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See Full StoryPeapod.com, now owned by Ahold, is one of the only online grocers with considerable
geographical reach and national name recognition still in business. What is Peapod's
secret? Probably the deep-pocket backing and early decisions to exit some markets.
However, according to the attorney general of Massachusetts, Peapod got ahead of the
game by cheating.
Re: Survival of the Internet's Sneakiest Grocer?
Posted by: former_dot_commer 2001-12-28 12:43:25 In reply to: Keith Regan
"Internal communication glitch?" The warehouse where they were filling the orders was directly above a Stop n Shop store - no one noticed a problem? Plus, the CEO tried to blame it on the web site's wording, claiming that customers read the guarentee differently than intended. I think it was pretty clear what they were doing...
Re: Survival of the Internet's Sneakiest Grocer?
Posted by: Jason 2001-12-18 09:20:26 In reply to: Keith Regan
New ventures should expect to make some major blunders along the way, and Peapod is no exception to this. I would agree that the move to withdraw from certain markets, and the backing of Royal Ahold, has allowed them to stay above water. But the basic premise of providing customers groceries, without the hassle or convenience is still a great concept if someone can perfect the model. I was part of an online grocery project for two years that designed a model taking aspects from pure players such as Peapod and brick-and-clicks such as Tesco. But in the end the financial backing was not there, and we never opened the doors (Another dot-com that never was). If Peapod can continue to tweak their model and stop the burn, they may be around for a long while.
Re: Survival of the Internet's Sneakiest Grocer?
Posted by: Kraig G. Johnston 2001-12-19 08:43:33 In reply to: Jason
I'm president of Groceries Express Inc. (www.Groceries-Express.com) an on-line grocery since 1998. My business is on a slow growth track because we never did get funded. However our continual slow growth may be the best thing we've got going. We are able to manage our current flow very effectively while we seek ways to promote our business. In response to this article, I hope we never get into this type of situation because we wouldn't be able to wage a legal battle of that sort.
