DoorDash now delivers beer, wine to New Jersey customers

Whether you’re lacking beer on Football Sunday or want to add a nice rose to your Niçoise salad, you now can call DoorDash to the rescue.

Starting Nov. 16, customers in New Jersey can order alcohol products from local stores for delivery to their homes through the meal-delivery app. DoorDash is the first third-party platform to offer alcohol delivery in the Garden State, the company says.

Users will be able to toggle to an “alcohol” tab on the DoorDash app to browse and order beer and wine products from participating merchants in their area.

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“This is a huge step forward for consumers across New Jersey who will now be able enjoy the convenience of having alcohol delivered safely to their doors from their favorite local businesses through the DoorDash platform,” said Erik Ragotte, DoorDash’s General Manager of Alcohol and Convenience.

Ordering alcohol through DoorDash

How can you avoid alcohol falling into the wrong hands?

Ragotte says that the company has “robust safeguards” in place, like an ID verification process. He also said that the company is continuing to work closely with the New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

Here’s how the ID verification and other safety measures work, according to the company:

ID verification: “Central to our efforts on helping ensure safe alcohol delivery is our state-of-the-art ID verification process, which requires that IDs are scanned not only before the first alcohol purchase but also again at the door, on top of a physical ID check at the point of delivery — in many cases going above what is used for a typical in-store transaction. Only after verifying the consumer’s age and checking for any signs of intoxication may the delivery be completed.”

High-risk area bans: “We understand that even one delivery of alcohol made to underage consumers is too many. Even before an order can be placed, we will be proactively blocking deliveries to certain high-risk areas such as college campuses and other similar locations where unsafe deliveries to underage consumers could be made.”

Dasher compliance modules: “Dashers in New Jersey interested in accepting offers including alcohol are required to complete a course on safe and responsible delivery, and we will provide detailed guidelines to those Dashers on how to safely and compliantly deliver alcohol.”

Self-exclusion register: “We know that there are still some consumers who don’t want alcohol delivered. That’s why we also have a voluntarily self-exclusion list so consumers can easily stop seeing alcohol via our Marketplace platform.”

Return flow: “If a delivery cannot be completed, Dashers are provided with step-by-step prompts to return the alcohol to the store. Dashers will be paid for the whole trip, including the original pay plus more for the return. Simply put: Dashers will never have to choose between completing a delivery or complying with the law.”