) stock market investments a person in 1980 could possibly have made.
  - devilbunny 3y ago
    Could be next door, could be 30 miles away. State laws around alcohol are strange.
  - lotsoweiners 3y ago
    I’ve never ordered alcohol from Drizly or Uber Eats but if I was 5 drinks deep, didn’t want to walk somewhere, and shouldn’t be driving then I can definitely see the appeal.
  - throwaway20222 3y ago
    I used drizly often for presents, especially for out of town people. Never once for myself actually.
- seaal 3y ago
  They are still run Postmates on top of Uber Eats, seemingly to appeal to younger audience. Not sure how much longer that will last.
huytersd 3y ago
I sometimes get alcohol from Uber… but I just use Uber eats. Not sure what drizly is.
filoleg 3y ago
Nah, it went more like this: 1. UberEats didn’t offer alcohol delivery, Drizly did (back in like 2016). 2. Uber acquires Drizly in 2021. 3. UberEats adds alcohol delivery (not sure whether step 2 or 3 happened first, but that’s beside the point). 4. At some point after the acquisition, even if you ordered through Drizly, the final order tracking goes through UberEats. I.e., regardless of which app you use for the order, the tracking link you get through a text to your phone number leads to UberEats tracking. Same with customer service. For both UberEats and Drizly. 5. [where we are at right now] Uber shuts down Drizly. Makes perfect sense to me, as all the functionality of Drizly got merged and integrated into UberEats, so there is zero reason to use Drizly now. I stopped using it about half a year ago and switched to UberEats for alcohol delivery, because using Drizly felt like using some intermediary in-between app that gets routed to UberEats in the end anyway.
- spamtarget 3y ago
  yay, acquisition, consolidation, monopolization, yay
  - killingtime74 3y ago
    It's not monopolization when you can just buy the alcohol yourself or (in AU/NZ) the supermarkets themselves do alcohol delivery. I'd be surprised if more than 1% of all alcohol is delivered by Uber. To use monopolization like this is to strip it of all meaning.
  - filoleg 3y ago
    > monopolization Afaik any food delivery app can also deliver alcohol these days, so I am not sure what the whole monopolization hubbub is. And for all it’s worth, it is much easier dealing with UberEats or Doordash customer service than it used to be with all the fragmented separate small apps. So as a customer, it definitely feels like a win.
- jpgvm 3y ago
  nit: UberEats actually got alcohol delivery as part of the Postmates acquisition in 2020 IIRC. Disclaimer: Worked at Postmates at the time of acquisition, we definitely did alcohol.
catchnear4321 3y ago
daiquiri delivery disagrees
wkat4242 3y ago
Maybe there were some legal challenges with the delivery person doing age checks?
- ckorhonen 3y ago
  The age check is actually a legal requirement - the bigger challenge was actually getting the delivery person to consistently do it!
  - wkat4242 3y ago
    Oh yeah but I mean the delivery guys are often underage themselves. It might present a legal issue. And indeed, they don't tend to be too precise, especially if you just hand them a nice tip :) Much less likely to happen in a physical store or bar. So I could imagine the local law enforcement wouldn't have too much confidence in the process, that's what I meant :)

Accujack 3y ago

My brother used it to keep getting alcohol while he was home bound due to complications from diabetes. He was able to hide his consumption from us during the last few months of his life because Drizly delivered for him. I'm not attacking them or anything, I'm sure there are people out there who are home bound who love to get a bit of a tipple now and then for whom such a service is wonderful. It just wasn't in my family's case.

yurishimo 3y ago

But is that true? Or did Uber just buy it up to remove another competitor that might expand into delivering other things besides booze? Let's not kid ourselves, these features will be rolled into Uber "Eats" soon if they haven't been already. The only thing shutting down is the overhead of running another brand on top of the Uber platform.

