248 – Delivering the Online Bourbon Buying Experience with Cory Rellas, CEO of Drizly


As we’ve seen with the impacts of COVID-19, it’s now become necessary for the spirits industry to adopt technology and delivery services to stay alive. Cory Rellas, the CEO of Drizly, was on the forefront of this years ago. This podcast dives into their business model and how they are helping stores build a digital infrastructure to sell their goods online and get it into the hands of consumers faster. We hit on all kinds of topics such as their competitors in the market, what shipping laws could mean for Drizly, and if there is an opportunity to extend this business model into cannabis.

Show Notes:

  • This week’s Above the Char with Fred Minnick talks about the power of packaging.
  • What is Drizly?
  • How did you come up with this idea?
  • What’s the timeline?
  • What was the state of the industry when you got started?
  • What were the challenges?
  • Why did you go through New York early on?
  • What is your big selling point to retail locations?
  • Any pricing restrictions to prevent gouging?
  • Talk about pricing transparency.
  • How are you using the data you are acquiring?
  • Are you sharing the data?
  • Do you have a CRM?
  • How are the products delivered to the consumer?
  • How are you dealing with competition?
  • Are you all interested in getting bought out?
  • What’s the end game?
  • What happens if shipping laws change?
  • What is your best selling bourbon?
  • What are the top 5 selling spirit categories?
  • What’s your favorite bourbon?
  • How do you work with brands?
  • What needs to change to get more people buy alcohol online?
  • Are you lobbying at all?
  • Is there an opportunity with cannabis?
  • What would the perfect alcohol market look like?
  • What’s the latest trend?

Transcription:

0:00
To be the best, you have to learn from the best. Louisville and the surrounding regions are home to many of the most storied companies and innovative startups in the distilled spirits industry. And there’s no better place to learn the business of the distilled spirits industry than from a university located in its epicenter. The University of Louisville has partnered with industry experts to offer the distilled spirits business certificate, a six course program designed to accelerate your success in this booming industry. Oh, it’s all online. get signed up to make your next career move at U of l.me slash bourbon pursuit.

0:36
I’d go with vodka. I’d actually go with bourbon, rum, tequila, although I think our tequila selection has been incredibly high end and what we’re actually selling which is kind of interesting. And then I’ll check for you here in a second on a fifth. I don’t think I know the fifth off the top of my head.

0:54
You said it wrong. It goes bourbon bourbon, bourbon, bourbon bourbon

0:58
right brown, brown, brown brown. At

1:01
least that’s what we want to hear.

1:03
I heard there the his mic cut out there when he said another word I don’t.

1:21
What’s going on everybody? It’s Episode 248 of bourbon pursuit. I’m one of your hosts Kenny. We just got just a little bit of news to run through. And as you can guess most of it relates to COVID-19. Pennsylvania State run liquor stores are reopening, but only with online and shipped to home orders. Until further notice. Customers can purchase up to six bottles per transaction from a reduced catalog from thousand top selling wines and spirits from the website. All orders must be shipped to home or non store addresses, and only one order per address will be fulfilled per day. This is possibly in reaction to the losses now being seen by the government in an article Hosted by Trib live.com. For the two weeks of not operating, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board has lost an estimated $91 million in revenue, or around six and a half million dollars per day. quite staggering numbers. And the Virginia ABC has announced that for a limited period of time Virginia distilleries are authorized to ship their spirits to consumers and licensees in Virginia. Now, there’s some legal mumbo jumbo about addendums to these distillery store agreements, but it’s another big win for consumers and for these distilleries to help everyone get through this period, you can get more information on shipping, including a full list of all 45 Virginia distilleries on the Virginia ABC website. figures released by data analysts IWA ASR have found that for the week ending in March 22 of 2020, that total beverage alcohol sales grew by 40% in value and 33% volume compared to the same period in 2019. And this is to account for the stockpiling that we’ve seen during COVID-19 Spirits available in one liter one and a half and 1.75 formats have outpaced smaller variants, and the Ws are noted that the larger size formats and value brands tend to benefit from panic buying, as people look to stock their home with as much as possible in the light of a lockdown. According to IWC, or whiskey brands like wild turkey Crown Royal jack daniels bullet and Maker’s Mark have been the ones that have seen this most increased purchasing. Alright, now on to something not about the Coronavirus Buffalo Trace distillery continues its exploration into oak tree varietals with the release of its old charter oak Tinker PIN code. This species of oak is native to the Midwest United States. These large Chica Pin Oak trees are often found in parks and larger States after the Chica pin barrels were filled with Buffalo Trace mash number one they were then aged for nine years before being bottled at 93 proof of a suggested retail price is going to be a $70 MSRP and like all other releases in this series, supplies will be limited. And the chicken folk bourbon will be available in limited quantities starting in April. Now today’s episode is one that I’m personally really excited about. I’m like a broken record on here preaching how the spirits industry needs a digital revolution. As we’ve seen with the impacts of COVID-19, it’s now become a necessity for this industry to even stay alive. And Cory rellis, the CEO of drizzly, he was on the forefront of this years ago. And this podcast dives into how he even thought of the idea into their business model and how they’re how they’re actually helping stores build a digital infrastructure to sell their goods online, and get it into the hands of consumers faster. We hit on all kinds of topics such as their competitors in the market, what shipping laws could actually mean for drizzly. And is there an opportunity to even extend this business model into cannabis. Now if you haven’t noticed yet, we are doing lots of impromptu live streams that help give you some more entertainment during this time. We’ve done virtual happy hours with our patrons Our community, late night blind tastings and more. So make sure that you’re subscribed to our YouTube channel to get the notifications and also, consider joining Patreon. We’re doing zoom meetings to help connect our community. And we’d love to have you there. Check it out. patreon.com slash bourbon pursuit. Also, don’t forget to catch Fred MiniK on his live streams every single day at one o’clock and nine o’clock pm eastern time. They’ve been highly entertaining and educational. enjoy today’s episode. Stay safe. Stay inside. Here’s Joe from barrel bourbon. And then you’ve got Fred minich with above the char.

5:36
Hey everyone, Joe here again. We work with distilleries from all over the world to source and blend the best ingredients into America’s most curious cask strength whiskies. lift your spirits with barrel bourbon.

