Booze on wheels growth worries alcohol watchdog
AN Auckland Uber driver replaced lost rides during lockdown with a booming alcohol delivery service.
Akash Deep set up Drinks Mate Alcohol Delivery midway through 2019. Business had been slow – one or two orders a week – until Covid-19 hit.
He didn’t operate during level 4, but once the country moved to level 3 he was filling up to 20 orders a week.
In his mind, it’s a community service: ‘‘We’re helping people to stay safe and stay home.’’
But not everyone is so sure – Alcohol Healthwatch has expressed concern about making access to alcohol easier.
Deep said the pandemic changed his client base, from people looking for a few more beers to keep the party going to people who could not, or did not, want to leave the house.
He said the majority were professionals in their 30s and 40s, single parents and busy families, with a smattering of elderly, high-risk people.
That was one of the biggest changes he saw in lockdown, he said – older people became confident using the internet and taking advantage of delivery services.
Like every business owner, Deep has had to adapt to Covid restrictions.
As well as working with standard protective equipment such as face masks and gloves, he developed a new delivery process, asking customers to hold their ID up against a window for him to check.
He would then leave the alcohol on the front step and move back at least two metres, waiting until the person had collected it.
Checking the person isn’t already drunk is also standard practice, and Deep said he’d come across very few people trying to use the service while intoxicated.
Now people can leave their houses freely, business has dropped off a bit, but Deep said it can still help keep the community safe.
In his view, alcohol delivery services could help reduce drink-driving by encouraging people who have had a few drinks to stay home rather than nip out to the bottle shop.
However, that’s not the view of Alcohol Healthwatch. Executive director Nicki
Jackson has previously spoken about the evidence linking alcohol-related harm to increased accessibility.
She told Sunday News she was concerned at what she described as the ‘‘huge increase’’ in the number of home alcohol delivery services.
‘‘Most New Zealanders tell us there are enough places to buy alcohol in New Zealand, they don’t need easier access, they don’t need to be topping up their alcohol consumption in a night,’’ she said.
There are 166 companies licensed to sell alcohol in Auckland only by remote means, with no requirement for a shop.
‘‘The increase in applications for remote sales licences has been mainly since the first Covid 19 lockdown,’’ Auckland Council said.
‘‘There are restrictions on obtaining a licence to sell alcohol along with other products online.
‘‘Essentially a remote seller of alcohol must show that they earn or will earn 85 per cent of their total income from the remote sales of alcohol. This restricts the amount of other goods sold by the licensee.’’
Council licensing manager Peter Knight said inspectors have so far not found many issues with remote sellers.
Alcohol cannot be delivered between 11pm and 6am and the seller must ensure the buyer is not a minor or already drunk, he said.