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Online eats | September 11, 2008
Forget ordering pizza online. No one does that. But if you want organic mushrooms and fennel, or to find out how far your food has travelled, read on
By Andrew Rideout
This story starts with Sandra Bullock in 1995. That was the year Bullock played computer analyst Angela Bennett in The Net, a mediocre film with one memorable scene in which a stressed and preoccupied Bennett orders a pizza online. The audience was meant to think, “Wow, that’s the future,” and we did.
But it turns out we were wrong. More than a decade later, it’s possible to order a pizza online but few do; it’s simply easier to pick up the phone. People may go online to view the menu and pricing info for food delivery, but they seldom complete the transaction using the Internet.
However, online food delivery takes on a whole other degree of usefulness once you stop thinking pizza and start thinking fresh fruits and organic meat. The Internet is picking a fight with the grocery store, and it just might win.
Cross-border comedown
Grocery delivery has an almost nostalgic feel for many people. After all, that’s the way it used to be: milk in glass bottles, fresh bread, local meats and cheese lined up on your doorstep. You can almost hear the sound of baseball cards crackling against bicycle spokes.
Online grocery stores are not a new idea but the market was a minefield throughout the ’90s, with many missteps leading to messy corporate collapses. A big problem was Canada’s size and relatively sparse population, and it’s still true that if you don’t live in or near a major metropolitan centre your odds of getting quality food delivered to your door decrease exponentially. But persevere and you may find online options and benefits such as access to higher-quality food, often complete with source and nutrition information for each product. Not only can online grocery stores improve your diet, but you may never have to carry grocery bags home again.
A cautionary note first: your mouth may start watering at the gourmet selection available at Amazon.com, but keep your eye out for the little asterix and the accompanying note “Not Available in Canada.”
Green considerations
Organic grocery delivery company spud!, serving Vancouver and Calgary in Canada and Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Portland in the U.S., has developed a system that tracks how far each product travelled to its warehouse. Consumers may be shocked to learn, for example, that a $3 box of crackers travelled more than 4,000 kilometres. In a regular grocery store you can ask an employee how a box of Captain Crunch made it to the shelf, but you’re unlikely to get an answer.
Understanding the carbon emissions produced by your food’s long trek may make online delivery worthwhile. Also, not having to drive around, wait in traffic and navigate out-of-control parking lot shopping carts is another very welcome feature of the online world.
According to Lesley Fox, communication and media relations manager at spud!, much of the company’s growth is from businesses ranging from home offices all the way up to Microsoft’s head office.
“The past few years have seen a shift toward companies promoting wellness and well-being internally, and we fit right in with that plan,” Fox said. “We offer discounts for our enterprise customers and many of them find they’re saving both on cost and labour by stocking their offices with spud! groceries.” This makes a good deal of sense considering that, in many cases, sending your secretary out to pick up food for the office means that phones go unanswered or basic tasks don’t get finished on time.
The rising price of oil is also serving as a tipping point for many companies. “With gas prices the way they are, driving out to the suburbs, waiting in traffic and then driving all the way back to the office has become even more expensive. spud! has absorbed the rising cost of gas so that our customers don’t have to.” Interestingly enough, Fox said all spud! delivery routes are mapped out in advance to ensure the lowest possible carbon footprint.
spud! has expansion plans for the American market, but its emphasis on local food can throw up a few barriers. “The main difference between cities is the availability factor. Since our emphasis is on local goods, what’s available to Calgarians may not be for people in L.A.” For example, the company delivers food in sealed plastic bins but “we noticed that the L.A. heat would lead to certain types of produce wilting before it was delivered. We always have to think on our feet here, so we figured out a new way to move forward.” The company now cuts holes in its bins.
National options
Grocery Gateway is Canada’s survivor in this space. While its original incarnation had trouble from the start, it has been growing since being sold to Longo Brothers Fruit Market back in 2004. Similar in size to spud!, Grocery Gateway now claims more than 40,000 registered customers within the Greater Toronto Area.
The company takes less of a “boutique” approach than does spud! and deals in the more everyday items available at a typical grocery store.
Outside the major urban centres, your options are more limited. Epicurean Foods delivers nationwide and contains a solid selection of dry goods. Eat It, based in Winnipeg with nationwide delivery, stocks a full grocery store complete with meats, canned goods, eggs and even raw organic products.
By ordering groceries online, you’ll save time, possibly save some money and help the environment and the local economy. And for people with busy lives, it can also be a nice way to do your body a favour.
