Big spike for alcohol delivery as people continue to stay home

BOSTON — What it means to “enjoy responsibly” has changed dramatically in Massachusetts with the use of home delivery for alcoholic beverages skyrocketing in the past week for one delivery platform.

“This past week, in particular, we were up about 479% over baseline,” said Liz Paquette, who heads up consumer insights and serves as brand director for the alcohol e-commerce leader Drizly, a Boston-based website and app that’s been operating in the state for years.

Drizly operates as a marketplace, allowing the customer to shop for what alcohol they want while connecting them with a local, independent liquor store that will deliver the product that same day.

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A big factor behind the change is clear: Gov. Charlie Baker’s stay-at-home advisory has prevented people from going out to bars and restaurants to drink on-site. Though the legislature recently changed the law to allow restaurants with on-premise liquor licenses to sell limited amounts of alcohol for off-premise use through takeout and delivery orders, it’s not the primary driver of sales.

Liquor stores are allowed to remain open as an “essential business” under the guidelines of Baker’s emergency order, but not everybody wants to leave their homes right now for alcohol, though, and that’s prompted a sharp rise in liquor store deliveries.

“More and more consumers I think during this time were turning to a safer alternative to practice social distancing and remain at home,” said Paquette.

Home delivery of alcohol was already legal in the Commonwealth but interest has exploded during the pandemic. In order to meet the dramatic spike in demand, Drizly has partnered with 35 percent more liquor stores in Boston in the last couple weeks, Paquette said.

“We’ve definitely approached this all with a great sense of humility,” Paquette added. “I think anyone of us within Drizly would automatically give back this situation occurring for the growth that we’ve received in return.”

The Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, when asked about the statewide trend, said in a statement that it was “observing alcohol sales and deliveries throughout the Commonwealth and will continue to do so,” and had no further comments.

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