alcohol delivery

By ANDREW MATTE

REGINA — This darkened bungalow was hidden by a massive, overgrown tree. The tiny house numbers didn’t help. But the rumble from inside was the giveaway — a muffled version of “Honky Tonk Woman” could be heard through an open window, so I was confident I was delivering a 12-pack of Pilsner and a 750ml bottle of Smirnoff to the correct address.
I followed a crumbling sidewalk, noted a tipped-over tricycle and other toys in the front yard and rang the bell. I rang it again and knocked loudly before I called the customer from my cell phone.
A pleasant woman in her 50s wearing a nightgown finally came to the door. She paid me cash for the beer and vodka, the $8.40 delivery charge and an extra toonie for my trouble, which, wasn’t enough for the extra work it took to find her hidden house and roust her from whatever she was doing.
But this was a typical delivery on a Saturday evening working for John Murray, Regina’s first entrepreneur to be licensed by the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority to deliver alcohol. This spring, “dial-a-bottle” was introduced by the Saskatchewan government, allowing imbibers to order a bottle like they would pizza. It also opened a market to anyone to apply to the commission for a Home Delivery Permit and begin a business where none existed before.
For the six companies operating across the province, the work is simple — take an order over the phone, drive to a liquor store or offsale to buy items on the customer’s behalf and deliver it to their doorstep for a fee.
The rules aren’t different from bars or offsales — customers who appear drunk or are younger than 19 must be refused. Delivery companies can charge whatever they like for their service, but they aren’t allow to inventory their own alcohol, nor are they allowed to put a mark-up on what they buy.
I went to work for John as a casual driver this summer in hopes of making extra money when I wasn’t at my full-time job as a copy editor at the Leader-Post.
I like the money, but I am also drawn to this late-night adventure and the surprise that comes with every delivery.
Some customers are 20-somethings enjoying an evening with a house full of other young people, some are affluent party hosts treating their guests to drinks and others live in unfortunate circumstances: Some count their nickels to pay for a 1 a.m. delivery of a case of high-alcohol beer as toddlers scurry about the house.
As the Yuletide season approaches, alcohol delivery companies are anticipating an upswing in business due to demand from Christmas parties, family dinners and New Year’s Eve bashes.

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John Murray opened his business, aptly named 775-BEER, after receiving his Home Delivery Permit from the authority in April. He and his wife Angela Markel had returned to their hometown of Regina about three years ago after going to school in Edmonton.
Murray had been working as a courier delivering building materials to Regina construction sites when he learned of Saskatchewan’s changing liquor laws. He saw an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a new industry.
“I wanted to be first through the gate. And I was,” Murray says.
With the help of his wife and other family members who sometimes take a turn answering phones and making deliveries, Murray proved to himself that there’s potential for growth. He believes that with more advertising and as more residents know of the service, expansion in Regina and beyond is likely. He already accepts orders from Moose Jaw and hopes to someday serve imbibers province wide.
“The growth rate has been steady. I’ve been pleased with it,” Murray says.
“This isn’t a self-employment venture, nor is it a get-rich scheme. This is a fun project. This is something I want to build into something more. That is why I got Moose Jaw on the go. This is where it can be cost effective, which is to have a single call centre for multiple cities,” he says.
“I would love to see it go province-wide. To see it grow into a provincial brand would be just great. I would have a lot of fun building it.”
He said it was important for him to pay his own start-up costs and avoid going into debt. He’s not sure, however, whether spending more on advertising at the beginning would have let him grow faster.
“Sometimes I wonder whether I should have borrowed and done some more aggressive advertising, but I guess I can’t say I’m displeased either,” says Murray, adding he’s avoided borrowing money to launch the business.
Before Murray delivered his first case of beer, he sought advice from the South Saskatchewan Independent Living Centre. Since Murray was born without a left hand, he qualified for advice from centre, which helped him fine-tune his business plan.

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There was a young mother who, while holding her infant son in her arms, proudly showed me her driver’s licence that proved she had been 19 years-old for three weeks as she accepted two, 2-litre bottles of wine coolers. I also remember a man in his 30s who was standing on his front lawn wearing a bathing suit when I arrived at 2:30 a.m. — he was dripping wet after emerging from his backyard hot tub. I also remember delivering a case of beer well after midnight to a Winnipeg Street house where the front yard was crammed with people, many of whom were huddled around a fire, including pre-schoolers in diapers and children in strollers.

