Peapod Expands E-commerce to Milwaukee

CHICAGO -- Leading Internet grocer Peapod, LLC is adding yet another state to its growing distribution territory this weekend, as the Ahold-owned company will launch service in Milwaukee and surrounding cities.

Beginning Sunday, residents of Milwaukee, Brookfield, Whitefish Bay, Racine, and Waukesha will be able to order fresh foods and national brand dry grocery products online from Peapod. The order can be delivered as soon as the next day, according to Peapod.

Wisconsinites will also have online access to local food products from the virtual Peapod's Milwaukee's Best aisle, which offers Door County Chips, Usinger's Meats, Saz's pulled chicken & pork and BBQ ribs, Elegant Farmer pies, and Sprechers Root Beer.

The e-tailer will market the new service primarily through direct mail, supplemented by billboards and other elements, according to Peapod spokeswoman Elana Friedman Margolis.

Peapod will pick Milwaukee-area orders from its 75,000-square-foot DC in Lake Zurich, Ill., Friedman Margolis told Progressive Grocer. "The facility has eight temperature zones, and includes fresh product as well as dry goods. It's the same one we use in all of Chicagoland," she said. This is the same approach Peapod uses in other operating regions, except for the Northeast, where it pulls product from Ahold's Stop & Shop stores to fill online orders.

In the short term, Peapod will focus its efforts on the initial group of market areas for the online service, although the company will "probably continue to add ZIP codes" gradually, noted Friedman Margolis.

Founded in 1989, Peapod today serves 15 U.S. markets including the major metro areas of Chicago, Milwaukee, Boston, Long Island and Washington, D.C., and smaller communities in the states of Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and Rhode Island. Peapod has filled more than 6 million orders since its first delivery in 1990.
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