Ottawa one of two markets in Ontario where The Beer Store to offer home delivery

CTV Ottawa: Beer Store home delivery The Beer Store has chosen Ottawa as a testing ground for home beer delivery. CTV's Joanne Schnurr reports.

If you run out of beer on Canada Day, not to worry in Ottawa. The Beer Store has four outlets that will be open July 1st.  It also announced today a new home delivery model that will bring the Beer Store to your door.Ottawa is one of only two markets in all of Ontario where the Beer Store will be trying out its home delivery.  The other market is Scarborough.  Home delivery isn't new, especially in this area; for the Beer Store though, it's big news.  Dillon Lawrence is all for an easier way to stock up on beer.  Home delivery sounds like the key.

Ottawa resident Dillon Lawrence is all for an easier way to stock up on beer.  Home delivery sounds like the key.

“I'd use it for sure, the app,” he says as he grabs a case of beer at the Beer Store on Somerset Street West, “They deliver it to your home and you don't have to go anywhere? Beats coming here, for sure.”

And that's been part of the problem for The Beer Store; encouraging customers to come here to its stores, with competing retailers pulling them elsewhere.

Andrea Randolph is the vice-president of retail for The Beer Store, “This is really around modernizing our operation and taking feedback from our customers and putting it on the marketplace.”

“If you want home delivery, you’re going to click on home delivery,” she says, as she explains how the app works.

Starting today, The Beer Store is launching home delivery app in two markets: central Ottawa and Scarborough.  Outlying areas like Kanata, Barrhaven and Orleans aren't included yet.

Customer Alan Zunder thinks it’s a great idea.

“Long past due,” he says, “A lot of people don't have cars and a lot of people don't have time. I'm fully for it.”

There's a $20 minimum and a $500 maximum for your order, plus an $8 delivery charge in Ottawa when that beer comes to your door.

Home delivery is new for the Beer Store but it's been available in this area for years.  Beau's, for instance, has offered its "Buy Your Beau's Online" service for six years.  LCBO started home delivery last year.  And the Brew Donkey, which gives microbrewery tours, had offered home delivery until recently.  Brad Campeau with the Brew Donkey hopes the Beer Store's move will help the local craft beer industry.

“If you click on Ontario craft, only Ontario craft will come up,” he says, “So you will see the little independent stuff that might only be at the bottom on the shelf in your beer store.”

As for customers like Lee Yu,

“It’s going to be an $8 charge?” he asks.  The cost of home delivery may be a bit of a deterrent but convenience may win out.