5:50
I’m Fred minich. And this is above the char this past week. I’m just telling you, my brain has been suffering. I’ve been working so hard on I’ve been doing two live streams a day on YouTube. I’ve been writing a lot for Forbes, I’ve been blogging as much as I possibly can. And I hit a wall I hit a wall where I had no ideas left me none in the tank. And I want to thank every single one of you who responded to my query on Twitter, where I simply asked Can you please give me some ideas for above the char? I got so many great ones. I’m going to start with this one from the whiskey stop. It’s at the whiskey stop on Twitter. And he wants me to talk about the power of packaging. A unique shape of the bottle. Does it have a twist top a synthetic cork, maybe natural cork a great or unusual label? Did it influence your purchase was a good did it suck? Did the packaging work? its magic on you. What a brilliant question and what a time Hundred like truth is that packaging matters. Oh my God does packaging matter. And let me tell you if you overthink packaging, you will fail and that is where you fail. Most of all when it comes to packaging, what I have noticed is is that many people try to target women and they do it with like a like a fluffy pink or they’ve got some kind of like special dressing on there and they have like rainbow colors, and women rejected every single time. Another one is when someone tries to be overly fancy, they get like a crystal, a major crystal top, a really fancy label, and then they fill it with like two year old MGP whiskey

7:49
adds a big fail.

7:51
So the packaging always has to match what’s inside the bottle and the packaging cannot overstate Something so the overselling is the case of a brand that went too far with trying to attract women. And the whiskey not matching would be the decanter or the bottle that had shit whiskey in it. And the bottle was just stunning. And I’ve always believed that to me, you can measure a bottle by what is fascinating it or the closure. I am such a fan of natural cork you can read my cover story and bourbon plus magazine to get an idea of like, what goes into making court but I am really connected to the earth and I love I love the sustainability aspect of cork. And when I hear that pop when I pull the bottle next to my ears and I go that is an undeniable sound that makes my mouth water and makes me want a sip. A screw top doesn’t do that. Lot of the synthetic corks are like stuck in there like they don’t make that same sound. And the glass tops that are starting to become more popular. I could never get those things off. I have to pry them off with the damn, you know, butter knife. To me it all starts with with a good cork on the top. Now people can argue all day long of the merits of cork, but I’m just here to tell you I know what I like. And I like hearing this sound every time I open a bottle. And that’s this week’s above the char. Hey, listen, I’m bound to continue to run out of ideas with this Coronavirus stuff going on. Because I’m not stopping. I am driving content every single day. So hit me up on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or YouTube and give me some ideas for above the char I’ll select my favorite and read it in the next episode. Next week, cheers.

10:05
Welcome back to another episode of bourbon pursuit, the official podcast of bourbon, Kenny Ryan and Fred in our virtual hangout space. And today we are talking about a topic that we know far or should say, we know all too well, you know, when we talked about this on the roundtables, we talked about it, you know, with distributors, we talked about what is the future consumption and delivery of alcohol really going to look like for the the mass market and we look at, you know, coming from a tech industry myself, we try to figure out, like, how can we get, you know, our product into the hands of consumers faster than anyone else. And what we’re gonna be talking about today is really talking to a company that’s on the forefront of all this. And when we look at this, it’s not only just being able to get in the hands of consumers, but you can get it in less than an hour sometimes. So I think it’s gonna be a really cool conversation of how we really dive into this. So Fred, and Ryan I mean, you know, we’ve we’ve talked about shipping before, but have you all have y’all ever had a service delivered bottles to you yet?

11:08
No, not yet. But I’m super excited to learn about it. I’m fortunate I live like a half mile from a liquor store so we can get it pretty easy. But yeah, I mean, the liquor industry moves at a snail’s pace. So you know, there’s a lot of friction points and getting bottles delivered to your house and I’ve had plenty of bottles delivered to my house just not legally. But I would like to make it legal so yeah, I’m really excited to talk to them about this today.

11:36
Yeah, I’ve had I’ve had quite a bit sent to me I also you know, being being a personality on the spirits network, they regularly send me stuff and they you know, that’s part of their, their whole thing is that you join and you get to be become a Club member, and they ship barrel pics and stuff to you.

11:56
And so let’s go ahead introduce our guests today. So today, we Have Cory rellis Cory is the CEO of drizzly, you might have seen him or the app, you’ve seen probably their logo and a lot of liquor stores are the ones that deliver bottles from liquor stores to your doorstep. So Cory, welcome to the show.

12:15
Thanks for having me, guys.

12:16
So was that a decent elevator pitch? Or do you have a better one? That’s usually us.

12:21
It’s a common misconception. So I would actually like to give you my elevator pitch.

12:25
Please do please do. Yes.

12:27
Yeah. So So actually, drizzly was formed a lot with a lot of knowledge around the regulations that you guys have been discussing. I know we’re going to talk about that further. So I’ll put that in the back for a minute now, but the model is actually different than people think we don’t do delivery. And really what drizzly prides itself on is digitizing the inventory of local liquor stores, so that a consumer can come online, shop across their stores and find a larger selection, comparison pricing and ultimately get that delivered to them. But the delivery is done by either the retailer themselves or Third parties, that door dashes Postmates shifts to the world. And so we’re really a tech middleman empowering the three tiers, but not necessarily changing the status quo.

13:10
Cool. So it’s kind of like a an Open Table kind of concept for liquor stores, maybe you’re kind of looking at what’s available and can then kind of pick and choose that way.

13:20
Yeah, that’s not a bad comparison. And Ryan, you were saying you live next to a liquor store. And I think that’s really drizzly, his opportunity is not necessarily to replace the liquor store, but to provide an experience you couldn’t get by going to any one liquor store. And that goes again, back to selection, to transparency of pricing to the surface and multiple stores being able to get to you when and where you want it.

13:40
And so I kind of want to roll back the hands of time here and kind of learn more about you so kind of talk us through, you know, where did Where did spirits become or is this just like an idea you had and you said, like, Hey, this is fun. Like, this is a this is an opportunity that’s, that’s basically ripe for disruption. Like, what What got to the point of like you getting here and saying like, okay, cool, like this is gonna be a good venture to kind of go through.

14:07
Yeah, it’s a it’s a less sexy story than you might imagine. And it started with regulation. So going all the way back to my cousin Nick, Nick rellis, and then co founder, Justin Robinson. And it was born out of trying to figure out why alcohol was only 2% online, or even one and a half percent online. When you saw grocery, when you saw a restaurant, we saw electronics and clothing, all these other verticals are coming online at a rapid rate. And we started to think about why that is with alcohol. And regulation became the clear component of this whole piece. And so we started digging into the legal code. I mean, truthfully, looking not only at the repeal and the prohibition, but also state by state liquor codes and trying to understand how does this model need to work for alcohol? How can a tech platform both empower the industry but not be a part of the industry and still be an unlicensed entity within it? And then the third piece is, how do you carve your moat? How do you be more than deliberate because you know, when we start projecting the 10 years down the road, that’s a commodity at the end of the day and so we need to be better than going to the liquor store and elevate the status or I’m sorry, elevate the physical liquor stores to do something that couldn’t do in the physical world.

