In the not-too-distant past, the concept of beer mail meant a box arriving on your doorstep, usually unmarked so as not to arouse suspicion from the government postal workers and sent by a friend or online acquaintance in a predetermined sale or trade. As more and more commerce goes online, a handful of companies are looking to plant a flag now in the beer space to make it easier than ever to get beers from beyond customers’ areas right to their homes.
Of course, beer delivered by mail by a third party is nothing new. Beer of the month clubs have been going on for decades, although—at least in the beginning—the customer had little choice about what arrived. Old-timers will tell you tales of long-out-of-code IPAs or skunked lagers showing up in a box each month. Then there are services such as Rare Beer Club that work with breweries to procure hard-to-get bottles and cans before shipping them off to members.
There are also other services that have a database and website that know what’s in stock in stores in a certain geographical area and will buy from that retailer and deliver to a home or office for the cost of the beer (and a delivery fee, of course).