Kolkata: Tipplers queue up at off-shops before ‘dry days’; home delivery allowed – Times of India

People stock up on liquor on Saturday before off-shops shut down for 15 days from Sunday

KOLKATA: Tipplers in the city, who have run out of their liquor stock, will have to solely depend on home delivery for the next 15 days. An excise department official confirmed all liquor off-shops will remain shut till May 30, going by the circular issued by the state.
Bars or on-shops in the city have already been shut since May 1. “All off-shop owners are free to deliver liquor to homes through apps or they can do so themselves if they want to,” said an excise official. The city has 350 bars (on-shops) and over 1,500 off-shops and country spirit shops . The total figure in Bengal is over 7,000, taking bars and off-shops together.
There might be the option of home delivery of liquor but people made a beeline for off-shops on Saturday afternoon, even before the establishments opened at 5pm, so that they could stock up for the next fortnight. Serpentine queues could be seen at many shops with buyers leaving with cartons of bottles and cans.
A leading retailer, who has multiple off-shops in the city, however, said home delivery was not a very lucrative option. Also, delivering liquor home by shops and not through apps meant major logistics problems, he said. “Most leading apps have withdrawn from the liquor home delivery system. The only major e-commerce player still doing it is Swiggy. The sales from home delivery is not even 20% of our counter sales on a normal day,” he said. Last May, following state nod, Swiggy, Zomato and Hip-Bar had enrolled for home delivery of liquor. The state beverage corporation, the wholesale liquor arm of the state, had also introduced an app for e-tailing of liquor.
Bevco officials, who have been instructed to keep their warehouses open for limited hours from Monday to supplement the e-commerce of liquor by off-shops, said there was adequate stock as liquor sales had been low over the past two weeks, following closure of bars and restricted timing for off-shops. “We have stock for 14-15 days in the warehouses, even if the demand is normal. But the problem for retailers could be to organize logistics,” a Bevco official added.