Online Grocery Delivery and Shopping

After living in Spain, I realized that grocery delivery in the USA would be a big success. Not only is grocery shopping popular in the USA, more countries are moving toward an upward trend of buying groceries online.

In Israel, 13% votes from a poll gathered that they order groceries by telephone or grocery delivery using the internet.

Read more of the story:

Survey: 13% buy groceries via Internet or by telephone
By Dafna Lutzky

Squeezing tomatoes and sniffing parsley are slowly becoming a habit of the past.
Israelis are quickly growing accustomed to buying their food with a keystroke, as a Trade and Industry Ministry survey revealed that 200,000 households - 13 percent of Jewish families - make a remote grocery purchase using either the telephone or the Internet.

The survey is the first of its kind, so there are no comparative figures, but 200,000 households that no longer visit the supermarket is a surprisingly high number, indicating Israelis are changing their shopping habits with technological advances.

The three major foodstuffs retailers all operate Internet sites that also accept telephone orders: Net Sal which belongs to Supersol, Blue Center which belongs to Blue Square, and Jumbo Direct which belongs to Clubmarket.

The grocery retail chains believe the Trade Ministry survey is encouraging. “The figures are a positive surprise,” said Shlomi Gindi, Supersol vice president for marketing and trade. “The trend is up, and we expect this to continue.”

Blue Center reports a 23 percent increase in proceeds and a 22 percent rise in the number of customers in the first half of the year. Jumbo Direct reported doubling revenues over 2003. Senior Trade official Benny Pfefferman said the figures indicate that time is becoming a rarer commodity, which impacts consumption habits.

Although the 500-participant survey did not differentiate between telephone and Internet orders, Trade assumes there is a strong link between the type of population, education level and location of residence and computer usage. Trade assumes that only 6,500-8,000 Jewish households do their grocery shopping over the Internet, representing 0.5 percent of the population and 4 percent of remote shoppers. Fifty-five percent of Israeli households have computers, and half of these have Internet connections.

The grocery chains’ figures do not support the Trade conclusions about computer usage. “About 50 percent of Blue Center purchases are done via the Internet,” Blue Square stated.

The Internet shopping services target an educated, secular population. However, the survey indicated that the population that does the most remote grocery shopping was done by the ultra-Orthodox community (25.5 percent), although over 80 percent of that population shops from home only occasionally.

“Subscribers are mostly from stronger socio-economic groups,” Net Sal confirms. “However, this is not an elitist service. Remote shopping avoids the temptations of physical presence in the stores, saving a great deal of money.”

Clubmarket marketing vice president Gershon Weissman claims otherwise. “We have smashed the myth that remote shopping is expensive. Jumbo Direct offers clients and consumers quality fresh products at the Jumbo chain’s discount prices.”

All the retailers report that the remote shopping basket is larger than the in-store basket. Jumbo Direct describe an average purchase of NIS 500, while Blue Center reports NIS 350. Gindi attributes the difference between the high NIS 500 Net Sal basket to the far lower - NIS 100 - to labor-saving measures. “Clearly, customers save their shopping and make a single larger purchase via the service, including ordering heavy products like soft drinks, in order to make use of the delivery service.”

A Haaretz review indicates the on-line shopping services have improved almost beyond recognition since 2000.

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With the large amount of baby boomers getting older and prescription cost are higher most elderly have to make a decision whether its more important to receive food or prescription drugs. Here is a story about a woman and many others in the same dilemma.

JOY EHLERT HAS BECOME accustomed to spotting the signs of poverty among elderly people. Ehlert, the nutrition director for the Humboldt Senior Resource Center, was at the meat counter of a local market one day when she overheard an old woman telling the butcher that she didn’t see what she was looking for. What was that? he asked.

“The trimmings from the bacon,” the woman replied. When the butcher went in the back to look, the woman turned to Ehlert.

“I just don’t know what I’m going to do,” she said. “I’m taking my last pill, and it costs $100″ for the prescription. In her basket was one small can of vegetables. She was buying nothing else. The butcher returned, handing the woman a small wrapped package.

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One of the most popular online grocery delivery stores online just launched a new extension to their services called Simonbucks. It will reward customers with money back on all purchases. It is a big step and it should be successful. Read the press release below:

GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn., Dec. 16 /PRNewswire/ — SimonDelivers, the Twin Cities premier on-line grocery delivery service, launched a new on-line 'virtual' shopping mall this week called SimonBucks. SimonBucks is a portal to on-line shopping that will reward customers with money back on all purchases. SimonBucks features nationally recognized on-line merchants like REI.com, Cooking.com, Macy's.com and many more.

"We are excited to bring this new service and rewards to our customers," says David Gandrud, Director of Marketing of SimonDelivers. "This service is a natural extension for our current customers who have proven they are savvy on-line users and shoppers."
Customers will receive a percentage back, which currently ranges from 1% upwards to 20%, on their purchases when their shopping originates from SimonBucks. SimonBucks are automatically tracked and added to accounts. Once customers have accumulated a minimum of $10 in SimonBucks they can redeem them for full credit on purchases of gifts, wine & spirits and groceries at SimonDelivers.com.
SimonDelivers currently features over 100 on-line merchants and plans to grow that number over the next few months with a special focus on strategic affiliations. "For customers who love to shop on-line it becomes a no-brainer," says Gandrud. "You might as well get rewarded for your efforts."
SimonBucks can be accessed by logging into http://www.simondelivers.com/ and clicking the SimonBucks icon. Users must have an account with SimonDelivers to access the site and the benefits.

About SimonDelivers.com

SimonDeliver.com offers convenient delivery and new lower prices on thousands of everyday items including grocery, general merchandise, fresh meat, produce, deli and seafood, national and local brands, as well as a Wine & Spirits Shop.

Quelle: SimonDelivers

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