Does anyone know the ins and outs of running a Booze Delivery business?

uncommonadvice

Does anyone know the ins and outs of running a booze delivery business? The sort you can call out at midnight if you want a few cans of beer?

I tried contacting my local Trading Standards but they were very unhelpful.

HappyMJ

You will need a Personal Licence to authorize the sale of alcohol to a customer which is obtained from your local council and a Premises Licence to store the alcohol at your premises. An insurance policy on your vehicle covering business use. An insurance policy covering your employees for any injuries received in the course of their employment.

googler

You may also need 'change of use' planning permission for your home to change it from residential to retail or commercial.

How much of a range would you stock? Wine? Spirits? Lager? Cider? Initial investment in stock could be quite hefty if you want to cover all angles.

You need to consider payment terms, and if not going cash-only, how you would extract card payment and signature in the early hours, from someone possibly already inebriated......

ppc_guy

Its a minefield!

To start you need a license and a licensed premise.

You then need the car/vehicle and capital for the stock.

You have to then advertise. What hours will you open? where will you deliver? what payments will you accept? what is the minimum order.

Then the major issues:
Security - You are transporting liquid gold in sometimes less than desirable places. how will you keep safe and prevent yourself from being attacked. This isnt Pizza your delivering.
Age - How do you know your not delivering to an under 18? In a dark doorway when its chucking down with rain you still have to be certain.

I did look into it a while ago but there are so many issues that its not a simple set up and go business.

C_Mababejive

Its a tragedy that British society is now so degenerate that such services are flourishing.

geordie_joe

uncommonadvice wrote: »

Does anyone know the ins and outs of running a booze delivery business?

Can you explain exactly what you mean?

Everyone has assumed you want to carry a stock of booze and sell it with a home delivery service.

But my first thought after reading your post was you want to run a delivery service. i.e. someone rings you up, tells you what they want and you nip off to tesco to buy if for them and deliver it to their door.

ppc_guy

As above i instantly assumed that you meant stock holding and delivering to retail users.

HappyMJ

geordie_joe wrote: »

Can you explain exactly what you mean?

Everyone has assumed you want to carry a stock of booze and sell it with a home delivery service.

But my first thought after reading your post was you want to run a delivery service. i.e. someone rings you up, tells you what they want and you nip off to tesco to buy if for them and deliver it to their door.

What if customer wants booze at 3am on a Sunday morning just after a Saturday night session and now all the clubs are closed and they want the party to continue? Tesco is closed. I'd say that would be the best time to operate a booze delivery business for maximum markup and maximum profit. I could always call Tesco myself to deliver me a stock of beer/wine and spirits during Tesco delivery hours but that will require advance planning.

~Chameleon~

HappyMJ wrote: »

What if customer wants booze at 3am on a Sunday morning just after a Saturday night session and now all the clubs are closed and they want the party to continue? Tesco is closed. I'd say that would be the best time to operate a booze delivery business for maximum markup and maximum profit. I could always call Tesco myself to deliver me a stock of beer/wine and spirits during Tesco delivery hours but that will require advance planning.

There aren't many places which don't have a 24hr supermarket within a reasonable travel distance. Presumably OP has a local one if this is the line he plans to go down.

geordie_joe

HappyMJ wrote: »

What if customer wants booze at 3am on a Sunday morning just after a Saturday night session and now all the clubs are closed and they want the party to continue? Tesco is closed.

What if? That question is irrelevant until we know if the OP want's to hold stock or just deliver it.

HappyMJ wrote: »

I'd say that would be the best time to operate a booze delivery business for maximum markup and maximum profit.

I would agree, but that would involve buying and holding stock and the op did not mention that.

HappyMJ wrote: »

I could always call Tesco myself to deliver me a stock of beer/wine and spirits during Tesco delivery hours but that will require advance planning.

That kind of defeats the object then doesn't it.

We still need to know whether the op want's to buy/hold and sell stock, or just nip out and buy booze for people who have drunk too much to drive themselves.

podperson

To start with you would need a personal licence and a premises licence - these alone will cost you at least £200 with a renewal cost every year. Then if you want to be able to sell at any time then you may need to apply for additional licences for late night serving (which is probably where your main business is going to be as during the day people can just go and buy their own!). I guess you would also need insurances - public liability, to cover the stock, employee liability if you're paying people to deliver it, etc. Are you going to make enough to cover all these? I've seen this service advertised in London but not anywhere else which makes me wonder whether there's enough of a market outside a big city.

I'm also assuming you're based in England as licencing laws in Scotland and Northern Ireland are more complicated and in Scotland particularly it's much harder to get late hours licences on a retail basis - all shops and supermarkets can only sell from 10am to 10pm.