Drizly – pronounced like “grizzly” – is a liquor home delivery app available in major cities across America. Find out everything you need to know about Drizly today in our review.
What is Drizly?
You can pick up your phone and order pizza directly to your door – so why can’t you do the same with liquor, wine, and beer?
Thanks to Drizly (and dozens of other liquor delivery apps), you can pay someone to deliver liquor directly to your door. The app promises to have the largest selection with no price markups, delivered to you at a reasonable rate.
At the Drizly website, you can browse the company’s selection of beer, wine, liquor, and extras. You can sort through ordering options based on popular recipes, or just order the most popular bottles on the market.
Drizly is available for iOS and Android. You can also order liquor through the company’s website.
How Does Drizly Work?
Drizly is available in 30 cities across North America – including the United States and Canada.
The company’s About page explains that they “work with local stores so you can shop their shelves using your smartphone or computer to order beer, wine and liquor at the touch of a button”.
In other words, they partner with local liquor stores, get a price list from those liquor stores, and then display those prices to you.
To get started with Drizly, you’ll need to enter your address (or let the smartphone use your location). Once Drizly knows your address, it delivers pricing information from the nearest partner liquor store.
Here’s the step by step guide to using Drizly:
Step 1) Enter your address to view available beer, wine, and liquor available at your location
Step 2) Shop and order from thousands of products with no markups
Step 3) Your order is prepped and packed by a partner liquor store in your area, and then you’ll be notified when your order is on its way.
What about the whole ID situation? Well, you’ll need to be of legal age in your area to accept deliveries (21 in the United States and 18 in Alberta). Your Drizly driver needs to scan your ID in order to give you your delivery. Drizly uses proprietary technology on the driver’s smartphones to check the validity of your ID. You’ll also need to provide the credit card you used to pay for the ID.
Where Can You Use Drizly?
Drizly is available in 28 cities across North America, including some of the biggest cities and metro areas on the continent. As of February 2017, there are 26 American cities and 2 Canadian cities. Here’s the full list:
United States
- Los Angeles, CA
- San Diego, CA
- San Francisco, CA
- Boulder, CO
- Denver, CO
- Jacksonville, FL
- Orlando ,FL
- Tallahassee, FL
- Tampa Bay, FL
- Chicago, IL
- Indianapolis, IN
- New Orleans, LA
- Portland, ME
- Baltimore, MD
- Boston, MA
- Worcester, MA
- Minneapolis, MN
- St. Louis, MO
- New York City, NY
- Akron, OH
- Columbus, OH
- Providence, RI
- Nashville, TN
- Austin, TX
- Dallas, TX
- Seattle, WA
- Washington, DC
- Parts of New Jersey and Connecticut
Canada
- Calgary, Alberta
- Edmonton, Alberta
You can view the full list of available cities on their site. If your city isn’t currently on the list, then Drizly lets you sign up to their email newsletter to stay up-to-date on when Drizly arrives in your city.
Products Available Through Drizly
Drizly contains a selection similar to the average liquor store in your city. Selections vary widely depending on your location. However, Drizly always makes it easy to pick from various options. You can choose from standard categories (like beer and wine) or branch into categories like “Happy Hour Picks”, “Seasonal Beers”, and “White Wines Under $20”.
Drizly also provides lists of its top apps, most popular products, and other information. Here are most of the categories available through Drizly:
- Beer (Lager, IPA, Belgian Ale, Cider, Kegs)
- Wine (White, Red, Champagne, Blush, Rose, Sake)
- Liquor (Vodka, Bourbon, Tequila, Gin, Rum)
- Extras (Mixers, Soda, Ice, Party Supplies, Fruits & Garnishes, Bitters & Syrups)
- Most Popular (View the most popular brands and products being delivered in your area)
- Happy Hour Picks
- Red / White Wines Under $20
- Seasonal Beers
- Office Party Picks
Drizly also has categories for recent events – like Super Bowl, holiday parties, Fourth of July, etc. The Super Bowl category, for example, features Bud Light, Budweiser, Stella Artois, Angry Orchard cider, and bags of ice as its featured products.
Drizly Reviews: What Do Real Customers Say About Drizly?
Obviously, Drizly isn’t the only liquor delivery service available to residents of the United States and Canada. Even Amazon and other major retailers are starting to implement home liquor delivery. So what makes Drizly different from major competitors like Minibar?
This reviewer on iDigitalTimes tried to answer that question back in 2014 and compared Minibar with Drizly. The reviewer found that Drizly’s app wasn’t quite as nice as the Minibar app, but it still gets the job done.
The reviewer found it weird that Drizly gave the option of adding your credit card by taking a picture and automatically scanning the appropriate numbers.
Overall, the two apps had very similar offerings. However, when they tried to order booze through Drizly at 2pm, they were told the app didn’t start serving until 4pm. Meanwhile, they had no trouble ordering through Minibar at 2pm. It’s likely that the two apps have different agreed start times with partner liquor stores.
The real debate is delivery times: the reviewer ordered booze through Minibar and Drizly at the same time. Although both services arrived in a timely manner, Drizly arrived much faster (from ordering on the app to drinking, it took just over 30 minutes). Minibar took just under an hour. Both apps were good about updating customers with expected delivery times, with Drizly even providing a GPS map to track your alcohol courier.
Another reviewer found that Drizly had similar prices to other liquor delivery services in Los Angeles: the company’s products look cheaper at first. However, that’s because they don’t mark up their liquor products like other companies – they just charge a delivery fee instead. That reviewer, by the way, had his liquor delivered in 15 minutes.
When you search for Drizly reviews online, you’ll find a mix of negative and excellent experiences. The app’s Google Play page, for example, has an almost even split between 5 star reviews and 1 star reviews, giving it an average overall rating of 3.1.
On the positive side of things, reviewers praised the app for its ability to deliver alcohol quickly and at a reasonable rate.
On the negative side of things, some reviewers have had really bad experiences. Typically, the worst experiences are from customers who never received their order, or received their order hours after the estimated delivery time. One of the biggest problems is that customers who never received their order have trouble getting a refund because there’s no customer service line, so they end up having to dispute charges with their credit card companies.
Overall, however, experiences with Drizly are largely positive. The company is praised for its ability to deliver alcohol to your home address quickly and at a reasonable rate.
About Drizly
Drizly was created by three Boston College classmates. The app started in Boston and New York before branching out to other cities over the past few years after launching in 2012. Today, it’s available in 30 cities across the United States and Canada.
The company’s co-founders include Nick Rellas (CEO, Justin Robinson (VP), and Cory Rellas (COO).
The company’s About page claims that the company was started in 2012 when the co-founders “were curious why they couldn’t get beer delivered when nearly everything else had become so readily available through technology”.
Should You Use Drizly to Deliver Alcohol to your Address?
Drizly is one of several major alcohol delivery apps competing for attention in the space. It’s generally well-reviewed and offers a transparent pricing model. Some customers have reported problems with deliveries not showing up, and refunds not being given out.
However, most customers have a positive experience where they get liquor delivered to their home at a reasonable rate.
