beer & wine delivered to your door
Brent Finnegan -- September 6th, 2007
There are at least a dozen pizza delivery places in town. Midtowne Market is about to add its name to that growing list when they start delivering food from Luigi’s Downtown Pizza Company. But there’s at least one thing they can bring to your door that Domino’s can’t: beer. Starting Sunday, Midtowne will be the first local business to take advantage of the ABC delivery permit.
Wonks could probably trace the roots of this new law back to 2003, when Senator Emmett Hanger’s bill “Provide[d] for licensure by the ABC Board of wineries, farm wineries and breweries located within and outside of the Commonwealth to sell, deliver or ship by common carrier no more than two cases of wine or beer per consumer per month, in closed containers, to persons to whom alcoholic beverages may be lawfully sold in the Commonwealth.”
In 2006, Virginia provisions allowing home delivery of Virginia-made alcohol were struck down by a lower federal court on the grounds that it favored Virginia over other states in the distribution, delivery and shipping of wine and beer.
In the most recent General Assembly, Senator John Watkins’ bill “Restore[d] to certain Virginia retailers the privilege of delivering wine and beer to their customers. Such privilege was removed as a result of recent federal litigation challenging the constitutionality of Virginia’s ABC law.”
In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll add that David Miller, an owner of Midtowne Market, is a friend and contributor to this blog. I’m sure he’s willing to answer any questions or concerns you may have about the new service in the comments below.
Midtowne Market will be delivering its full inventory — including beer, wine and tobacco products — to city residents beginning Sunday, September 9th at Noon.
Thanks for posting this Finnegan. Not that I’m biased but your writing flicks a finger at those who don’t appreciate blogging as journalism>they’re wrong.
David, Does “no more than two cases of wine or beer per consumer per month” mean that you have to keep track of alcohol sales? Just curious. Also, will you ID upon delivery? Good luck with your new service!
Josh
Actually the new law passed includes the ability to deliver 4 cases per visit. No time limits specified. The two cases was from the 2003 law that assisted Wineries with distributing to their patrons. Midtowne will be strictly checking IDs, better safe than sorry.
Josh,
The Delivery License is a different beast than the Shipper’s License which is what we would need at Downtown Wine & Gourmet to ship you wine via a mail carrier like UPS or Fedex. The Shipper’s License does in fact limit to 2 cases of wine or beer per person per month, of which you have to report to the Commonwealth on a monthly basis.
Miller…
Can you deliver kegs? Because I’m pretty sure you could open a warehouse and do that full time in this town.
well, at least during the school year.
Awesome! Good job Virginia, one step closer to the 21st century!
Not to be disrespectful but where is the Midtowne market (i’ve never heard of it, sorry), and what will be your delivery range?
Jeff, Delivery will include all of Harrisonburg City, at the present time, we will not deliver in to Rockingham Co. Midtowne Market is located in the building on Water St. that used to be Town & Campus Records and, more recently, Downtown Wine & Gourmet.
We are very encouraged by the fact that VA has allowed us to provide an alcohol delivery service. Outside of what I, as a co-owner, consider to be a great opportunity, I also believe beer delivery to be a considerable drunk driving prevention method. If Midtowne can deliver to your door, there is no reason for a group of people to find the “most sober one.”
Our drivers will adhere to a zero tolerance policy when it comes to substances. If we sense that a driver has had any substance that can impede their abilities while driving for Midtowne, the driving will no longer work for Midtowne.
That is tougher than the states .08 limit, and we don’t have to prove it in court to dismiss them if they run afoul of our policy .
Done the right way, this is a service that can make our streets safer, and we intend to do it a step above the right way.
Questions or concerns are welcome, Tim
D. Miller,
Great idea! I also believe it to be a good saftey move. When
people have had a few to many to drink but, think they need more, hopefully they will call you instead of driving to get it.
And to boot, only $3.00 fee. Congrats and well wishes ! I know Mark personally and think the team that has formed will do well together. Cold beer and hot pizza…yeah BABY !
Article in the paper today…with a snazzy picture.
http://dnronline.com/news_details.php?AID=12083&CHID=11
Why are out of state breweries and wineries prevented from shipping direct to me, but in-state brew/vints permitted? That sounds like a violation of interstate commerce law.
Awesome. I know what I’m doing this weekend.
This sounds like a winner to me — I predict you will be swamped. Great idea, guys!
Bubby,
From that WTOP story from 2006:
Thanks Finnegan. We recently tried to have some California wine shipped to us – they said they can’t do so because of the Virginia law…and added that California had responded by denying shipping of Virginia alcohol to California (not that they wanted it).
