Meijer introduces on-demand alcohol delivery

A Midwest discount retailer is joining the rapidly growing trend of on-demand alcohol delivery.

Meijer is partnering with online delivery platform Instacart to deliver alcohol from more than 180 store locations across Illinois, Michigan and Ohio. The retailer is launching home delivery of online beer, wine and spirits orders from its stores as the service becomes increasingly popular (and lucrative) across the country.

Walmart’s Sam’s Club warehouse club subsidiary began delivering wine, beer and spirits in partnership with Instacart in select markets in 2019, and 7-Eleven expanded Instacart delivery of products including alcohol to 33 states in May 2021.

And Instacart is not the only delivery platform operating in the adult beverage space. Uber recently completed a $1.1 billion acquisition of specialized alcohol delivery platform Drizly, and DoorDash began making alcohol delivery available from select retailers in select states and markets in September 2021.

Other retailers that are providing online adult beverage delivery services include Macy's, which partnered with online alcohol delivery platform Drinks to open the online Macy’s Wine Shop in April 2021. Kroger also partners with Drinks to offer a “build-your-own-pack” feature for its Kroger Wine delivery service.

And retailers including Target and Lowe’s Foods include alcohol in their same-day online delivery offerings.

“We’re proud to deepen our partnership with Meijer, bringing its expansive alcohol selection online and giving customers even more access to Meijer’s one-stop-shop selection via same-day delivery. We know that alcohol e-commerce is a clear growth driver for our retail partners, which typically see their basket sizes increase by 25% with alcohol,” said Chris Rogers, VP of retail at Instacart. “We’re committed to serving as a retailer enablement platform and providing grocers with more ways to bring their entire store online as they continue to grow and meet the evolving e-commerce needs of their customers.”

Meijer, based in Grand Rapids, Mich., operates 256 supercenters and grocery stores throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Wisconsin.  With the Meijer expansion, alcohol delivery on Instacart now reaches more than 85 million households across more than 17,000 partner stores.

Instacart first introduced alcohol delivery in 2013 and continues to expand nationwide. The company provides alcohol delivery and pickup in 26 states plus Washington, D.C., including Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming. Instacart also plans to launch alcohol delivery in Mississippi in the coming months.

In addition, Instacart helps retailers offer customers their entire alcohol selection online for delivery and pickup, and also helps navigate the permit and approval process in partnership with state and local regulators for online alcohol delivery and pickup. The company partners with more than 700 national, regional and local retailers to deliver from more than 65,000 stores across more than 5,500 cities in North America. Instacart’s platform is available to over 85% of U.S. households and 90% of Canadian households.