15:11
Alright, so I don’t know if he really answered my question there because I really want to figure out more about you right like Matt

15:17
Boyd. All of those Kenny.

15:19
Bad we want to get to know a little about you, right? I mean, like, like, we’re like so where’d you go to school? Like Where’d it Where’d this really kind of like, really spawn from?

15:27
sure my road was a little bit sideways. I grew up in Texas. And I would say that I’m a big bourbon fan for that reason grew up loving bourbon actually, but was a soccer player at Notre Dame spent five years there had a fifth year for soccer and wanted to play professionally after school. But a couple ACLs later, had to give up that dream and ultimately had done an internship after my first injury, kind of preparing just in case it didn’t work out in the long run, and took a job out here in Boston at Bain Capital. They’re credited affiliates, sanctity advisors. And that’s when I started to get to know businesses a little bit better. I started to get to know regulated industries incredibly well, I was dealing with coal and steel and some pretty, pretty old industries at the end of the day. And then the three of us that I was mentioning, started just kicking around ideas. And so this was a big jump for me, I was in, you know, kind of the standard finance track at that point, thinking about what the next couple of years looked like, whether it be business school, or continuing doing what I was doing. And it felt like the right time to jump it felt like the right collection of folks to try something new with and a little bit of naivete got us to the final to the finish line and push us over the edge

16:40
to like your own little incubator, if you will.

16:43
We had a bunch of ideas. They were all terrible. So

16:47
we struck out on a few. This one became, I mean, really, the passion of the other two guys is what got me to believe and then the more we dug in, the more we really peel back the onion, the more we knew something was here, not just as a small thing. company but something that could really turn into something as a larger platform.

17:03
Give us a timeline behind this what was you know, when when did the light bulb light bulb go off?

17:10
Yeah, so 2012 the light bulb was starting to go off with the text of why can’t you get alcohol delivered? And the response was you can you idiot. And so that started down the rabbit hole of when you get called out to some extent, what do you have to do? You have to take the next step and figure it out. And so that’s when we started researching the liquor code. And it’s funny how things work in Boston being a good microcosm of this project. One question you get and put in touch with the next guy who you can then ask the next question to and it starts to unfold unto itself. And it’s not necessarily we saw some grand vision of what alcohol e commerce would look like and what drizzly has now become, but the next step was always apparent if you’re willing to take the time. So 2012 was the idea. 2013 was the very first iteration and we’ve evolved since then. But bringing one liquor store online. Learning about consumers and what they’re looking for what e commerce was. And then in the last three years, our models really accelerated.

18:07
So walk us through like the state of the industry, then when you guys are getting like what it were liquor stores doing as far as inventory or trying to do online sales, what was kind of the State of the Union when you guys got it started?

18:19
I wouldn’t say it’s too different now. We’re moving it forward, but begrudgingly, I’d say for some of them. So what was fascinating about the current landscape delivery did happen, but it didn’t happen in the paradigm in which we have now moved it towards which you could call liquor store. You didn’t necessarily know it was on their shelves, but you could say, you know, I’m having 10 people over for a party, I’d like to place a $500 order split between a couple things, can you make some recommendations, so there wasn’t transparency into what you could buy nor the price behind it. And you had to have big orders at the store is going to take the time, but delivery did happen to some extent. On the other side. Ecommerce within this space was just like not even on the radar for regulators or legislators. So you’re talking about prohibition being repealed, that is still a lot of the framework and the intent behind the laws that are written. And so there was nothing to comment on e commerce at that point. And one of the first things we did I mean, this is the time of Uber, right? The cars are moving around you at the touch of a button, the world’s changing because you have a phone in your pocket. And we’re sitting here thinking, Okay, well, how does it need to look for alcohol? And unlike Uber, we couldn’t just get into a city try to stoke up consumer demand, and then ask the regulations to be changed. That’s just not the way this industry works. We had to go the other way. And so one of the first things we did was go to New York State, the Liquor Authority, they’re the SLS. And we asked for a declaratory ruling relative to our model to basically say, not only we elite, not only are we legal, but we’re three tier compliant, and we’re doing things so aboveboard, that the SLA is willing to bless our model going forward and so that was actually the first moment where became not just a hobby, but very real and something that we thought we could then Take a run with.

20:01
So you you kind of said, All right, we need to sit down, look at the laws and figure out how we can sort of navigate these choppy waters. I would imagine when we’ve we’ve talked about all the time, anytime you try to put any kind of disruption into this marketplace that there is you’re going to be hit hard with a lot of people that are lobbying against you. What were some of those like early conversations, you remember having people that are like this will never work like you’re not going to get it to fly.

20:29
I have a hard time remembering ones that weren’t like that, to be honest. So I can speak to the other side easier. Most of it was doubt that this is a very slow industry to change. And you have pretty significant entities that control pieces of the supply chain, and if they’re not on board, you’re not going to have success on a macro scale and other slices of it. That can work. You could do direct to consumer wine, you could do shipping, there’s different pieces of it. But on a macro scale of trying to bring the physical footprint of alcohol online. We needed a few things to go right one was New York. And Funny enough, the the woman, Jackie flute, who blessed our model, as the general counsel for the New York State Liquor Authority is now on our team. And she was kind of the veteran in the space when she put her stamp of approval that meant a lot to the industry. The second one was the wholesalers, the wine and spirits, wholesalers of America and powerful group of people and in terms of their lobbying prowess in their space within the industry, and we got them on board as a three tier compliant model that can move forward the consumer experience in a way that they could get behind. So that was that was a big piece of it as well.

21:33
So you talked about being going above and beyond what the authorities there were, what were some of those things that kind of helps sell New Yorker where they were like gave you that that blessing?

21:44
Well, I think transparency is the first thing and not only transparency, communication, but transparency of the supply chain and what consumers purchasing what bottles from what retailer and if you can track all of that which obviously tech can do and can really enable that process. That is a leg up for many Anything that’s happening in delivery today, connect. The second one was, we came with an offering for ID verification through delivery. That was again, not only transparent, but did it in such a way that they could have confidence that under age was not going to be a problem within this business model. And then I think the third part was just being very descriptive on how the flow of funds work. And then also what drizzly is and what just isn’t, I think there’s a line that needs to get drawn as to what is a retailer’s job and competencies. And when you encroach on those too far, you start to erode the license that they have worked hard and in need to live up to, relative to what a software platform is doing on the other side. So it was more just a lot of learning and explaining who we are and how we do it.

22:45
So I know that the liquor laws are they’re different everywhere. I mean, every state is different. You’ve got to navigate that everywhere you’re trying to launch. And so when I think of New York, one of the things that I know of at least in New York, and who knows if at least There’s plenty of stores that actually have websites in New York. And they can deliver within New York as well, like they can run through UPS, FedEx or whatever it is. So what was the idea of going through something like New York first, that might already have some sort of system set up like this versus something like Texas, right, which is a huge market, but has a lot more regulation versus something like DC, which is really like the Wild West?

