I know nothing about Instacart, but are they selling the items themselves or are they just a delivery service? Although I imagine an alcohol delivery service has its own problems, specifically with regards to age verification. This shouldn't surprise anybody, alcohol law is complicated. They should feel lucky they have not been hit with heavy fines over this. Everybody in California should feel lucky they can buy alcohol at a Safeway, over here in Maryland chain grocery stores(in fact all non-franchise chains) are not allowed to have liquor licenses.
I know nothing about Instacart, but are they selling the items themselves or are they just a delivery service?
From the article:
"Instacart employees pick up the groceries from a local Safeway and bring them to a user’s door. But that’s where compliance becomes an issue. According to the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, all transactions of alcoholic beverages must be made directly through the vendor that holds the liquor license – in this case, Safeway. An Instacart shopper is not allowed to simply buy alcohol off the shelves and sell it like any other grocery item. So, instead of a customer paying Instacart when buying booze, the money should go to Safeway, and then from Safeway to Instacart."
I've used InstaCart a few times and the employee told me they stop by Safeways to pick up the groceries. If Safeway doesn't have something you ordered, the InstaCart person texts you asking if you want a refund on that item or a similar item.
