The Bottle Compass™ is the store finder on Educated Ice™, an independent cocktail and home-bar site. Readers type a zip code and see every licensed liquor store near them - more than 40,000 stores across Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming - with more coming. The listings come from public state license files, which is why your store is already there whether or not we have ever spoken. See for yourself: search your store's name on the Compass, then come back and claim it.
What claiming gets you
A license file carries a name and an address, and nothing else. A claimed listing carries what actually sends a customer through your door: your hours, your phone, your website, and your own ordering link if you have one. The readers we send land on the channel you own - not an app, not a marketplace, yours.
What it costs
Nothing. Not now, not later - a free listing stays free, and everything a reader sees on it stays free. We are the map, not the middleman: we take no commission, no per-order fee, and no percentage of anything, ever. For comparison, the delivery apps' own published commission tiers run 15 to 30 percent of every order - DoorDash publishes 15, 25, and 30 percent tiers; Uber Eats recently raised its lowest tier to 20 percent. A customer who finds you through the Compass is entirely, permanently yours.
If you want more than the basics
There is one paid option: a Featured placement at the top of your city's page - plainly labeled, a flat monthly price, never a percentage of anything, and never mixed into the regular list. The regular listing stays complete and free either way. Ask about it in the form below if you are curious; skip it if you are not.
Claim your listing
Two minutes. We match your claim against the state license file, then follow up from drink@educatedice.com to confirm the details before anything changes.
Fair questions
- Why is my store listed when I never signed up?
- The listing is built from your state's public license file - the same public record any directory or map service works from. Claiming it just puts you in charge of what it says.
- Something in my listing is wrong.
- The claim form fixes it fastest - or email drink@educatedice.com and we will correct it against the state record.
- Will the free listing ever get worse so the paid one looks better?
- No. Everything a reader sees today - name, address, map pin, phone, website - stays on the free listing permanently. The paid option buys placement, never your basics.
- Who runs this?
- Educated Ice is an independent editorial site about cocktails and the home bar. The Bottle Compass exists because our readers kept asking where to actually buy the bottle - and the honest answer is usually a store like yours, a few blocks away.