23:26
Yeah, there’s a few things to pick apart there. So we actually got off the ground in terms of our model in Boston. And then we went to New York to get the model blessed one because of their size and then to the regulatory credibility when they put their stamp on something. But what was unique about Massachusetts in one of those fortuitous things that happens. It is a an incredibly regulatory driven market for alcohol. So if you’re compliant here, you’ve almost kind of fit the lowest common denominator for the rest of the states. And you can roll it out from there. So I think that was a big fortuitous bounce in our direction at the beginning. The second thing We learned from a consumer side of things, every state is so different, and how consumers buy alcohol. Because of the regulations in New York, as you’re mentioning, you have a wine and spirits store and a beer store, you have a license cap so that you don’t have chains. But you have a ton of independence, which is obviously very different than Texas or California, where you have a bevmo or some of these larger chains out there. So the consumer experience really needed to adapt on where you are, and who you’re going to be working with on the retail side, the East Coast was set up pretty pretty darn effectively for us because we could work with independence, learn how to bring on a smaller shop make a real difference in their business. And then as we rolled out to larger cities and states, we were more ready. We were more ready to have conversations with some of the bigger retailers.

24:45
Yeah, I think that’s one of the things that we should most most people that are in the retail market should really start looking at is how do you become a little bit more competitive in today’s market and just being on the corner and relying on your neighbors to kind of keep you in business might not be able to thing that’s gonna keep you floating for much longer. So when you go and you have these conversations, or at least in the very beginning, I’m sure you have a whole team that have these conversations now with liquor stores around the country, what’s your what’s your big selling point to them to say like, hey, like we can bring your inventory online? Do you integrate with like their existing POS? Or does it say like, Hey, you need to have a new POS system that that we we run and manage, like, how does all that work?

25:28
There’s a lot to it. But you appeal to them first as a consumer, and you start to think about other industries and how they’ve come online. And where do you buy airline tickets? Where do you buy hotels? How do you buy or how do you shop? for clothes online aggregator model and starting to get them thinking about this is going to happen in the space. It’s not a matter of if it’s a matter of when and so you appeal to them on a consumer level to start. The next thing you’re really dealing with is fear. You’re dealing with fear of competition, you’re dealing with fear of transparency of pricing, and that’s how far back this industry goes. As you know, they still believe That people can’t get their prices if they wanted to walk in, it gets a little irrational. But then you can speak to them around numbers now. And this is obviously changed over seven years. But you can talk to him about incremental consumers that they wouldn’t have been able to serve otherwise. And we have data behind that. You can talk to him about how a marketplace actually elevates to the experience to the point where multiple stores are able to succeed at a level that if you were the only one doing delivery in this area, we wouldn’t be able to get those consumers to not only come and check out the site, but also come back and shop from you in the future. And then the last thing is, is we need to be more than just the consumer marketplace. And so when you’re talking about point of sale systems, we need to be to elevate and help them generate more profit from their in store business, that things there’s things like the catalog and the accuracy of what’s on their shelves and how they actually think about that there’s data on consumer trends and what they want to put on their shelves at what price at what time. So there’s a lot of things as a tech company that we have access to the can really elevate their entire business and it’s a whole package that when you work with drizzly makes you a better retailer.

27:01
So you brought up up pricing. One thing that we’ve noticed a trend in liquor retailers is there’s a lot of price gouging. Do you have any restrictions or anything like that with the retailers you work with that you set them within like a

27:18
close to the MSRP or anything like that?

27:21
And it’s a good question. So in some states, the price in store is legally mandated to be the price online. And I could give it’s a couple states, it’s not the majority by any means. So that one takes care of itself. But our job is really to bring their in store experience online and the way they want to do it. Our approach to price gouging is not necessarily to give them mandates on what to price it or to keep it in certain things is to insert competition. It’s to have a marketplace to keep them honest to the point where if you are going to try to price things 40 50% up because they’re rare and Other people that have that same item, they’re obviously not going to purchase yours. And so it really just gets back to an efficient marketplace idea and making sure that consumers are the arbiter of what’s successful and not regulations or drizzly or someone else.

28:14
And so to kind of like tackle or shall I say, like, tack onto that one a little bit. When we think about pricing, we’ve actually had KL we’ve had a spirits on the show, because we kind of talked about like, what does it look like to be in an online first kind of market? Right? Like, like, that’s gonna be the new consumer drive. That’s the new demand. If If Amazon’s next whatever’s coming next, if it’s drizzly next, whatever, it’s going to be like that online marketplaces really where people are going to go for. And so the other thing about the pricing aspect is this is like when you put your prices online, you’re creating this level transparency, because you know exactly like what somebody’s charging for a 750 ml in early times versus what somebody else is charging. Does that ever like Upset any retailers? And they’re like, Wait a second, like, how are they able to charge less than I can like, what’s their? What’s their distributor? charging them versus what they’re charging me? Do you get caught any of those kind of situations?

29:12
There’s definitely yes, I mean, transparency introduces more knowledge into the marketplace for sure. Are we introduced to that conversation? Not necessarily. But I’ll tell you one of the biggest learnings from early days it drizzly from switching from a single store experience. I am shopping from the store across the street, who I’ve been brought online through drizzly to a marketplace where I’m shopping by brand first and then drizzle is telling you the best way to access that product, whether it be selection, you can only get it at one place, price delivery, all those different things. And so what’s come out of that though, one store may price something as a margin builder. Another one actually may price price it as a loss leader, and the various strategies within those retailers really come to fruition when you break down those physical barriers and put all of those things on one page together, so it’s not necessarily that, hey, I’m getting a worse deal from my distributor. But it starts to highlight what someone does in store online in a much, much more transparent way. And you compete a little differently online. And so it started to me an education of this is how I went in store helped me win online. And there’s usually an avenue to do that. That’s the bigger conversation more so than I’m getting gouged by my distributor.

30:24
Yeah, that was

30:25
actually going to be my question how, as a liquor store, do you compete online, it kind of reminds me of the car business, you know, like the car industry used to have to rely on a salesman and try to whittle them down and beat them down to get the you know, the most fair price but now everybody knows the price What can a store do to compete? You know, if if you guys are and what parameters are you kind of determining that makes a store better or worse for someone?

