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As convenient as home delivery is, for items that don’t fit through a standard letterbox, a considerable amount of scheduling is often needed to ensure that someone will be home at the necessary time. Inspired by health food delivery schemes, London startup Garçon Wines found a way to provide the same service with wine. To allow a full-size bottle of wine to fit through the letterbox without breaking, the team redesigned the traditional 750 ml glass bottle.

Using a heavy duty, glass-like plastic, Garçon Wine club bottles are thinner and longer than a typically-shaped bottle yet contain the same amount of wine. Packaged in special boxes, the bottles are specially designed to handle the stresses of traveling through the post and arriving inside the home unbroken. Club members can choose from a variety of subscriptions. The options currently available are daily, weekly or bi-weekly deliveries.

Following the initial surge in popularity of subscription and delivery services, new companies and projects are finding novel ways to tailor products for a broader audience. An on-demand service is now available to seniors without smartphones, allowing users to order, among other things, taxis and food delivery. A charity is teaching unemployed people how to set up their own delivery service and then connecting them with local artisan bakers who supply the product. How else could creative applications of the subscription and delivery concepts help make a difference?