Philadelphia-based delivery platform Gopuff will no longer be allowed to sell alcohol to Massachusetts residents.
The state’s Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission determined that two of Gopuff’s licensees violated their licenses and together were responsible for 19 counts of selling and delivering alcoholic beverages to a person under 21, along with six counts of operating a vehicle without a permit.
Following an investigation, state regulators found that the Gopuff licensees had repeatedly delivered alcohol, including a “bottle of New Amsterdam Pink Whitney vodka” and “Four Roses Small Batch Bourbon,” to minors as young as 18, even after repeated warnings from investigators. Many of these deliveries were made to Boston College students, who used fake licenses to secure the alcohol.
The decision impacts only Gopuff’s alcohol delivery services, Andrew Napolitano, communications director for the Office of the Treasurer and Receiver General, confirmed.
Gopuff, which has its headquarters in Callowhill, delivers groceries, alcohol and other home essentials to customer’s homes.
In response to the decision, a Gopuff spokesperson said they have “always taken the responsible sale and delivery of alcohol extremely seriously and continually enhance the robust systems we have in place to prevent the sale of alcohol to underage customers.”
“As soon as we were made aware of these events, we immediately began working to further enhance our compliance measures in close collaboration with the ABCC,” the spokesperson said. “These measures included enhanced driver partner education, communication streams, operational compliance procedures, a secret shopper program, and the implementation of enhanced ID scanning technology. We strongly disagree with the Commission’s decision and will appeal.”
The commission said the violations were tied to retail package-store licensee GB LL Holdings MA LLC, which is owned by GB LL Holdings LLC and funded by Gobrands Inc., and express transportation permit holder GB Logistics LLC. The commission said the transportation permit issued to GB Logistics had the same business address in Philadelphia as Gobrands.
Underage drinking investigation
The investigation into Gopuff began after the commission received a complaint alleging that GB LL Holdings MA and GB Logistics were selling and delivering alcoholic beverages to minors, according to the commission’s report. The first recorded violations allegedly took place on November 18, 2021. Investigators conducting surveillance outside a licensed Gopuff location in Newton reportedly saw employees load a “large quantity” of alcoholic beverages into a black SUV. The investigators followed the delivery car into Boston, where the employees proceeded to deliver “two 30-packs of Natural Light beer and one 12-pack of White Claw hard seltzer” to “two youthful looking male individuals.”
The investigators approached the young men and delivery vehicle. They found that the young man who presented his identification to the delivery drivers for the alcohol was using a fraudulent North Carolina driver's license, according to the report. His actual Connecticut license showed he was 20 years old, the report showed.
The vehicle’s driver said he worked for Gopuff, according to investigators in their report. When investigators asked to see his transportation permit, he said “he did not have one and had no knowledge of being issued one,” the report stated. Later, an employee at the Newton Gopuff location provided investigators with documentation of the sale. After that violation and future instances, investigators said they notified Chao Liao, manager of record, about the underage deliveries and lack of transportation permits. The report said Liao responded, "That is out of our hands. We have no control over the drivers and operations. We only have control over what's in the building." Liao said the drivers are contracted with another company.
Additional violations, each following a similar pattern, were recorded by investigators on November 18 and 19, 2021, as well as December 2, 8 and 9, 2021, according to the ABCC.
The commission held its hearing on March 7, 2022, to review the violations. In its decision, the commission said the licensees “stipulated to the facts alleged in the investigators reports.”
The commission also noted that it was struck by the fact that investigators had notified Gopuff’s manager of record about the sales and deliveries and “no action was seemingly taken to prevent additional sales and/or deliveries to patrons under the age of twenty-one.”
Gopuff disputes that characterization, pointing to changes it made, including enhancing driver education and ID scanning technology, since being made aware of these violations.