30:50
Sure. And it’s one of those things when you when you come on a jersey you’re going to see a bunch of information and that’s really where where I think we can win in the long run. Is asymmetric access to information and that includes price. That includes delivery times, that includes your selection, whether it be longtail wines, or high end and rare Bourbons. And so highlighting that is a big piece of it. And then you start to think about other people that are starting to focus in this industry. I mean, grocery, for example, is starting to come online for alcohol in a bigger way, total wine is being very aggressive. They are feeling independence or feeling that distinctly in the cities that we’re seeing that, but there are advantages to being an independent liquor store location, for example, you have access to consumers within 2030 or 40 minutes that a total one could never get to in that timeframe. Not necessarily selling private label. Private Label online is a little bit more difficult. And so what of your selection, do you want to highlight? What are your higher margin products? And how do we highlight those to the consumers you’re willing to speak to, and then also providing them tools. Again, going back to this data conversation, there’s not a whole lot informing what they put on their shelves except for that stuff. salesmen walking in drizzly can bring transparency to that as well. What are consumers in this area buying? What are the trends? How should you think about pricing it? And how do you build that into an overall larger strategy to have a successful business and in a rapidly changing environment, which we’re seeing, depending on which city different rates, but it’s happening.

32:17
So you brought up data, you bring in a datum, and we are in the age of big data where we are dominated by it. Tell talk, walk us through, like how you use that data? Do you sell it to the to the suppliers? Do you feed it into like a market research hub? How are you using the data you’re acquiring at point of sale?

32:40
Almost all of the data we acquire, we are using to inform our own offering. And so it’s simply commerce things like how do we construct a better flow to increase conversion your likelihood to hit checkout? How do we start moving shelves around in what is effectively a digital liquor store to be more personalized to you So that the next time you come back in, we’re more apt to show you the right product at the right time at the right price. That’s really what we use the data for. Going back to retailers and brands, we can aggregate it and anonymize it and give them larger trends that could be cut down by geography, but never anything that’s highlighting a particular store or a particular consumer more. So just highlighting a different slice of the market. And one of the interesting things about the alcohol industry is you have your Nielsen’s and your IR eyes and some of the bigger data providers who have a interesting offering within the alcohol space. But they’re big gaps, the independent liquor store market where you don’t have receipt data, or you don’t have consistency of point of sale systems. Those are not places so New York has an entire market. Those are not places that people have great insight to and drizzly through its 350 retailers that we partner with in New York City can start to really build transparency into a market that is otherwise been only aggregated into depletion data. So Other things. So there’s an aggregated view for the external partners. For us internally, it’s how do we create a better ecommerce experience?

34:06
Because that thread can be

34:07
actually, you know, it’s fascinating.

34:09
There’s a lot to take in, right.

34:11
I used to cover retail, I used to be the tech writer for the National Retail Federation’s magazine stores, and I felt myself going back to the old days. Listen to you talk there. And follow up on that data is that, you know, we don’t really a lot of the a lot of the numbers that are that are out there that are public. They kind of like you’re saying, like the Nielsen numbers. They’re not really complete. So my question to you is like, why don’t you guys release these numbers? Why don’t you make them public? Since you probably do have the best database of sales numbers of anybody out there?

34:54
There are more craft distilleries popping up around the country now, more than ever before. So how do you find The best stories and the best flavors will rack house whiskey club is a whiskey of the Month Club and they’re on a mission to uncover the best flavors and stories that craft distilleries across the US have to offer rack houses box ship out every two months to 39 states across the US and rack houses April box, they’re featuring a distillery that makes us Seattle craft, Texas heritage and Scottish know how rack house whiskey club is shipping out to whiskies from two bar spirits located near downtown Seattle, including their straight bourbon, go to rack house whiskey club calm to check it out and try some for yourself. Use code pursuit for $25 off your first box.

35:42
My question to you is like, why don’t you guys release these numbers? Why don’t you make them public and you probably do have the best database of sales numbers of anybody out there.

35:53
You’re hitting on a great thing. And we actually do believe in the democratization of our data just because we think it’s going to make all of us Better, including the consumer experience. So we released something a long time ago called the data distillery. We are thinking about how to do this in a larger way, not only for trend data, but again, how do we create something that becomes a backbone for the industry so that we are sharing data? Not because I think some people think you by holding on to it, you’re more valuable. Our view is by using it to make the industry more effective, the consumers will win, which is ultimately what we’re all about. One, one quick anecdote. I mean, we see trends earlier, our average consumer is millennial, older millennial 30 to 34 years old, 5050, male, female, and these are folks who are trendsetters. These are social people. And so, Rosie a couple of years ago, I mean, seltzer took off about eight months online before it did on, you know, in the physical world. So it’s just one of those things where we can really inform based on the trendsetters that purchase on our platform brands and how they should be thinking about the world and then a larger play as to what you’re saying Fred around, using data to benefit the industry.

36:59
Fred, you Actually, you know, and you kind of cover my question, but I guess as a liquor store owner, do I have, you know, do I have the same access to that data? Is every single store within your system? Or is it store specific or regional specific? And like, from a CR is do you have a CRM base as well with drizzly for the retailer?

37:20
We do we do. So if you’re a drizzly retailer, we have a tool that’s actually just culturally retailer and that gives you access to all of your sales data, all of the customers that are purchasing from you. And then also an aggregated view on some of these consumer trends and thoughts around the inventory, you should be stocking. So that is absolutely part of being a partner with drizzly and a CRM side. We’re obviously aggregating eyeballs on our site. We’re aggregating consumers and want to speak to them in an intelligent way. A piece of what we’re doing in 2020 is starting to take our technology and utilizing that to allow retailers to do this themselves. So you can imagine white labeled websites that Allow them to merchandise their own products more effectively and almost have control of their own website by utilizing drizzly assets. And you can start to see where that would go in terms of CRM capability, the ability to talk to their consumers in a more discreet way versus the aggregator marketplace that is drizzly. So there’s a lot within that, but yes, I can see us more and more powering some of their ecommerce needs, not only to benefit us, but I think it’s a necessity for the market to benefit consumers.

38:26
I also think it’s a necessity to because of course it for me, it always comes back to tech. And, you know, you go and you look at some websites, and I mean, some of them are just they’re just archaic, right? You know, a lot of liquor stores, these mom and pop shops that try to build a website, there’s a flash banner on it, you know, whatever it is. And, you know, that’s why, you know, at least not in this particular segment, but this is why a lot of people that are creating their own businesses, they look at things like Shopify because it makes their you know their system a lot easier. I mean, or is that like one of the big selling points that you have for just lead a lot of these retailers is like, let’s Let’s take you at least to the 2020. Now,

39:03
yeah, that’s a great point. So it wasn’t when we started, to be honest, we thought more about how to aggregate consumer demand in our marketplace. And so that’s a little bit different. That’s almost like the Amazon side of things of will collect the eyeballs, we’ll build the technology. And we’re going to utilize your physical shelf space. On the other side, the selling point there is just incremental consumers incremental profit, so that that works. On the other side, there’s so much we can do to look like Shopify to be a platform, which is an entirely different business model, but one that we really think we can enable the hundred thousand independent retailers out there to serve customers, and I keep saying customers because despite everything else that goes on within our business, we talk a lot about internally, the reason for our existence, our purpose behind everything is to to be there for the moments that matter and the people who create them and yes, we sell alcohol and help people transact online. But we’re there to actually provide a better consumer experience and allow them the time and the freedom and To find that right bottle at the right price, I mean, we all know how cool that can be. So, it all comes back to democratizing what we do to the benefit of the end consumer.

