Despite the doom and gloom surrounding online grocery, the sector has a new player in the US. Foodland Super Market (FSM), Hawaii’s largest supermarket chain, and ShopEaze Systems, is a provider of retail shopping e-commerce solutions for traditional retailers, have together launched Foodland to Go, an online grocery shopping service Hawaii. It now operates in competition to Hawaii Online Grocery (http://www.hawaiionlinegrocery.com/), which has been operating since early last year.
However, the enterprise has decided to avoid the pain involved in the painful “last mile” of delivery – pick ups are by the consumer. Customers log into www.foodland.com, shop for their groceries, and arrange pickup at their own convenience (but not 7/24) from a parking area separately designated for Foodland to Go at their flagship store, Foodland Beretania. Other pickup points will be added later. When customers arrive at the store, personal shoppers will deliver the groceries to customers’ vehicles and complete the credit card transaction.
Foodland Super Market is Hawaii’s largest grocery retailer. It has 27 Foodland and Sack N Save stores, and approximately 2,000 employees.
ShopEaze Systems (www.shopeaze.com), is a silicon valley eCommerce service provider for, among other things, online shopping for traditional retailers. The company is funded in part by J.W. Seligman, meVC Draper Fisher Jurvetson Fund I (NYSE: MVC), and Wheatley Partners.
By Navroz Havewala, just-food.com correspondent