Online groceries
Grocery Gateway www.grocerygateway.com
Eat It http://eatit.ca
Epicurean http://www.epicureanfoods.com/ca/main.php
spud! www.spud.ca
ETrends Archive
By Andrew RideoutThis story starts with Sandra Bullock in 1995. That was the year Bullock played computer analyst Angela Bennett in The Net, a mediocre film with one memorable scene in which a stressed and preoccupied Bennett orders a pizza online. The audience was meant to think, “Wow, that’s the future,” and we did.
But it turns out we were wrong. More than a decade later, it’s possible to order a pizza online but few do; it’s simply easier to pick up the phone. People may go online to view the menu and pricing info for food delivery, but they seldom complete the transaction using the Internet.
However, online food delivery takes on a whole other degree of usefulness once you stop thinking pizza and start thinking fresh fruits and organic meat. The Internet is picking a fight with the grocery store, and it just might win.
Cross-border comedown
Grocery delivery has an almost nostalgic feel for many people. After all, that’s the way it used to be: milk in glass bottles, fresh bread, local meats and cheese lined up on your doorstep. You can almost hear the sound of baseball cards crackling against bicycle spokes.
Online grocery stores are not a new idea but the market was a minefield throughout the ’90s, with many missteps leading to messy corporate collapses. A big problem was Canada’s size and relatively sparse population, and it’s still true that if you don’t live in or near a major metropolitan centre your odds of getting quality food delivered to your door decrease exponentially. But persevere and you may find online options and benefits such as access to higher-quality food, often complete with source and nutrition information for each product. Not only can online grocery stores improve your diet, but you may never have to carry grocery bags home again.
A cautionary note first: your mouth may start watering at the gourmet selection available at Amazon.com, but keep your eye out for the little asterix and the accompanying note “Not Available in Canada.”
Green considerations
Organic grocery delivery company spud!, serving Vancouver and Calgary in Canada and Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Portland in the U.S., has developed a system that tracks how far each product travelled to its warehouse. Consumers may be shocked to learn, for example, that a $3 box of crackers travelled more than 4,000 kilometres. In a regular grocery store you can ask an employee how a box of Captain Crunch made it to the shelf, but you’re unlikely to get an answer.
Understanding the carbon emissions produced by your food’s long trek may make online delivery worthwhile. Also, not having to drive around, wait in traffic and navigate out-of-control parking lot shopping carts is another very welcome feature of the online world.
According to Lesley Fox, communication and media relations manager at spud!, much of the company’s growth is from businesses ranging from home offices all the way up to Microsoft’s head office.
“The past few years have seen a shift toward companies promoting wellness and well-being internally, and we fit right in with that plan,” Fox said. “We offer discounts for our enterprise customers and many of them find they’re saving both on cost and labour by stocking their offices with spud! groceries.” This makes a good deal of sense considering that, in many cases, sending your secretary out to pick up food for the office means that phones go unanswered or basic tasks don’t get finished on time.
The rising price of oil is also serving as a tipping point for many companies. “With gas prices the way they are, driving out to the suburbs, waiting in traffic and then driving all the way back to the office has become even more expensive. spud! has absorbed the rising cost of gas so that our customers don’t have to.” Interestingly enough, Fox said all spud! delivery routes are mapped out in advance to ensure the lowest possible carbon footprint.
spud! has expansion plans for the American market, but its emphasis on local food can throw up a few barriers. “The main difference between cities is the availability factor. Since our emphasis is on local goods, what’s available to Calgarians may not be for people in L.A.” For example, the company delivers food in sealed plastic bins but “we noticed that the L.A. heat would lead to certain types of produce wilting before it was delivered. We always have to think on our feet here, so we figured out a new way to move forward.” The company now cuts holes in its bins.
National options
Grocery Gateway is Canada’s survivor in this space. While its original incarnation had trouble from the start, it has been growing since being sold to Longo Brothers Fruit Market back in 2004. Similar in size to spud!, Grocery Gateway now claims more than 40,000 registered customers within the Greater Toronto Area.
The company takes less of a “boutique” approach than does spud! and deals in the more everyday items available at a typical grocery store.
Outside the major urban centres, your options are more limited. Epicurean Foods delivers nationwide and contains a solid selection of dry goods. Eat It, based in Winnipeg with nationwide delivery, stocks a full grocery store complete with meats, canned goods, eggs and even raw organic products.
By ordering groceries online, you’ll save time, possibly save some money and help the environment and the local economy. And for people with busy lives, it can also be a nice way to do your body a favour.
Online groceries
Grocery Gateway www.grocerygateway.com
Eat It http://eatit.ca
Epicurean http://www.epicureanfoods.com/ca/main.php
spud! www.spud.ca
ETrends Archive
