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The New Economy: Web shopping for groceries no bargain
Thursday, June 01, 2000 By Ken Zapinski
A guy with a new job, working strange hours, scrambling to get his house fixed up in the final days before his wife has a baby -- who better to take advantage of the convenience of shopping for groceries over the Internet?
Good thing I wasn't hungrier.
The experiment started after I learned that Giant Eagle stores are now serving as distributors for Priceline.com's new "name-your-own-price-for-groceries" concept.
I was familiar with the idea, having used Priceline for bargain-basement priced plane tickets to Florida during the winter. You say how much you'll pay, Priceline checks with its suppliers. If your bid is acceptable, the cost is immediately charged against your credit card; if not, there's no deal.
I logged onto the Priceline site and learned that if my grocery bids were accepted, I was to print out my Priceline-prepared shopping list, take it to a Giant Eagle, pick up my goods, show the list as my receipt and walk out the door. Simple enough.
Except before I could start shopping, I needed something called a Priceline WebHouse Club card. I could receive one by snail mail. Or I could go to Giant Eagle, pick one up, return home, activate it over the Web and then do my shopping.
I turned to other national grocery-over-the-Web companies, but with little luck. Two -- Peapod and McGinnis Sisters, with stores in Monroeville and Whitehall, wouldn't let me on. A third, HomeGrocer.com!, wasn't available in my area.
It looked as if I'd have to go off-line -- to my Squirrel Hill Giant Eagle for my WebHouse Club card -- if I were to complete this online adventure.
A few hours later I was back in front of a computer terminal and learning that shopping for groceries on Priceline might save you money, but exacts a steep price.
To get cheap Priceline airline tickets, you have to put up with inconvenient travel times and cumbersome transfers. To get not-so-cheap Priceline groceries, you risk buying things you may not want.
For most items, the site requires you to choose at least two alternate brands of any one product. You might want a bottle of Heinz ketchup. But if you bid, you have to be willing to accept a bottle of, say, Hunt's -- that's no choice at all for brand-loyal customers.
Consider spaghetti sauce. Priceline told me I had a 50-50 chance of purchasing a 28 oz. jar of Prego at the great price of $1.32. But only if I were willing to risk getting a jar of Healthy Choice or Ragu (which we dislike) or a third brand I had never heard of.
The best deal was on premium ice cream -- a 66 percent chance of getting a pint for $2.35. And whether it turned out to be Ben & Jerry's, Haagen-Dazs or Starbucks, how can you go wrong?
But ice cream wasn't what I needed, and I had to hunt for some items I was willing to take a risk on, including yogurt, frozen pizza, rice mix and canned tuna.
Then came 10 minutes activating my WebHouse Club card and entering my information.
Punch the "enter" key. And wait. And wait. And finally, a screen: "We're sorry. At the moment, we are having difficulty setting up your account and getting prices. Please come back later to register."
No, I decided, Jay Walker of Priceline has taken up enough of my time. I'm going back to McGinnis Sisters. This time, I get onto the site promptly. "Shop online, click here," the site beckons. "Receive a FREE BAG of groceries with your first order!"
Great! I give them my name, address, phone number and e-mail. And what do they give me?
"Unfortunately, local online grocery shopping services are not yet available in your area."
Sigh.
Ken Zapinski, content editor with post-gazette.com, can be reached at kzapinski@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1614.
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