Postmates rolls out beer delivery service in Philly

Despite this reporter’s disbelief, summer is over.

But if a cold beer is something you enjoy any time of the year (and you’re in Philly) Postmates has some good news for you: The San Francisco on-demand delivery startup is rolling out its beer delivery service here.

To help promote the new service, the company is offering free delivery on orders for its DRINKS vertical, announced in January of this year. The service is live in 17 U.S. markets including Philly, with more rollouts expected for the rest of the year.

Similar to its model with everything else they deliver, Postmates isn’t storing any beer inventory themselves but rather partnering with local merchants to provide the goods.

“Philadelphia has always been a strong market for Postmates, so it was on the top of our list when looking at which cities we’d bring DRINKS to first,” said in an email Sarina Virk Torrendell, general manager of DRINKS at the company. “Postmates is proud to drive growth to local economies through our partnerships with small businesses, including the local distributors we’ve partnered with to make these deliveries in 25 minutes or less.”

A spokeswoman for Postmates didn’t provide specific numbers for Philly, but said the company had seen “strong growth” since the 2014 Philly launch. The on-demand delivery service is operating in 44 U.S. metros with a workforce of 100,000 “Postmates” (aka delivery drivers) doing about 2.5 million deliveries a month.

Callowhill delivery startup goPuff also offers beer delivery in Philly, as well as another dozen markets across the country.