Alcohol shopping made easy by app developed in Red Deer

He adds it’s also important to note that Doortender is not a third party delivery service, but has its own liquor store to deliver from at 6782 50 Ave #5, in Red Deer.

Klaus says Doortender was founded by four lifelong friends who grew up in Red Deer and attended Lindsay Thurber High School together.

left to right: Brian Abelseth, Troy Klaus, Jesse Rutherford, Paul Abelseth (photo submitted).

Now in their late 20s and having been laid off in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Klaus says they recognized the growing popularity of food delivery and thought of offering something similar for alcohol.

“We decided to jump in head-first,” recalls Klaus. “It took us about 90 days and we were fully open and operational starting just before Canada Day. There’s the four founders, and then we have a few contracted drivers that work for us as well.”

With COVID-19 impacting the way people shop and do business now, Klaus admits it was important to get up and running as soon as possible.

“It’s just an added convenience, adding time back to your day,” says Klaus. “You don’t need to get up and drive to the liquor store and back because it will be at your door by the time it would have taken you anyways.”

After roughly 10 weeks in business, Klaus says Doortender has been well-received in Red Deer so far.

“We find that as soon as a customer uses Doortender for the first time, they soon realize there isn’t much of a need to go to the liquor store anymore, so we get a lot of repeat business,” remarks Klaus. “The biggest thing is just changing people’s habits because we’ve been obviously going to the liquor store forever, so changing the consumer’s behavior is tough. But we’re making definite progress and each week we’re getting busier and busier.”

Klaus notes Doortender has also been accepted into a competitive technology startup incubator program called Propel, through Startup Edmonton.

“We think that’s really going to help us and take this Red Deer-founded, Red Deer-based startup and help us scale across Alberta and beyond,” he exclaims. “They offer us access to mentors and a great network of people that have done this before, have built businesses and technology companies and scale them, as well as access to investors that can help get us to that next level.”

Klaus says they really want to prove the Doortender concept in Red Deer over the next few months.

“In a perfect world, we are growing to the major markets in Alberta – Edmonton and Calgary,” suggests Klaus. “Certainly within the next 12 months. Hopefully sooner.”

“The way the world is going, we wanted to try to create another avenue of jobs in the city,” concludes Klaus. “I don’t think there are a lot of tech startups in Red Deer and I think it’s important that we begin diversifying the economy. It’s great, and if we can do anything to add jobs to the community and attract young, bright people to Doortender to help us grow, that’s really what we’re hoping for as a secondary benefit of this venture.”

by Sheldon Spackman

Alcohol shopping made easy by app developed in Red Deer

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