Online grocery shopping hits Springfield

The grocery store. The garden. The farmer’s market.

The computer?

In Springfield and surrounding communities, Internet users can now shop online through Price Cutter Supermarkets. Price Cutter Online, aimed at working professionals, stay-at-home moms, families and people too busy or unable to shop for themselves, launched July 24.

The rookie

The idea is simple: Customers go to the store’s Web site, www.pricecutteronline.com, and place their grocery orders. Anything in the store is fair game, from meat to produce, canned goods to frozen foods.

A designated store shopper then goes through the aisles, collecting and bagging the order for pick-up or delivery. There’s a $5 fee for pickup and a $10 fee for delivery.

“In the last few years we’ve been trying to stay on top of what’s new and what we can offer that someone else is not doing,” said Rob Marsh, Price Cutter director of planning and development. “My job is to figure out what other services we can provide to people who can’t make it to our stores. If it’s more convenient for us to bring (groceries) to them, that’s great.”

The operation is not just aimed at residential customers, either; Marsh said businesses can benefit just as much from the service.

“In our research, we found that online grocery shoppers were often law firms working on cases and too busy to leave for lunch, or businesses like car dealerships or banks ordering food to throw a customer appreciation day, staff lunch, or open house,” he said.

All delivery and pick-up services are based out of the Price Cutter Plus at 4228 S. National Ave.

“That store is already familiar with delivery since our floral delivery is based there,” Marsh said. “Later on, we may need to consider expanding to meet customers’ needs, but the central location on South National is a great place to get started.”

The company invested about $75,000 to start the program. Most of the investment was for the purchase of new delivery vans; items are pulled directly from store shelves, so no extra storage space is required.

The veteran

Price Cutter hopes to gain a foothold in a rapidly growing business sector; independent research firm Jupiter Research said online grocery sales totaled more than $2 billion in 2004, and by 2008, it’s estimated to be a $6.5 billion industry.

St. Louis-based Schnucks supermarkets is an old hand at the online grocery game – the company first began offering the service in 1990, when turnaround time was a full day due to the lack of speed in Internet connections.

The company now offers delivery in a four-state area, including St. Louis, Cape Girardeau and Columbia in Missouri.

Lori Willis, Schnucks director of communications, said Schnucks contracts with a local company to fill and deliver orders based on a time specified by the customer. Schnucks has found that the average online order is much larger than the average in-store order.

“It’s equivalent to a major shopping trip,” Willis said. “So those who are using the system are making the most of it, planning out what they need and getting it done in one trip.”

Willis declined to disclose the number of users, saying only that there is a “strong core of customers who really appreciate the convenience of home shopping.” There are 15,000 items to choose from.

The company doesn’t do much direct marketing of the service, though Willis said it hasn’t stopped the program’s popularity. Schnucks has been one of the 10-largest online grocery sellers since 2001, according to research from The Ohio State University’s E-Agribusiness Working Group.

“It’s a very popular program for us and it’s always operated at full capacity,” Willis said, adding that the average Schnucks customer is in line with what Price Cutter projects will be its core audience: families with two working parents and two or more children.

“They appreciate the convenience of being able to order and have your grocery items delivered directly to you,” Willis said.

Not a Coincidence

Price Cutter’s online grocery sales service kicked off July 24 – the day after the end of the Price Cutter Charity Championship golf tournament at Highland Springs Country Club.

The timing, according to Price Cutter Director of Planning and Development Rob Marsh, is no accident.

“That was our goal – to take advantage of the advertising opportunities available with the Price Cutter Charity Championship,” he said, adding that most of the company’s advertisements at the tourney were for the online program. [[In-content Ad]]