40:10
Well, first off, hats off for trying to make change, positive change in this world. That’s always outdated. That’s we know, it’s we know, it’s insanely difficult to actually do. But I think there’s one aspect that you know, we kind of want to touch on as well because it is a it is a part of the drizzly system and no, it’s not just you know, basically creating the catalog for for what the consumer sees, but there there is a component of actually how it is delivered to the end consumer. So kind of touched on a little bit about you know, you said the post mates the, that sort of model of like, how does it once once a transaction happens online, at what point is drizzly done with it, and it’s either on the retailer, it’s on whomever, to get that into the hands of the consumer.

40:57
So when someone hits check out What we have done is send that order through a gateway to the merchant of record, which is the retailer itself. So just one data point there. If you’re shopping from ABC liquors, that is the merchant of record on your credit card drizzly is not within that flow of funds at any point. What we do do on the other side is build the technology so that if the retailer wants to do the delivery, they have the ability to do that it almost is like the Uber driver app to some extent for this space. And that’s about 92% of our orders. So most of this is retailer delivery using our technology, and we are providing the customer support throughout the entire experience until the bottle has received at its location. The third parties are interesting just because delivery is such a inexpensive piece of this whole thing and they’ve added scale and efficiency in a way that you almost need multiple categories, multiple verticals to do and you can imagine a mom and pop getting frustrated on a seven 7pm Friday. Too many orders coming from drizzly too many people internally It would be nice to be able to have a courier of some sort. So that’s what we built in. They’re all tech based, we have full visibility into when it reaches the consumers hands inclusive of ID verification. So we’re always a part of it. And at the same time, we’re not the ones physically handing the bottle off.

42:16
So you’re like a almost like a marketplace, right? As for getting those together? I mean, is I mean, is it really like you’re popping out? And it’s like saying, like, okay, like Uber Eats, post mates doordash, like, whoever is going to answer this, like, come and pick this thing up.

42:29
We don’t put it out to bid per se but we do work with most of the partners you just said. But that was also an idea to be honest. And there’s people who have created that, we found that having one option per store is a little bit better just because you get used to who they are and do things in a in a bit simpler way.

42:44
And so I guess a another question that I kind of want to actually go ahead and because it’s I’m sure it’s a the business side of this. So go ahead and answer it is

42:51
actually a business side. So you talked about how you kind of laid the framework for this whole really, for what is an is an new category that’s kind of changing the space and now you got competition. You got all kinds of people coming on board, minibar and a few others. So how do you? How do you how do you deal with that? How do you, you you have to compete with him at individual retailers? Do you guys share retailers? How does that work with your competition?

43:21
Well, Fred, I mean, going back to 2013 when we Magneto got back in the stone age’s. Exactly. I felt like I got some grit. Now, that was pretty good. In 2013, when we kind of announced the model, there were about 50 meters out there, minibar absolutely being one of them and have a lot of respect for what they’ve done. That phase isn’t necessarily over at any time, but the big boys are now here. And so we’re actually thinking about competition, not necessarily for just alcohol specific, but the logistics firms. I mean, Uber Eats has tried to do alcohol delivery. 10 different times instacart has prioritized alcohol and e commerce. Why Walmart and grocers are starting to think about how to do this in a bigger way, total wine. So you can imagine that there’s, we almost need to find a way to succeed. And this is what we talked about a lot internally. In 567 years, every bottle on every shelf could be transacted online and sent to a consumer, whether it be delivery pickup or shipping. And in that world, how does your business model succeed? And that’s really where it just has been built for. Not necessarily the me twos today that are, you know, predominantly just about delivery and convenience, within that

44:32
value proposition. At what point do you stop, you know, you’re talking about some pretty big names and they’re trying to get in the space? what point do you stop competing and just start? You can’t beat them join them in that regard, is that the end goal? Seems like with most tech companies, they want to get absorbed or bought out, you know, at some point have an exit strategy.

44:51
Yeah, I mean, there’s always there’s always thoughts on the next strategy, but to be honest, we’re being built for the long haul and alcohol is a bit a bit you I mean, there is a moat, from regulation that comes from embracing them, rather than trying to knock down these laws. Now, if tomorrow, the Three cheers went away, and it looked a lot more like selling electronics online, I might have a different tune as to about where we fit in the long run. But I do think we can stick out a place here for the long term. And a lot of that comes back to kind of this underpinning of how do you take regulation and code that into your technology? And then also, how do you take a mom and pop an entirely fragmented retail base, and then aggregate that in such a way using your catalog, your tech that we know where every bottle is in the country, its price and how to get it to a consumer, what you build on top of that within your product experience? Just kind of opens up the world to you and I just think that’s something entirely differentiated and difficult to replicate. All that being said, not looking to sell by any means today, but it’s obviously something you sit up a little straighter when Amazon gets into your space.

45:58
Yeah, I would imagine so. Yeah, I mean, I think I think Amazon might have been one of the big names that, you know, people are gonna recognize and you know, they’re they’re definitely trying to get into the space as well. And so, you know, another question that that kind of follows along with that is the when we start looking at, you know, Amazon, you start looking at instacart, and all these different kinds of companies that are trying to get into it. And if you kind of said something like, if the three tier system is goes down tomorrow, like what what would that really mean for you all? And if basically, this gets democratized to the point that it is just like, buying and you know, buying an electronic off Amazon like, What? What is that? Is that truly like gaming or a game over? I mean, are you really reliant on the three tier system to to make this happen?

46:47
At this point? No, but I think two things become obvious. Right now brands are about as far away that you can be from a consumer when you’re a big CPG right. So they are unbelievable storytellers and brand builders from The awareness message side of things. But it’s not like Procter and Gamble and Walmart, where you have co located offices and you’re trying to figure out where to put things on shelves and incentive basis. And you know, you’re buying shelf space and tap space and the rest. That doesn’t happen well, at least not legally, at least today. And if that goes away, then the way brands work with retailers changes overnight. And drizzly has a value proposition there, but it does need to shift pretty significantly. The other side of the coin though, is we almost need to plan for the three tiers to go away because drizzly successful, when the product experience, the consumer experience is so good that they no longer need to go to the store. And that goes back to not just the selection and the availability and the transparency of price, but then packaging it in such a way that again, almost guided shopping or personalization to where you almost feel like you’re missing out if you’re not going to Jersey because you’ve learned so much about your product. There’s a crazy stat we just learned that you know 40 45% of our consumers Unless you’re using Drupal as a discovery tool, and not necessarily transacting on the platform, I think that’s fascinating. I think that’s something that we can really lean into to drive value for the consumers at the end of the day. And again, I think that’s one of those unique things that regulation be damned, we can do better than anyone else.

