Patt Johnson, pjohnson@dmreg.com
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Sara Albright does her weekly grocery shopping from the comfort of her Des Moines home.
Late at night she sits at her computer ordering milk, organic apples and peanut butter from Hy-Vee in Windsor Heights. The next day she picks up her groceries — bagged and ready to go — from the store's drive-thru lane.
With children ages 8, 5 and 3, the ease of online shopping has been a gift of convenience.
"I love it, it's very easy," Albright said. "I had been giving away an hour or more every Saturday going to the grocery store. That is time I can spend with my family."
Since rolling out the program last spring, Hy-Vee's metro stores are averaging about 1,300 online orders a week. About half of those orders are delivered to customer's homes.
"It stunned us how many people wanted to use it," said Randy Edeker, Hy-Vee chief executive. "It's the next phase of how people are going to shop. It goes to customers' expectations and lifestyles."
Across the country online grocery shopping is growing, slowly.
West Des Moines-based Hy-Vee Inc. will complete the roll out of its Aisles Online shopping program to all of its 235 stores by this fall. Grocers like Safeway, Giant and others offer online shopping options, but other retailers, including Wal-Mart, Publix and Kroger, are still in the testing stages.
"Online grocery shopping is something that (grocers) have taken several shots at," said Kevin Weitzel, a supermarket industry analyst and managing partner of Willard Bishop, a consulting firm in Barrington, Ill. "It's finally taking off."
Online grocery sales account for about 2 percent of total store sales. "It could grow to 10 percent in five to 10 years," Weitzel said.
And grocery stores aren't the only ones selling food online. Peapod, an Illinois-based company, has been successfully offering online grocery shopping in limited markets since 1989. Amazon has gotten into the online grocery business in some markets. And natural and organic online grocer Door to Door Organics will begin delivering products in Des Moines next month.
Still a very small business for supermarkets, online shopping is appealing to more people: from young families strapped for time to baby boomers who appreciate the convenience.
"I found it very beneficial with a 11/2-year-old at home and a new baby," Christa Vander Leest said. She was shopping with her husband, Justin Vander Leest, and one-week old, Jace, on Wednesday at the Prairie Trail Hy-Vee in Ankeny.
Christa Vander Leest said she's had groceries delivered to her Ankeny home when she was too exhausted to shop in the store. The service worked well, save a couple of times when items on her shopping list were not included.
"They weren't critical things like ingredients I needed to make dinner. And they didn't charge me for them," she said.
Hy-Vee has offered online grocery shopping for years, but its earlier software program provided by an outside company was cumbersome and expensive, Edeker said.
"So we built our own from the ground up," he said. "Our people did a good job of talking to shoppers and listening to people about how they shop. It's not perfect, but it's pretty good."
Online shoppers set up an account designating the Hy-Vee where they most often shop. They add items to an online cart from a list of about 30,000 items found in stores. Fresh produce and meat, bakery items, frozen foods, dairy, health foods and most other store items are listed by category.
Shoppers choose the brands and quantities they want. They also chose the day and time they want to either pick up or have the goods delivered. The form allows for special instructions or preferences — like green bananas instead of ripe ones or extra-thin sliced deli meat.
Shoppers also can designate whether they will accept substitutions if the store is out of a product.
The orders are filled by Hy-Vee "personal shoppers" using scanners to select the right products.
"Customers order by UPC (bar codes) so it's virtually impossible to make mistakes in filling orders," said Kevin Luensmann, customer care and education manager at the Prairie Trail Hy-Vee store, 2510 S.W. State St., Ankeny.
Luensmann checked a dozen eggs for cracks and chose a gallon of milk with a longer expiration date while filling a customer's order during a demonstration of the product-selection process. "Like you would if you were shopping for yourself," he said.
Product prices are the same in the store and online, including sales. Online shopping fees are $2.95 for pickup and $4.95 for delivery of orders less than $100. There is no fee for groceries totaling $100 or more.
Shopper Jill Kimm, a neurologist from Ankeny, said she is too particular about the produce she buys to give up coming into the store.
"Online shopping is an amazing thing but I would rather pick out my own fruits and vegetables. And I love to shop," she said.
Online shopping isn't likely to replace the in-store experience, Weitzel said.
"The issue is that people don't always know what they are going to buy when they go to the grocery store," he said. "With 30,000 or 40,000 (items) listed, it's hard to choose online." Shoppers want to browse the aisles and the options, he said.
He predicted online shopping one day will become a routine part of consumers' lives.
"For their staple, routine products — paper goods, beverages, cereal, detergent, coffee — they will go to e-commerce," Weizel said. "Then they'll go to the store and shop the perimeter for fresh produce, dairy and meats."
Some grocers are not jumping into the online shopping pond just yet.
"Without a doubt there will be a way for Fareway to participate in online shopping," said Reynolds Cramer, Boone-based Fareway Stores Inc. chief executive. "We're going to let others test the waters before we get into it."
Fareway sells fresh meat online through the Fareway Meat Market program it started two years ago. "It's been a great part of our business," he said. But expanding that to all groceries is not in the company's immediate plans.
"Convenience is what it's all about," Cramer said. "And we feel customers still can enjoy the shopping experience and be able to choose perfect peaches and a great steak in the store."
Online grocery shopper Sara Albright acknowledged there are drawbacks to not going into the store regularly.
"I can't use my own shopping bags and now I have a ton of plastic bags," she said. "It also takes away impulse buying."
Hy-Vee's Aisles Online
FIND IT:www.hy-vee.com/grocery
COSTS: Delivery is $4.95 and store pick up $2.95 for order less than $100.
PICK-UP TIMES: Order by 8 a.m. and pick up after noon; order by 1 p.m. and pick up after 5 p.m.
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