Jean DeCarlo, of Brentwood, turns 80 this April, and her daughter, Barbara Seymour, worries about her going out to buy groceries. Ms. DeCarlo lives alone, and will often skip grocery shopping if the weather is bad or she isn't feeling well, Ms. Seymour said.

"She lived through the Great Depression, and when she gets low on food, she sometimes thinks she has enough, even if she just has a few cans of vegetables," Ms. Seymour said.

Ms. Seymour also worries about her mother walking on winter-slicked sidewalks to get groceries, and then carrying the heavy bags home.

So she decided to get her mother gift certificates for a local grocery store that would deliver.

But when Ms. Seymour, who lives in Washington, D.C. looked into home delivery, she was surprised at how difficult the service was to find in the South Hills. She enlisted the help of her cousin, Karen Kuhar, of Brookline and the women said they found one store that offered delivery to Brentwood.

"Grocery delivery is very prevalent in our area," Ms. Seymour said, "so I was surprised at how difficult it was to find in the South Hills.''

The dearth of grocery delivery in Pittsburgh does not surprise Scott Wagner, a graduate of the Harvard Business School and an executive at private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. Mr. Wagner has analyzed several retail businesses, including Safeway Inc., a large, national grocery store chain.

Consumers demand fresh meat and produce, delivered at a specific time at low-cost, he said. Because costs like maintaining a warehouse and delivery trucks are high, Mr. Wagner said, offering a large-scale, profitable delivery service that meets customer demands is difficult.

Grocery delivery has been successful either in geographic areas where high-income consumers are willing to pay a premium for the service, or in areas that have a high population density, Mr. Wagner said.

For areas such as Pittsburgh, the best businesses to offer this service may be smaller stores, he said.

In fact, the store that Ms. Seymour found to help her was a small store, Schwarz's Market in the South Side at 1317 East Carson St. The store makes about 25 to 30 grocery deliveries to the South Hills each week, said owner Marty Dorfner. The store employs a driver, who delivers groceries four days a week, for a fee of $5 with a $30 minimum order, he said.

Mr. Dorfner also personally delivers groceries to customers who live near his Mt. Lebanon home his way home from work.

Most of the delivery customers, Mr. Dorfner said, are elderly or disabled. He said that the store makes two to three deliveries each week to elderly residents in the Baptist Manor in Castle Shannon.

Delivery is an expensive service to offer, Mr. Dorfner said, because a store has to pay employees to take the order over the phone; shop for the items; and load and deliver the groceries. Extra insurance and gasoline are also significant expenses, he said.

Many people will not pay more than a minimum fee for grocery delivery service, Mr. Dorfner said. "People leave tips at a bar, but they don't want to tip the driver who brings their groceries."

Mr. Dorfner describes Schwarz's as a "meat and potatoes" store that sells basic groceries and has been in business for about 85 years. "We offer this service because it helps us generate sales," he said.

Larger grocery stores, he speculates, do not offer delivery because it is too costly, and the stores make enough profit on in-store sales.

Giant Eagle, for example, delivers for catering and does not plan to expand to routine home deliveries, said spokesman Dick Roberts.

Several Shop 'n Save stores, including locations in Bethel Park, Bridgeville, Homestead, and Castle Shannon do not offer grocery delivery.

While several Foodland stores, including locations in Beechview, Mt. Lebanon, McKeesport, and West Mifflin do not offer grocery delivery, one family-owned Foodland store, at 350 Curry Hollow Road, half of which is in Baldwin Borough and the other in Pleasant Hills, offers free grocery delivery to shut-ins.

There is a large population of seniors near the store, said manager Audrey Kolechta. In part because of this, the newly opened store decided to offer free delivery to customers who cannot make it the store, she said. The store makes six or more deliveries each week.

An independently owned grocery store, Foodlane, at 3810 Main St., Munhall, offers delivery within five blocks of the store for a $3 delivery fee plus a $1.75 fuel surcharge. A $30 minimum order is required for delivery.

Store manager Mark Andrews describes the store as small by today's standards -- just five aisles --but large enough to offer a full complement of products including cosmetics.

Foodlane makes an average of 12 to 15 deliveries each week, Mr. Andrews said, and most of the delivery customers are senior citizens.

Customers call in their orders before noon, he said, and the groceries are usually delivered the same day. Some customers mail orders in; one visually impaired customer types her order and faxes it to the store, he said.

"Our store, owned by A Ferency of Murrysville, has offered this service to local residents for more than 25 years," Mr. Andrews said. Delivering groceries increases the store's profits, he said, because of the increased sales.

Other smaller stores that do not offer grocery delivery on a formal basis sometimes work with customers to help out as needed.

Ruthfred Market, a small, family-owned grocery store at 3400 South Park Road in Bethel Park, does not offer grocery delivery, but will take grocery orders for people who call in with a list.

The store has some regular customers who call ahead to order their items, and store employees will gather their order so the customer just has to pick it up and pay for it, said store manager Mark Provident.

The store gets inquires about delivery service, but cost such as insurance make the service too expensive to offer, Mr. Provident said.

Jennifer Daurora, of the McGinnis Sisters, 3825 Saw Mill Run Blvd., Brentwood, said that McGinnis Sisters does not offer delivery, but does work with customers who have extenuating situations, like a death in the family, to help them get groceries at that time.

"We did offer delivery several years ago, but it is labor intensive, and didn't work for the store," Ms. Daurora said.

Managers for some other stores, such as the Shop 'n Save store in Bridgeville, at 3239 Washington Pike and the Uncommon Market in Upper St. Clair, at 1798 N. Highland Road, said those stores occasionally accept call-ahead orders for regular customers who are facing a difficult time.

For Ms. Seymour, making several calls to find a small, local store that would deliver to her elderly mother was worth the effort. "She cooks more now," she said. "She recently made homemade chicken soup with all of the fresh ingredients that she had delivered."