one major change online grocery shopping needs to make for success... but I don't know if I should give away my best ideas here.

I've been shopping Safeway.com for over a year now and I am MORE than happy!
They often have next day delivery AND I have only once paid a delivery fee as they always email me 'specials' for free delivery.
While it took a bit to get used to -seeing items on a web page instead of walking up and down the aisles- they have had items I can't get in the stores: ie: HUGE bags of rice, sugar, etc.
I have had things substituted for lger/smaller sizes and it is kind of tedious to scroll thru a whole page of say, 50 items, it's much more convenient than driving, fighting for parking, getting hit in the ankles by some aggressive cart-driver AND my impulse purchases have tapered off quite sharply much to the delight of my budget!!
It's a wonderful, life saving service (I have severe chronic pain and can't sit, stand etc for more than 10 min at a time) and I have been hoping that more stores would offer this service...
SO: again, Safeway has been doing this for a while now and I can get anything they offer in their physical store, including 'club specials' and flowers, etc. SAFEWAY should get the credit due to them for being one of the first large chains to offer this!!!
Just had to add my 2 cents for what it's worth!

Wow! What a broad statement to make without backing it up with facts. ("While the concept is very neat and handy, the logistics just have not worked for any company yet.")

http://www.PriceCutterOnline.com in Missouri has successfully been in the online grocery shopping business for more than a year.

I think the author quantified his statement by saying "this is a field that no national company is working in from coast to coast," which obviously excludes Safeway (which has reduced its territory vastly over the last 25 years) and the .com that only services the greater Joplin area.

Wow! Out of date, mishandled grocery products on-line. What a concept!

WHATS NEXT??????????

And who said only the rich people get great benefits. Now the unemployed losers who shop at wal mart don't even have to leave home to spend their food stamps.

Wal-Mart cain't even keep their stores where you can find anything including a salesperson,so how are thay going to keep up with multiple grocery orders? Another bad idea...

This is to McDork... I am a disabled Vietnam vet and get food stamps.What have you ever done in your life that gives you the right to judge anyone?Come call me a loser to my face.

I would love to have something like that for my grandmother.I hope they do it.I'd pay for it! I've never heard of safeway but it sounds like a great idea.

I get foodstamps and I work full time. Not everyone makes 100k per year. that was common

These are the same "Nay-sayers" who said that Wally World would never make it in the grocery business. If your company has money it can buy the talent, logistics and promotion.

to McGurk: I am neither on food stamps nor an unemployed loser, but I do shop at and own stock in Walmart. You are a moron to make an uninformed statement about the type of people who shop at Walmart.

Walmart is such a joke. All they want to do is work the heck out of people, treat them worse than animals and give them no benefits. I worked there for 3 months and ended up in the hospital due to the working conditions. They claim to be of virtue and family values. Perhaps that is how they were founded, but what they are today would make Sam Walton sad I am certain. I hope they flop on this. I hope they learn to hire proper management and treat employees as human beings.

dumb n greedy idea

I live in a small town with a grocery store very close to my home. There is a Wal-Mart about 10-15 minutes away. I am handicapped, so I cannot get to either one without having someone take me. There have been times I have had almost nothing to eat simply because I couldn't get to the store. The grocery store nearby has limited offerings, is very expensive, and the employees are rude, so I hate to go there. I have never encountered these problems at Wal-Mart. I just can't get there. No one in the area delivers. This would be such a blessing to me. It would really be an answer to prayer. I hope Wal-Mart will follow through with it.

IT'S A SHAME TO READ ALL THIS HATE .IT'S SOMEONE WITH NOTHING BETTER TO DO WITH THEIR TIME BUT TO SIT AND TALK SHIT.REMEMBER TALK IS CHEAP.AND IT SHOW US HOW STUPID THEY REALLY ARE.THEY HAVE NO IDEAL WHAT LIFE IS ALL ABOUT .AND IF ALL THEY HAVE TO DO IS TALK CRAMP ON A COMPUTER WELL THAT SHOWS US HOW SHALLOW THEIR MIND IS AND THEY ARE ACTING LIKE A TWO YEAR OLD.IT'S SAD .BUT THEY HAVE NOT WALK IN YOUR SHOES AND KNOW NOTHING ABOUT YOU SO PLEASE DON'T LET THESE PUNKS UPSET YOU.IT'S START IN THE HOME AND IT SHOWS US ALOT ABOUT THE FAMILY THEY COME FROM.NOW IT'S NOT ALWAYS THE FAMILY FAULT BUT MOST OF THE TIME IT IS.SO JUST DON'T LET IT GET TO YOU.THEY JUST WHAT ATTENTION THAT THEY CAN'T GET FROM MOMMY OR DADDY SPOIL ROTTEN PUNKS,WHICH THEY THINK THEY KNOW IT ALL AND THAT'S IT THEY THINK THEY KNOW IT ALL AND THEY DON'T KNOW SHIT SO THEY SAY NASTY SHIT TO HURT OTHERS WHEN IN FACT THEY ARE REALLY SICK PEOPLE THAT NEED HELP BUT THEY DO THINGS TO HURT OTHERS CAUSE THIS MAKES THEM FEEL GOOD ABOUT THEM.SEE THEY ARE SICK IN THEIR HEAD .CAUSE THEY GOT IT ALL SCREW UP.AND JUST REMEMBER WHAT GOES AROUND COMES BACK AND WHEN IT COMES BACK IT IS THREE TIMES WORST FOR THEM.AND THEY WONDER WHY ME WHY DOES BAD THINGS ALWAYS HAPPEN TO ME WELL IT'S HOW YOU TREAT OTHERS.BUT IT DOESN'T SINK INTO THEIR HARD HEAD SO THEY WILL ALWAYS BE THIS WAY.SO JUST PRAY FOR THEM .BE THE BETTER PERSON .LIFE IS TO SHORT TO WASTE TIME ON PEOPLE THAT ACT THIS WAY .CAUSE THEY ARN'T GOING TO CHANGE THEY ARE TO SELFISH.REMEMBER THEY THINK LIKE A TWO YEAR OLD. WELL HAVE A GOOD DAY AND DON'T LET OTHERS GET YOU DOWN WITH WORDS OF HATE.EVERY DOG HAS THEIR DAY

I don't know about other areas of the country, but I can speak for two areas. One being Port Richey, FL and the other Meridian, MS. Having been in both of those "Super Wal-Marts", I cannot see them being successful in the grocery delivering genre because of the lack of selection on many items. They seem to stock only certain brands and certain sizes and selections within those brands whereas my local supermarket has a much wider selection. Also, at my supermarket, we have butchers who will cut meat to order in addition to the packaged meat they sell. This is seperate from the Deli area and sandwich type meats which are also cut to order. I can't see getting what you want, how you want by ordering on-line. Perhaps Wal-Mart would be better off hiring better sales help at their stores and more of them. As it has been finding help in any of their stores is like looking for the Holy Grail. They are greatly lacking in the area of Customer Service and Customer Assistance.

Kudos to Gpop and Carol on the response to McGurk, I am on food stamps but I am not an unemployed loser. I am severely disabled and I think that the idea for Walmart to do this is good for people like myself and imwhiplash who have chronic pain and it is hard to do such tasks as grocery shopping. I hope this works, it would sure make my life a little easier.

Just another way to drive the little guys out of business. After the way they handled the dog food recall I wouldn't trust them to deliver food that wasn't recalled. I returned to our local WM numerous times with the list of numbers of recalled pet food cans and they didn't remove them from the shelves. I finally stood there and told people as they came by and then left a copy of the list on the shelf.