2 Newton Gopuff Subsidiaries Sold Alcohol To Underage Students: ABCC

NEWTON, MA – Two Newton-based licensees of the delivery service Gopuff had their licenses to sell and distribute alcohol revoked on Thursday after an investigation found they sold alcohol to underage Boston College freshmen.

The Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission (ABCC) found that GB LL Holdings, a package store, and GB Logistics LLC, a delivery company, violated Massachusetts General Law by selling and delivering alcoholic beverages to people under 21. Both companies face 19 counts each for the violation.

“I want to commend the ABCC team for their diligent work on this case. We are committed to stopping underage drinking and its devastating consequences,” State treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg, who oversees the ABCC, said in a news release. “To prevent these situations, we outreach and educate young people and their families, as well as proactively ensure compliance across the state.”

Investigators conducted surveillance outside of the premises of the GoPuff licensees, located at 82-84 Needham St. in Newton, and observed the subsequent sale and delivery of alcohol to underage Boston College freshmen who used fake ID’s to buy the alcoholic beverages on five different dates in November and December of 2021.

Investigators reported their findings to Gopuff’s manager of record, Chao Liao, after the first sale and delivery, and again after each sale or delivery that followed.

Despite the repeated notices of the violations by investigators to the manager, the ABCC said in their decision they were “struck” by the fact that no action was taken to prevent additional sales and delivery of alcohol to the underage youth.

Both of the Gopuff subsidiaries, GB LL Holdings MA LLC and GB Logistics LLC., had their licenses revoked on Thursday, per the ABCC's decision.

A Gopuff spokesperson said in an email statement they "strongly disagree with the Commission’s decision and will appeal."

“We 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," a Gopuff spokesperson wrote in the statement. "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. These measures included enhanced driver partner education, communication streams, operational compliance procedures, a secret shopper program, and the implementation of enhanced ID scanning technology."