RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Virginia ABC has launched a pilot initiative to ship its products to customers with home addresses near five stores across the commonwealth, including one in the city of Richmond.
People living in select areas of Richmond, Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads can order online and have spirits, mixers and wines shipped directly to them if their address falls within the shipping zone of five ABC stores taking part in the initiative.
“Home shipping is a priority for Virginia ABC, not only as a way of meeting our customers’ needs and expectations for convenience and service but also to provide an additional contactless way to receive our products,” Travis Hill, the CEO of Virginia ABC, said in a statement.
Virginia ABC provided a list of the five stores and each store’s shipping zone radius:
- Residents living within a 15-mile radius of the Store 99 at 378 Elden Street in Herndon
- Residents living within a 25-mile radius of Store 86 at 2610 Buford Road in Richmond
- Residents living within a 25-mile radius of Store 136 at 32-F Catoctin Circle in Leesburg
- Residents living within a 25-mile radius of Store 349 at 237 South Battlefield Boulevard in Chesapeake
- Residents living within a 25-mile radius of Store 377 at 3575 Bridge Road, Suite 29 in Suffolk
Virginia ABC has set a $10 minimum and a 12-bottle limit for all shipping orders. There is also a $10 flat rate and a $2.50 per bottle fee for each order.
If an order is placed Monday through Thursday before 2 p.m., it will arrive the next day but orders made after 2 p.m. are not guaranteed to be delivered the following day. Any order made during the weekend could take two to three days, Virginia ABC said in a release.
Each store will have a limited number of orders it can process each day and certain specialty items –highly sought bourbons, whiskies and other small-batch spirits offerings — won’t be available for home shipping. In order to have products shipped to their homes, customers must go online and follow these steps:
- Select one of the five shipping stores using the store finder tool or the “My Store” link in the header.
- Click “Make This My Store.”
- Add products to your cart.
- Go to the checkout screen and select “Ship to My Home.”
- Enter home shipping information on the checkout page. This validates whether your address is eligible for shipping from your selected store.
Hill said the agency hopes to expand the pilot shipping initiative to other areas of Virginia next year.
“During this pilot, we will gather insight into customer demand and operational capabilities. This experience will help us to continue to improve our processes and explore the potential for expanding the service to other areas of the state in 2021,” the CEO’s statement continued.