runnr_az 3y ago
No idea. You're probably right. I do wonder, though, how far the average American is from a place where she can buy alcohol. At least where I am, every gas station has a pretty solid selection of beers and whatnot. Have we already reached optimal convenience?
- lickmygiggle 3y ago
  Massachusetts has some pretty weird laws surrounding alcohol. I've seen it in the occasional gas station, grocery store, or convenience store but for the most part here if you're looking to buy alcohol you're going to a store that specializes in that.
  - fulladder 3y ago
    A funny Massachusetts crazy laws story. When Apple Computer IPO'ed in the early 1980s, Massachusetts residents were not allowed to own the stock. Like it was actually illegal for them to buy this stock. The reason was that Massachusetts runs its own state-level version of the SEC, and the Massachusetts regulators felt that Apple stock was too risky to be made available to ordinary retail investors. This situation persisted for several months before the Massachusetts regulators finally backed down. As everyone knows, Apple went on to become one of the best (maybe the best?) stock market investments a person in 1980 could possibly have made.
- devilbunny 3y ago
  Could be next door, could be 30 miles away. State laws around alcohol are strange.
- lotsoweiners 3y ago
  I’ve never ordered alcohol from Drizly or Uber Eats but if I was 5 drinks deep, didn’t want to walk somewhere, and shouldn’t be driving then I can definitely see the appeal.
- throwaway20222 3y ago
  I used drizly often for presents, especially for out of town people. Never once for myself actually.
seaal 3y ago
They are still run Postmates on top of Uber Eats, seemingly to appeal to younger audience. Not sure how much longer that will last.

huytersd 3y ago

I sometimes get alcohol from Uber… but I just use Uber eats. Not sure what drizly is.

filoleg 3y ago

Nah, it went more like this: 1. UberEats didn’t offer alcohol delivery, Drizly did (back in like 2016). 2. Uber acquires Drizly in 2021. 3. UberEats adds alcohol delivery (not sure whether step 2 or 3 happened first, but that’s beside the point). 4. At some point after the acquisition, even if you ordered through Drizly, the final order tracking goes through UberEats. I.e., regardless of which app you use for the order, the tracking link you get through a text to your phone number leads to UberEats tracking. Same with customer service. For both UberEats and Drizly. 5. [where we are at right now] Uber shuts down Drizly. Makes perfect sense to me, as all the functionality of Drizly got merged and integrated into UberEats, so there is zero reason to use Drizly now. I stopped using it about half a year ago and switched to UberEats for alcohol delivery, because using Drizly felt like using some intermediary in-between app that gets routed to UberEats in the end anyway.

spamtarget 3y ago
yay, acquisition, consolidation, monopolization, yay
- killingtime74 3y ago
  It's not monopolization when you can just buy the alcohol yourself or (in AU/NZ) the supermarkets themselves do alcohol delivery. I'd be surprised if more than 1% of all alcohol is delivered by Uber. To use monopolization like this is to strip it of all meaning.
- filoleg 3y ago
  > monopolization Afaik any food delivery app can also deliver alcohol these days, so I am not sure what the whole monopolization hubbub is. And for all it’s worth, it is much easier dealing with UberEats or Doordash customer service than it used to be with all the fragmented separate small apps. So as a customer, it definitely feels like a win.
jpgvm 3y ago
nit: UberEats actually got alcohol delivery as part of the Postmates acquisition in 2020 IIRC. Disclaimer: Worked at Postmates at the time of acquisition, we definitely did alcohol.

catchnear4321 3y ago

daiquiri delivery disagrees

wkat4242 3y ago

Maybe there were some legal challenges with the delivery person doing age checks?

ckorhonen 3y ago
The age check is actually a legal requirement - the bigger challenge was actually getting the delivery person to consistently do it!
- wkat4242 3y ago
  Oh yeah but I mean the delivery guys are often underage themselves. It might present a legal issue. And indeed, they don't tend to be too precise, especially if you just hand them a nice tip :) Much less likely to happen in a physical store or bar. So I could imagine the local law enforcement wouldn't have too much confidence in the process, that's what I meant :)