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Regina’s second company to receive its permit is Bottle Runners, a business launched by the Denouden brothers, Kevin and Curtis. Kevin had recently returned from Alberta where he worked as an alcohol delivery driver in Calgary and Curtis had returned from China. Like Murray, the Denoudens saw potential in the new service. Also like Murray, they’re seeing a steady growth as word spreads of their business, as well as a wide variety of customers.
“We probably get calls from three new customers a day. And least one of them will call again. Over 50 per cent of our customers have called more than once,” says Kevin, whose company was granted a delivery permit after 775-BEER because it was forced to appeal after it was turned down in April.
“We deliver in Wascana Estates and in the Core every day.”
But the Denoudens hope to lobby the authority in hopes of loosening the rules, to allow them to take orders until 3 a.m. rather than be forced to refuse calls after 2 a.m. Kevin says they’re missing out on business and he argues the rule is unfair since offsales can stay open until 3 a.m.
“A lot of the times, we’ll answer the phone after 2 a.m. and we’ll educate them a little bit and tell them ‘hey buddy, get your call in before 2 a.m.,” Kevin says.
“The main aspect of the business is to keep drunk drivers off the street. So if you take away that hour, between 2 and 3 a.m., then it sort of defeats the purpose.”
James Rolston hopes to do some lobbying of his own. Rolston operates Living Skies Alcohol Delivery in Saskatoon and believes the authority should be doing more to tell the public that his service, and others, are an option.
“I have had people call me at 6 a.m. ... people think I have better prices than the liquor board stores ... there has been no public education... it’s very frustrating,” says Rolston, who unlike 775-BEER and Bottlerunners, takes orders and makes deliveries himself.
Rolston, who also operates a limousine service in Saskatoon, said he was surprised that so many of his customers want their orders to arrive quickly. He had hoped his customers would order several hours, or even days, in advance.
“I didn’t realize it was going to be as on-call as it is. I was hoping to do more of the business through the website. But how it works is that people don’t order until they’re down to their last beer, and then they want it right now. So that tended to be problematic,” says Rolston.
His website has helped him attract some business, however, including one customer from Taiwan who arranged to have a case of beer delivered to his father in Saskatoon, as well as a company in Toronto that ordered a bottle to an actor debuting at the Persephone Theatre.

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Permission was granted to delivery companies after the authority’s review of Saskatchewan liquor laws, which prompted changes in other areas, including allowing customers to brew beer and wine at businesses that sell equipment and offer advice. Other changes including allowing restaurant-goers take to home a bottle of wine they didn’t finish, as well as increased fines for those who serve alcohol to minors to $10,000 from $2,500.
Authority spokesman David Morris says alcohol delivery was granted because residents of Saskatchewan wanted it. Also, the province had been in the alcohol delivery business itself for the past 25 years, offering services from liquor stores in Regina, Moose Jaw and Saskatoon. Available to seniors and others with mobility issues, local courier and cab companies were contracted to deliver alcohol, but usually just once per day.
“What we heard from residents that they wanted an improved delivery service, an on-demand service,” says Morris.
Morris defends charges from detractors who argue the service puts booze in the hands of those who shouldn’t have it or allows minors greater access to alcohol.
“Residents of Saskatchewan already have many outlets available to them where they can purchase beverage alcohol. Home delivery is aimed at customers who maybe can’t get to an SLGA liquor store or offsale,” Morris says.
“A delivery service isn’t an inducement to drink more. This is just another way for people who maybe can’t get to those outlets to buy beverage alcohol.”
The authority isn’t done granting delivery permits. So far, there are six in Saskatchewan — two in Regina, two in Saskatoon, one in Swift Current and another in Lampman. There are three more applications before the authority — one in Regina, another in Saskatoon and another in Melfort.
Morris says there have been no complaints since the permits were issued, and delivery companies say they have only positive reports from customers.
The services also legitimize other firms that could have operated under the law. There is plenty of folklore in the industry that includes stories of companies that operated under the law prior to 2009, delivering marked-up alcohol and even illegal drugs to customers.
Bob Bymoen, president of the Saskatchewan Government Employees’ Union, is among those who think private alcohol delivery is a bad idea, especially since it takes the work out of the hands of union workers at government-run liquor outlets.
“They are all trained in a store. And there is no money incentive when it comes to refusing someone alcohol. They are more likely to keep their job by refusing alcohol than by selling it,” says Bymoen.
Bymoen believes having private companies deliver alcohol makes it more likely for minors or the intoxicated to be served.
“If you are standing on somebody’s doorstep with a bottle, the only way you are going to recoup the price of the bottle and the delivery is to give them the bottle,” says Bymoen.
“If you’re too drunk to get into your car and get a bottle yourself, is it any more responsible to have someone get the bottle for you?”
For others, getting into the business of alcohol delivery remains tempting. It could make sense for offsales that already operate a busy food delivery service to simply add alcohol to the menu.
Kevin Kasha, part owner of the Last Straw Brew Pub on Albert Street, said he and his partners are still studying the issue.
Larry Krulak, owner of the Empire Hotel on McIntyre Street, operates the only offsale in Regina that stays open until 3 a.m., 365 days a year. He considered adding delivery to his business but decided against it out of fear of dealing with headaches.
“It’s too much hassle. There will be problems at the door ... your drivers can get ripped off. And when you get to the door, you will have problems finding someone old enough to accept it,” adding he might have considered it if a delivery permit allowed him to deliver to downtown business and hotel guests.

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Back at 775-BEER, Murray still goes out on delivery but relies on growing number of drivers. He also shares that uneasy feeling of delivering alcohol to heavy users of alcohol, but says his job is to make sure the laws are followed.
“I am regulated when it comes to the morality of it. I can’t sell to minors, I can’t sell to people who appear intoxicated,” he says.
“The people who I deliver to used to get their alcohol otherwise, like taking a cab or driving themselves to the offsale.”