It’s a rainy fall afternoon in Bellingham and you’re feeling like cracking a good beer, but don’t really have an interest in leaving your home. You’ve got things to do at your house and you’d just prefer to drink a good beer while you do those things. Your beer fridge is empty and you’re not interested in walking in the pouring rain to your car, driving to the brewery, walking through the crowds, laboring over a purchase, waiting in line, back to the car, drive through traffic, park, walk back through the rain and then get back to your task list.
What do you do?
Normally, you’d curl up in a ball in defeat and your whole day is lost. Boundary Bay Brewery is about to uncurl you and fix all your beer problems. Enter…
…Boundary Bay Beer Delivery.
Yep, you can now get beer delivered to your doorstep, in the comfort of your own home. It’s great for house parties, business functions and just for those not interested in leaving their house that day.
For the past couple weeks, Boundary Bay Brewery has delivered beer during the soft launch, to work out any potential kinks and get a feel for workflow. On a sunny day, Boundary Bay dropped by my house and brought me a long for a few deliveries. I was whisked away in a van with our trusted driver Will, Boundary’s Kari Humphreys and GM Janet Lightner.
Boundary Beer Delivery allows you to order in two different ways: By phone (360-647-5593) or through their new beer delivery website.
The website gives you a menu to choose anything from 6 packs of Cedar Dust, to their special bottles like Ekstatik Nostratik, to kegs of beer. The minimum order is $15 and the delivery cost is a $5 flat rate. There will be no money exchanged with drivers (unless you decide to tip!) because it will all be handled either on their website, or over the phone. My call is to use the website.
For the time being, delivery is available within 98225 and parts of other zip codes, BUT Lightner told me it’s really up to the driver’s discretion based on delivery deadlines and distance. If you ordered a keg Boundary will also pick it back up for a very reasonable fee. Who wants to pick up their own keg? I argue that no one wants to do that! Delivery is available from 11am through 11pm Thurs-Sat and Sundays 11am – 8:30pm.
When you place your order it’s sent to Boundary’s Beer Delivery Dispatch Team. Dispatch sends the order, directions and any special instructions to a driver and your beer is off for delivery. You can expect to have your beer delivered in as little as 30min. I’ve talked to others who have used the service and they got their beer within 20min. But delivery time is dependent on a number of factors. You can also do a future scheduled order, where you establish a time to have your beer delivered within the next few days.
Lightner reflected, “The way that Boundary has always grown is organically. Growth came out of a natural progression. This is something that truly started from the idea phase and was very intentional.”
As we drove to Fairhaven for our first delivery Humphreys said, “We hope that this allows Boundary to connect with customers more than we ever have. We want that connection with people.”
On the way back from our first delivery a phone pinged, announcing another delivery order. This one was an “ASAP Delivery” meaning the customer needed it in 30min.
The iconic van reflects the branding Boundary wanted. It will have signage and be used for a number of Boundary events, outside of beer delivery. It’s a vintage VW Van that Boundary located and chose to make the centerpiece of the service. That being said, delivery drivers can use their own vehicles as well.
The delivery service really opens up a number of opportunities to evolve how Boundary interacts with the community. Perhaps they offer food specials along with beer delivery, or even exclusive beers, only available to delivery customers. But the community will tell them what they want and you can bet we’ll “Never go beerless.” Place your first delivery order here.