Ahold-owned Peapod said that it is expanding its online grocery service to northwest Indiana, according to stories in the Munster Times.
Peapod currently serves 22 US markets, including the Chicago metropolitan area. Most of the markets are on the east cast, where the service is marketed in conjunction with Ahold-owned brick-and-mortar chains Stop & Shop and Giant; in Chicago and Milwaukee – and now Indiana - customers are served by a central warehouse and the service is marketed as an independent entity.
Peapod currently serves 22 US markets, including the Chicago metropolitan area. Most of the markets are on the east cast, where the service is marketed in conjunction with Ahold-owned brick-and-mortar chains Stop & Shop and Giant; in Chicago and Milwaukee – and now Indiana - customers are served by a central warehouse and the service is marketed as an independent entity.
- KC's View:
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It’s interesting to read the news coverage of the expansion and see the extent to which Peapod’s advantages as a money-saving service – that 1,000 of the 8,000 SKUs carried by Peapod are on sale each week. Add that to the argument – advanced elsewhere but relevant to this discussion – that buying online mans buying with greater discipline, and that buying with greater discipline means fewer impulse purchases, and that fewer impulse purchases means saving money.
The recession might end up being a good thing for the online grocery business.
And because I have a natural bias in favor of online shopping alternatives, I’m always glad to see companies like Peapod continue to grow. It is a slow, steady march…always focused. It’s sort of like the like from “Hoosiers,” in which Coach Norman Dale (Gene Hackman) says, “There's a tradition in tournament play – you do not talk about the next step until you've climbed the one in front of you.”
