The on-demand delivery sector continues to make it harder for couch potatoes to leave the house.

Within days of each other, Postmates and Instacart – major players in the $33 billion food delivery sector – have added alcohol to their menu of Southern California delivery services.

Instacart, which focuses on retail and grocery delivery, announced Monday a partnership with BevMo stores in Orange County. Delivery of wine, beer and spirits are available in Anaheim, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Dana Point, Laguna Niguel, Ladera Ranch, Lake Forest, Rancho Santa Margarita, Costa Mesa, Cypress, Orange and Brea.

Instacart also recently expanded its partnership with Stater Bros. in Orange County. The supermarket also offers beer and wine delivery.

Instacart’s announcement comes a week after Postmates added alcohol to its services in Orange County, Long Beach, Sacramento and San Diego. The service, which promises delivery in less than 25 minutes, expands on a test launched January in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The two join restaurant delivery giant DoorDash, which debuted doorstep delivery of alcohol last summer in Southern California. The Palo Alto-based company, a leader in the fast-growing restaurant meal delivery sector, provides alcohol delivery from 250 restaurants, breweries and liquor stores in Southern California.

While Instacart deliveries are limited to BevMo, Postmates’ app-based program retrieves its craft beer, wine and spirits from local liquor stores. Because the network is large, Postmates guarantees delivery within 25 minutes – much faster than DoorDash.

“We are able to do that because we strategically partnered with merchants that are in prime areas in the zone,” Postmates spokeswoman April Conyers said.

The Register decided to put DoorDash, Postmates and Instacart to the test. (At the time, BevMo wasn’t yet available on Instacart, so we shopped at Stater Bros.) All orders were made at roughly the same time from Orange.

Here’s how they stacked up:

DoorDash: A Few Speed Bumps

Though DoorDash is a market leader in food delivery, speed almost always is an issue with this app-based program. We can forgive DoorDash for hour-long wait times because restaurant food must be prepared, packaged and delivered.

But a fetching a six-pack or a bottle of wine shouldn’t take an hour.

Though DoorDash says its network of restaurants, breweries and liquor stores has doubled since it launched last year, my options in Orange were limited to seven restaurants, breweries and liquor stores. Delivery time estimates ranged from 47 to 59 minutes.

In reality, a liquor store delivery of three craft beer bottles took 59 minutes. The “dasher” or driver lost a few minutes because one of the beers was out of stock. The driver had to call me to get alternate options. Because he was unfamiliar with craft beer, he handed the phone to the liquor store clerk to update the order.

Postmates: Plenty of Choices, Speedy Delivery

At Postmates, the choices are vast.

Using the “drinks” tab, customers shop by the type of beverage. Categories include imported beer, domestic beer, sparkling wine, red wines, white wines, brandy, gin, cognac, rum, tequila, vodka and whiskey.

It’s a smart way to organize. However, I wish it had a craft beer tab, as I found myself swiping past domestic brands like Budweiser before finding a six-pack from craft beer specialist Lagunitas.

As promised, the delivery came lickety-split – 19 minutes.

The driver asked to scan my driver’s license, but the scanning app didn’t work so he entered my driver’s license information manually. It took a few minutes. Unlike the DoorDash driver, he wasn’t frazzled.

Read More at source: The Orange Country Register