CHECKING OUT WEB CHOICES; ONLINE SHOPPING SAVES TRIP TO THE SUPERMARKET.

Byline: Jim Salter Associated Press 

Robin Hubbard no longer worries about long checkout lines, crowded aisles or shopping carts with wobbly wheels. She does her grocery shopping with a few clicks of a mouse.

Schnucks Markets Inc., the dominant grocery chain in St. Louis, began offering online shopping and delivery this summer. All a shopper needs is an e-mail account with an Internet provider and a few extra dollars - the service costs $14.95 for same-day delivery, $9.95 for next-day service.

For Hubbard, a busy mother of two, that's a small price to pay.

``I have some chronic health problems so at times it's really difficult for me to get out,'' she said. ``I also have two kids and the baby just does not like shopping carts.''

After a delivery man brought a cooler and a couple of plastic bags full of groceries to Hubbard's brick frame home in south St. Louis, she looked it over and announced, ``The milk's cold, and the bread's not smooshed.''

Online grocery shopping has been around since the late 1980s, but modems were slow, the Internet was new, and it didn't really take off.

Some are convinced it never will.

``I've been skeptical for a long time,'' said Gary Vineberg, an analyst who follows the supermarket industry for Merrill Lynch. ``I suppose eventually it will work. I just don't think we're there yet.''

Some chains are giving it a go anyway, mostly through services like Peapod Inc. and Shoppers Express Inc.

``We had 13,000 customers in January of 1996,'' said Mary Wade of Peapod. ``Now we have 53,000.''

Peapod, based in suburban Chicago, contracts with supermarket chains such as Bruno's Inc., which serves several southern states, and Boston-based Stop & Shop, the largest supermarket chain in New England.

Peapod hires its own shoppers, provides the delivery at a monthly membership fee of $4.95, plus another $4.95 for each order. All of that money goes to Peapod; the store benefits simply by the additional customers.

The Kroger Co. tried to develop its own online service two years ago for its Columbus, Ohio, stores, but it wasn't working. So Kroger switched to Peapod.

``Quite frankly I looked at what they were doing and it seemed so far superior,'' said Dale Hollandsworth, advertising manager for Kroger in Columbus. ``We're very pleased with the results to date.''

Schnucks, a privately held chain of more than 90 supermarkets in St. Louis and the Midwest, decided to go its own way. Schnucks developed its own software and has about 20 employees who work on what the company calls its Home Shopping Club.

``It's really been successful,'' said Larry Maggio, marketing services director for Schnucks.

Maggio wouldn't say specifically how many customers are shopping via computer. The online shopping can be accessed by 456,000 homes in the St. Louis area, and the company plans to expand the service next year to its Illinois stores.

Most online grocery shoppers are young professionals with school-age children - ``two-income families whose weekends are filled with soccer games and T-ball,'' Maggio said.

Schnucks officials also have been surprised by the number of older people using the service.

``We thought there was a need, but we were afraid they didn't have computers,'' Maggio said. ``It turns out they do.''

About a quarter of St. Louis-area households have Internet access, and many other people can get online at work.

For Schnucks customers, the service works like this:

The customer accesses the Schnucks World Wide Web site at http://www.schnucks.com and clicks on the icon for the Schnucks Home Shopping Club.

A list of 23 departments appears.

The customer keeps clicking until the desired product is reached, then the customer plugs in a quantity and clicks on a button that adds the product to a virtual shopping cart.

When the shop is completed, the customer clicks on ``Checkout.'' The bill can be paid by typing in a credit card number, or payment can be made at the time of delivery. Cash and food stamps are not accepted.

There are drawbacks.

The product range is a bit more limited than the real thing. Schnucks offers more than 15,000 items, but that's far fewer than are actually in most of its stores. And coupons aren't accepted, though items on sale are highlighted on the computer screen.

With a slow modem, the first go-round of online shopping might take as long as the real thing. But it gets easier after that. Shoppers can save their list, so the weekly necessities are already in the cart the next time they shop.

While some might find the delivery fee prohibitive, Hubbard said she saves that much and more by shopping from home.

``I've noticed that it cuts down on the impulse shopping,'' she said. ``Like the other day I thought I needed soup. I just walked into the kitchen and found I had 16 cans. If I'd have been shopping at the store, I would have bought a dozen cans.''

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Schnucks Markets Inc., the dominant grocery chain in St. Louis, began offering online grocery shopping and delivery this summer.

Associated Press