48:16
And how does your game change if shipping laws are broken down? Now, let’s say the three tier system still there, and it’s great. However, now that you know, New York and shipped to California, Wisconsin, you can go to Florida, and liquor stores can now compete, you know, across state lines, like what is that? What does that do for your business?

48:37
I think it’d be a little bit of the Wild West to start, I think you’re going to start to see the macro or the larger chains, assert price dominance because they can then start to think of their business on a national scale versus distributor, distributor and state by state. I think we could really take advantage of that world to be honest again, I keep beating on the same point but if we know what’s in 40,000 stores We should be able to surface all of the items at the best price possible for you almost kind of this notion of tell us what you want, we’ll figure out the best way for you to get it. And I think that’s one in which we would really succeed. Shipping is not a huge piece of our business today. But that speaks to the use case, we’re going after more so than the consumer demand inherent within shipping. So I think we could really take advantage of it. It would, it would require a little bit of adaptation and how we do things.

49:24
All right, I want to jump back into some data stuff. This is I think this is some fun. This will be fun for you. What is your best selling bourbon based on your data?

49:36
It’s a little different than you might think. It’s a brand that we’ve done a lot of work with, to try to figure out how it resonates with the millennial consumer but bullet bourbon was our largest brand in 2019.

49:48
Bigger than it’s a

49:49
popular brand,

49:50
but it’s you know, it’s not it’s not necessarily makers, or Jim are some of these other ones. So yeah,

49:55
still a top 10 bourbon from a sales perspective. Now what are The top five selling spirits so like from a categorical perspective

50:06
category spirits are the spirit themselves.

50:09
The so the know the category spirits so like tequila ROM bourbon like what what’s your top five there?

50:16
I might get this wrong but we’ll see here I’d go with vodka. I’d actually go with bourbon, rum, tequila, although I think our tequila selections been incredibly high end and what we’re actually selling which is kind of interesting. And then I’ll check for you here in a second on a fifth. I don’t think I know the fifth off the top of my head.

50:37
You said it wrong. It’s goes bourbon, bourbon, bourbon, bourbon, bourbon,

50:41
right. brown brown, brown brown.

50:44
At least that’s what we want to hear.

50:45
Well, I didn’t I heard there the his mic cut out there when he said another word I don’t

50:53
bleep me out but it’s funny I’ve I’ve sworn on this and I didn’t hear any negative reaction. Now I say anything other than bourbon. And there we go.

51:00
Yeah you get around Fred that’s that’s the type of banter you’re gonna get out of it and so you know as we kind of want to like ask a question because we really didn’t ask it in the very top of this because you said you were a bourbon fan like what’s what’s what’s kind of like your go to you got some favorites cuz I see behind you you got a Coors Light came behind there I figured figured we could I mean you’re in the you’re in the spirits business like let’s let’s get some bourbon on those shelves back there.

51:25
Oh don’t worry we do have that this is just one of the rooms

51:29
well so I like to play nice because we work with a bunch of different brands in their businesses. I’m a big Booker’s fan I love 100 proof Booker’s over a glass device when I go home. I’d say that’s more of a Friday night drink than anything else. But that’s probably my go to if I’m if I’m opening something on the regular.

51:47
What do you mean by by working with brands? Like what is what does that mean to you? Well,

51:52
I think there’s two things. The first would be on the data side. So these are folks who are looking to learn about consumer trends, figure out how their business brands are resonating with consumers. And it’s less even about the online spend. It’s taking those learnings and apply it to the offline. And again, massive media budgets and trying to make them even 1% more efficient by learning about the online consumer in depth. That’s a big piece of it. The second piece is, shirtsleeves, the fastest growing company in the fastest growing channel for alcohol. So to that extent, they are trying to figure out how they’re going to win online. Knowing that in five years 10 12% of all alcohol is going to be sold online. So drizzly can be almost a test and learn area for them. You can speak to consumers in a personalized way. You could sell advertising, we haven’t done much of that to date. But all of these things are basically a lab for them to figure out how their brands can come online, and either keep or grow their market share versus the physical world.

52:49
So what was that you say? 10 to 12% is what it’s going to be in the future.

52:53
Yeah, if you look at some of the larger data providers, they’re projecting 13 $14 billion in 2023. Slightly less ambitious than that. But you’re seeing this industry come online at 40 50% year over year, which is significant, we do think it’s gonna be the fastest growing CPG over the next three to five years.

53:11
So what what do you all need to do to try to position yourselves to say like, we can grow this beyond 10 to 12%? Like how, how do we change the minds of the consumer to say, like, Oh, we can we can get this to 20 to 25%? Like, what do you think has to change in the culture to try and get people to start buying more online?

53:32
I think you’re actually hitting at it pretty good there, which is awareness. Not many people know that you’re allowed to buy alcohol online. And even if you do, there hasn’t been a way to do so that should take away from going to the local liquor store. I mean, that’s, that’s a behavior that’s worked for decades and decades. And so to break that behavior, you need to build something that is not one or two times more effective than going to the store but 10 X and really, that’s where the product offering needs. to elevate the purchasing to where I don’t need to leave my home, or if I did, I need to at least see what’s online to really inform my experience in a way that I could never get on store. So it’s a combination of awareness, and then a product offering that is just so superior going to the store, that they’re going to order it online. Again, utilizing that store, though,

54:18
for sure. And I don’t know, I mean, I guess there is there is also something about, you know, being a consumer going to the store, looking at it holding in your hand. And maybe, maybe that’ll just become a thing of the past. Like, what do you what do you try to do to try to like counteract, like, some arguments like that? I mean, but then again, there’s also like, Alright, well, you know, people used to love to have the feel of holding a newspaper in their hand, but nobody really does that a lot anymore, either. Can I still read the newspaper? I gotta be honest, physical core. You’re killing me, man. Like you’re young. You’re young and hip, man. You shouldn’t be reading a newspaper.

54:54
no and no one I know we call me hip, but that’s all right. I wrote for newspapers for a long time. DDS. to bash on them, I mean, for God’s sake,

55:03
there isn’t. There’s a key word in there that was it was wrong.