Ha! Wow.
I occasionally go to wine festivals and buy from certain Virginia wineries, but somehow I can’t imagine ordering Virginia wine in Napa Valley.
Thanks Tim! You just got a customer!
Great idea! You will definitely get a lot of business (advertise in the Breeze if you haven’t already, I would imagine you’d get a lot of business from JMU students…we’re lazy and people hate leaving the party for more drinks). This will be much safer for everyone in Harrisonburg because it happens fairly frequently that people will choose the most sober one to drive to get more which is not a good idea.
Dave, are there insurance requirements from your insurance (business) company? I hope this doens’t lead to the “I’m not smart enough to cut myself off, so I’ll blame the person that sold/gave me my last drink”.
The premiums SHOULD not go up because of the delivery but when an insurance company percieves a risk, they usually raise the prices.
Thanks everyone for the support, Dave and I believe that this is a win for safety as well as Midtowne and Luigi’s but its been impossible to predict what kind of response we would get from the community since alcohol can be so polarizing. You all have eased my mind with your positive responses. We are anxiously awaiting Sunday when the service begins.
This may be a stupid question, but can I get you to deliver some Cheez-Its when you deliver my beer?
Cheez-Its are listed on their delivery menu.
Reaganite, Cheez-it’s are my favorite snack cracker so of course you can get them delivered. In fact you can get anything that Midtowne Market carries delivered. This includes other staples such as milk, eggs, tp, snickers, pepsi, sugar, toothpaste, playing cards…you get the idea. The delivery menu is still a work in progress but it will soon be a complete list of everything we carry.
Ahh, the charming Cheez-It, that great boon to civilization, how we love you so! Me and the boys will probably get an order together for next week. Good luck with the service.
This is an idea that is overdue! I don’t know what your hours will be but after looking at your menu, I bet 95% of your business will be between 10pm-2pm. Good luck!
Stores have to stop selling alcohol at midnight still, right? Is that the case for deliveries as well?
The website says delivery hours end at midnight.
Please check out the updated website- I’d love your feedback. Luigi’s menu to follow soon.
Yeah, state law prohibits alcohol sales in retail stores after midnight and we obviously have to follow the law. To insure delivery of beer or wine you should place a Midtowne stock only order by 11:30 PM and a Midtowne (alcohol)/Luigi’s order by 11 PM (they have to cook the food and that takes time). Any order that doesn’t include alcohol will be received up to 11:59 PM and delivered will follow as quickly as possible. Obviously we are a brand new operation so there will be some kinks but we ask for everyone’s patience to give us time to iron those kinks out. In the beginning there is the possibility that someone places a order at 11:30 PM but we are so backlogged that we can’t fill it by midnight which means that we can’t fill it at all… growing pains. One of our challenges that most start up businesses don’t have to deal with is that Midtowne doesn’t have any other examples to follow. I don’t know if Midtowne is the first business in the state to obtain an alcohol delivery license but if we aren’t it is a very short list in front of us. My hope is that anybody who is familiar with our store and knows the high level of customer service that we strive for there will understand that we will bring our delivery service to that level in no time. The end result will be that Dave and I will be sleep deprived for a couple months. I’ll also have to miss the first Redskin’s game which is hard to reconcile in my mind, but Dave better clear his schedule for the Was vs. Dallas games because I’ll have the flu if anybody expects me to show up those Sundays.
P.S. We do need more drivers if anyone is interested. Turn in applications at 20 W. Water St. (sorry Brent, I know Hburgnews is not Craig’s list but I couldn’t help myself).
Good luck with your new business plan! Please be careful, though. If the past is any guide, I would guess that the ABC folks will be watching closely at first.
Thank you all for your positive feedback and excellent questions. Luigi’s is excited to get into the later night delivery and partner with our friends at Midtowne!
Del
Since we are and will remain in full compliance with Virginia State Law, we have nothing to worry about with the ABC. Thanks for the concern though, we intend to stay vigilant.
Hey David Miller,
Can you give us a update on how things are going with the
new beer delivery and stuff? thanks!
Can someone tell me where I might get some good brie (sp) for a catering I have tomorrow…Thanks
Martin’s certainly carries Brie, but I’d try CostCo first as their cheeses are pretty economical compared to other places in town.
Thanks Josh, I’ll wander on over there and see what they offer.
Does anyone know where I can get Iron City Beer without having to go to Pittsburgh? Live in California, major Steeler fan. thanks