CAPE GROCERY OFFERS ON-LINE DELIVERY SERVICE

Schnucks Markets Inc. today launches its Home Shopping Club in Cape Girardeau -- the area's first Internet on-line grocery service.

The service allows customers to select and arrange for direct home delivery of more than 15,000 products available at Schnucks Food & Drug, 19 S. Kingshighway.

With the first phase of implementation here, the Home Shopping Club is immediately available to an estimated 50,000 residents living in about 20,000 households in four zip codes of the area -- 63701, 63703, 63780 and 63755.

"We're working to expand our services in other zip-code areas as quickly as possible," said Dennis Marchi, manager of Schnucks here.

Schnucks will deliver its own groceries. The company has purchased a van, and will make deliveries in two time periods Mondays through Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

"Perishables will be no problem," said Marchi. "We have coolers available for all orders."

The Schnucks Shopping Club has no monthly membership fee.

Orders may be placed for same-day delivery before 11 a.m., or for next-day delivery before 7 p.m. the day before the delivery. The delivery fee for next-day orders is $9.95; same-day delivery is $14.95.

"On-line shopping will relieve time pressures on busy people," said Marchi. "It will provide help shoppers who cannot easily make a trip to the store."

Research shows that about three out of four on-line shoppers are women and that most are between 25 and 50 years old. About half of all on-line shoppers have children under 18 years old and even more work in management positions.

"These are the busy people we are targeting," said Marchi.

On-line shopping for groceries is expected to explode in the coming years. Experts predict that somewhere between 3 percent and 15 percent of grocery shopping will be done on-line within three years. Since today's sales in the nation's grocery industry total about $300 billion, that puts the potential market into some big numbers.

Shopping is performed through the Schnucks home page at www.Schnucks.com.

Schnucks first opened its Home Shopping Club in the St. Louis area in June to more than 450,000 households in 52 zip codes in the city of St. Louis, St. Louis County and Arnold and Fenton in north Jefferson County.

"The program is working great in the St. Louis area," said Marchi. "More and more people are getting computers now, and we're looking for good participation here. We expect the service to be a big hit."

It was estimated last year that more than 40 million Americans used the Internet, and a fourth of those users purchased on-line products.

On-line shoppers can pay with credit card when ordering or by check upon delivery.

Schnucks experiences with home shopping and delivery dates back to 1990 when it offered customers access to a computer-based shopping system developed by Prodigy Co. Prodigy stopped offering the service in 1991, but the experience encouraged Schnucks to begin evaluating computer-based shopping alternatives.