Photo by Erin Nelson.
Kim Stone, CEO, and Preston Hooten, co-owner and chief operating officer, at the BUZD warehouse in Five Points South on June 8.
A new Birmingham delivery app looks to change the game when it comes to alcohol delivery in Alabama.
BUZD, a new alcohol delivery service based in Birmingham, announced the launch of its new app May 31.
All of the alcohol BUZD delivers is in-house, selling inventory from Dave’s Pub, a bar in Five Points South, instead of sending drivers to buy products from supermarkets or liquor stores, said Preston Hooten, chief operating officer at BUZD.
Dave’s Pub uses a special on- and off-premise liquor license to be able to sell its own inventory as long as the warehouse is in the same building as the bar, which allows them to deliver products to the consumer faster and sell alcohol at a cheaper price, Hooten said.
BUZD sells all types of alcohol including beer, wine and spirits as well as CBD, Delta-8 products and accessories provided by Near to Me, a dispensary in Five Points South that is owned by the owner of Dave’s Pub, John Parker.
Customers save money, Hooten said, because they don’t have to pay for the additional expense of a delivery driver getting out of their car to buy a product and then deliver it to the consumer, on top of tipping a driver.
“One of our biggest features that is going to set us apart in the market is our speed,” Hooten said. “The way that this has all been set up is also for driver convenience so we don’t have to put them through the situation of, ‘Hey, go into Publix and get a 2015 Napa Valley cabernet called this.’”
“I think we can all agree that an alcohol delivery app is going to be inevitable here [in Alabama],” said Kim Stone, chief executive officer at BUZD and Near to Me. “We see the volume that other states are doing this at, but where the concept of BUZD becomes different from everyone else is through that partnership with Dave’s — it’s through that special license.”
BUZD currently delivers to Vestavia Hills, Homewood, West Hoover, Birmingham, Irondale and Mountain Brook. The service delivers Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. and Sundays from noon to 2 a.m.
