Is AllocationWatch free to use?

Yes. AllocationWatch is completely free for shoppers and enthusiasts to browse public retailer snapshots, check nearby store inventory, and receive early drop alerts.

How does AllocationWatch gather inventory data?

We monitor publicly accessible inventory and release channels across state agencies (such as OHLQ in Ohio) and selected regional retail networks in Indiana, Kentucky, and Illinois. We never bypass login walls or security controls.

How often is inventory refreshed?

Monitors poll throughout the day during active retail delivery windows. The homepage shows how long ago the newest successful poll ran, this page's Last good inventory figure gives its exact time, and every page footer shows when the page was built.

Does an in-stock listing guarantee a bottle will be there?

No. Public retailer inventories can lag by several hours, and popular allocated bottles often sell out within minutes of being unpacked. We strongly recommend calling the store or opening the retailer's direct listing before driving.

Do you track secondary market or resale prices?

No. AllocationWatch tracks lawful retail channels and compares shelf prices against official state MSRP and suggested fair-retail price references. We do not participate in, promote, or track the secondary resale market.

What changed recently, and why the snapshot is trustworthy.

AllocationWatch is a rendered, reader-facing snapshot. This page explains the maintenance signals behind it without publishing a bulk data feed, API, JSON dump or CSV export.

Last good inventory: Oct 9 at 9:11 PM ET; newest successful live poll · static snapshot
Stores watched: 664; across live sources
Bottle pages: 19; rendered shopper guides
Recent arrivals: 0; last 7 days, rendered summary

Freshness at a glance

Rendered HTML, not a health feed

Source health

3 live sources fresh; 1 source needs caution.

Fresh means the latest successful live inventory poll is under two hours old. Degraded or stale sources are still shown, but clearly labelled so a reader knows to verify with the retailer before driving.

Fresh: 3
Stale: 0
Degraded: 1
Paused: 0
Catalog: 1

Details by source live on the Sources page. This trust page deliberately does not expose raw poll attempts, rows, or machine-readable companion files.

Recent activity

Since Oct 2 at 9:18 PM ET

A short, capped HTML list shows that stock is moving and the monitor is being refreshed. It is intentionally not complete enough to scrape as a bulk feed.

No stock changes are in the recent activity window yet. The freshness cards still show whether each source is polling cleanly.

Last 7 days: 0 visible stock changes, 0 arrivals, 0 sell-throughs, 0 stores touched.

What changed on the site

Bottle guides

pages with maps, locations, FAQs and share links

Near me

ZIP

offline search is rendered into the page; no public API call

Source labels

state/source cards use labels: fresh, stale, degraded, paused or catalog

Data boundary

AllocationWatch reads public retailer inventory and renders shopper pages from it. The public site does not publish normalized bulk inventory, raw poll history, a JSON API, CSV files or an RSS-style feed.

Retailer pages remain the source of truth for price, count and availability at purchase time.

What stays on your device

A few preferences are kept in this browser's local storage so pages can honor them on your next visit. Everything listed here stays in this browser: it is not sent to AllocationWatch, and clearing this site's data in your browser removes it.

allocationwatch-theme: Your light or dark theme choice, written only when you use the theme toggle.
allocationwatch-nearby: Your ZIP code and search radius, written only when you choose to remember your ZIP on this device. Browser-provided location is never stored.
allocationwatch-visit: The time of your last homepage visit and the find count shown then, so the homepage can show new finds since your last visit.
aw-voted-bottles: The bottle requests you have already voted for, so those vote buttons stay marked and you are not asked twice.

Using your current location

The optional Use my location button asks your browser for permission. If you allow it, the browser adds latitude and longitude to the Nearby page URL so the page can calculate distances; those coordinates are not written to this site's local storage or included in the rendered snapshot.

Because they are in the URL, coordinates can remain in your browser history and are sent with the request that loads that Nearby page. Use a ZIP code instead on a shared device, or remove the coordinates from the address bar before sharing a link.

Frequently asked questions

Methodology & Trust

Is AllocationWatch free to use?: Yes. AllocationWatch is completely free for shoppers and enthusiasts to browse public retailer snapshots, check nearby store inventory, and receive early drop alerts.
How does AllocationWatch gather inventory data?: We monitor publicly accessible inventory and release channels across state agencies (such as OHLQ in Ohio) and selected regional retail networks in Indiana, Kentucky, and Illinois. We never bypass login walls or security controls.
How often is inventory refreshed?: Monitors poll throughout the day during active retail delivery windows. The homepage shows how long ago the newest successful poll ran, this page's Last good inventory figure gives its exact time, and every page footer shows when the page was built.
Does an in-stock listing guarantee a bottle will be there?: No. Public retailer inventories can lag by several hours, and popular allocated bottles often sell out within minutes of being unpacked. We strongly recommend calling the store or opening the retailer's direct listing before driving.
Do you track secondary market or resale prices?: No. AllocationWatch tracks lawful retail channels and compares shelf prices against official state MSRP and suggested fair-retail price references. We do not participate in, promote, or track the secondary resale market.