55:08
Yeah, but to your to your larger point, I don’t want to necessarily be in a world where you can’t feel a physical bottle where you can’t go look at it, I want to lean into that. And so while the physical store might need to change, I hope it still exists. And I do think it should exist, but in a little bit different format. Instead of trying to have 5000 or 10,000 items on your shelves, and trying to have that inventory in that working capital and play that game. I’d love to see a world where you can almost have a retailer that has an e commerce DNA from day one. And then they have the experiential side of going in being able to taste products being an elevated experience knowing that on the back end, you can get any of those products delivered to you shipped to you or walk away with them from a warehouse around the corner. So they almost become showrooms informed by the DNA of e commerce versus having to compete in the current way of doing things today.

56:00
So So drizzly has been very active on the, you know, on the on the trade front. Where what do you do from a legislative perspective? Dr. You do you guys have a lobby firm that you’re spending time in DC Do you do lobby in every state that you’re in? Talk us through that particular process from the government perspective.

56:23
It’s a core competency of ours. It’s really what we were built on. So we have an internal team composed of General Counsel who has industry affairs experience, and then also the woman I mentioned Jackie fluke, who was on the New York State Liquor Authority, and they’re really quarterbacking state by state, both almost legal protection side of things, and then an advocacy side for what we believe to be the best way to bring this industry online. We have lobbyists in every state that there is legislation moving we’re in those rooms and our real thesis here is the engagement is important because I mean, we spend all day thinking about content tumors and the intersection of their needs and desires with a controlled and regulated substance. We want to be a part of that. And we think we can actually help doing so. So that actually speaks to something else we’re doing, which is taking our platform into the cannabis world in the near future as well.

57:16
Oh, that’s I think you hit on a pretty good topic there because we’ve we’ve actually covered on the podcast before what’s the effect of cannabis and the, the, you know, this the distilled spirits market? What do you kind of see is the cannabis market kind of being an opportunity?

57:30
Well, I think it’s a massive opportunity. And we started, you know, talking about market size. Alcohol is 130 billion dollars sold off premise each year 2% online. So you can do that math. We think cannabis is going to be a 30, maybe $35 billion legal market within five to seven years. But you’re talking 40%, maybe even 50% online. It’s a different consumer behavior, and there’s no ingrained I know how to go to a store and there’s no kind of behavior you need to break off, there’s actually a stigma from going to a store. So all of that coming together, we think is a great opportunity. We do think it needs to be informed by alcohol legislation and the know how behind bringing alcohol online, it’s just it needs to be treated with respect as a category. And that’s one of the things we think we can really bring to that conversation.

58:22
Okay, so I have a request for your cannabis stuff, your delivery, you need to have guys on with backpacks on bicycles. Doing the deliveries through through town.

58:35
You mean like the movie half

58:36
but yeah, exactly.

58:40
Yeah, that’s not gonna.

58:43
That wouldn’t make it right. A legal team.

58:45
Yeah, no, you definitely wouldn’t. But you could absolutely work beside me because I come up with these ideas all day long and get shot down. So it’s good. I mean, it

58:54
is another thing that you know, even with the cannabis market, I mean, if you’re, if you’re always engrained in these legal discussions. Do you find it like fascinating that the legalization of cannabis and the laws change like that? I mean, it is happening fast, way faster than any kind of deregulation of any alcohol allows any alcohol laws that have been there. Do

59:16
you find that kind of fascinating. I mean, there’s states that don’t allow alcohol to be sold online that are going to legalize Canada. I mean, Cannabis, e commerce before alcohol. I mean, it’s so backwards. It’s unbelievable. And yet they factor into the same conversation, if not the same agencies or legislators thinking about it. That is usually tied at the hip. And so I do think they will push each other along. But I don’t ever want to live in a world where they’re not thought of separately than other commodity goods that are not controlled and we get to see it, right. I mean, we do occupy an important position, but under age usage, and just the various respects that come with being in a controlled industry, they do need to be treated with respect.

59:56
Well, awesome. And I think that will I gotta leave One last question for you since you are ingrained in all this so let’s put a let’s put a blank canvas on here if you were to picture like the perfect commerce market of like what alcohol delivery looks like, like what is it in your head?

1:00:16
No other constrictions the perfect alcohol market.

1:00:18
Yeah, like it could be getting rid of three tier system, it’s opening up shipping like what what is your, what is your, your, your kind of dream here of how this would all work and create a better experience for everybody else out there.

1:00:32
I would love to shop at a place that had access to any bottle across the entire country, any bottle whatsoever, the rarest of the rare all the way down to the bud lights of the world. And know the best way to receive that product. And that could be different from me to you. It could be price it could be I want to receive it in the mail versus go pick it up and enjoy it with someone else. But that’s really what I get excited about is if I knew where everything was every single bottle and consumer got to this Not a distributor, not regulations, not anything else, but a consumer got got to decide what they want when they want it. That’s the world I could get pretty excited about online.

1:01:08
Fantastic, Cory, thank you again for coming on the show today. It was great to kind of hear your story, the story of drizzly and really what you all are doing to advance this marketplace a lot further too.

1:01:19
So I did have one last question. And you you, you mentioned that this you had these great trend spotters. What’s the trend right now that you’re seeing that in eight months, you know, we can cash in on

1:01:34
this may not sound that unusual to you. I mean, just you can you can read about in the newspaper now, but low ABV, low caloric intake, things that are part of the health movement are absolutely taking on. It speaks to a larger agenda, which I believe is people are drinking, sometimes more quality or a little bit more specific on more frequent occasions. So that’s drinking less but drinking a little bit better. I think that’s Something we’re seeing is a larger challenge low ABV and low calorie being a piece of that. Okay.

1:02:04
I must be swimming upstream because for me, it’s like give me the highest proof bourbon. And I love I love my stouts that are like 13 14% ABV?

1:02:13
Well, but I think I think you always have to put us bourbon people in a different box because we’re just flat out weird. That’s true. Don’t follow the trends.

1:02:22
That is true. So Cory, thank you again for coming on the show today. It was really was a pleasure to have you. And again, knowing more about you and the company. If people want to know more about drizzly how they can order online, everything like that. Give them an idea of what our listeners can go do.

1:02:37
Yeah, drizzly calm is our website can walk you through what’s available in your area, and if not what could be available for shipping, and also have an app on both iOS and Android and that brings the world of online alcohol to your doorstep.

1:02:50
There you go. If you’re a small online retailer, you now have an opportunity to start capturing the next wave in the market. So I appreciate it. Make sure you go and check out drizzly.com You can also check out all their social media handles. I’m sure they’re everywhere as well. Make sure you follow bourbon pursuit on us. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and if you like what you hear, make sure you support us patreon.com slash bourbon pursuit. Alright, that’s it for this week. Cheers y’all, and we’ll see you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *