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There are many advantages doing online grocery shopping. It is convenient, offers greater levels of choice and lets you pick and choose precisely which companies you want to deal with.

However, online grocery shopping can also cause problems. Sometimes orders are mixed up, things go out of stock so you are delivered a different item, quality is lower than you expected, or there are the inevitable problems associated with internet security.

This article will look at two online companies (Peapod and Netgrocer) that promise to take the hassle out of online grocery shopping, and see how they deliver on those promises.

PEAPOD

Peapod is a perfect example of an online grocery shopping website, and while experiences of Peapod have been largely good, the delivery of fresh produce by Peapod has also occasionally failed to satisfy the customer.

Online grocery shopping differs significantly from simply going down to the local grocers because at the grocers you can actually touch and feel the products that are being sold. Because there are difficulties in standardising grocery products, Peapod has occasionally received complaints about their poor quality produce.

In addition, local grocers often have to deal with customers face-to-face. This is important because it means that grocers are directly responsible to actual physical customers. Customer services in Peapod have also been regularly criticised for their ineptitude and arrogance. Unfortunately, poor customer service seems to be the norm with many online grocery shopping sites.

While Peapod offers a convenient way of getting groceries online that is successful most of the time, because Peapod deals with fresh produce, products are very occasionally substandard. While this wouldn't be a problem if products could be returned and refunds given out, customer services are also problematic, due to the impersonal nature of the transaction.

Nonetheless, despite a few complaints, in the vast majority of cases Peapod has created very satisfied customers. The best way to see if online grocery shopping is for you is to try it out yourself.

NETGROCER

Netgrocer attempts to avoid the problem of fresh produce and non-standardisation by only offering non-perishable groceries to customers doing their online grocery shopping.

While Netgrocer is a useful and very convenient way of doing online grocery shopping, there are also identifiable problems with this method.

Netgrocer is sometimes slightly more expensive than local grocers shops, although this depends on the region. The best way to find out whether the prices are cheaper is to browse their website and find out for yourself.

In addition, the lack of fresh produce does not completely remove the need for local grocery shopping.

Overall Netgrocer is very convenient, and is very useful for bulk purchase of non-perishable goods.

Because these are more easily standardised, Netgrocer is significantly more reliable than Peapod, and rarely receives complaints.

The disadvantages of online grocery shopping can easily be weighed up against their offline rivals.

Online grocery shopping with Peapod, Netgrocer and Albertsons is very convenient, as orders can be placed in the comfort of your own home.

Also, Peapod deliver fresh products that only very rarely fall short of quality standards.

Netgrocer offers a large supply of non-perishable goods that can be used to stock up on supplies in bulk.

While the quality of goods may differ from the local grocery, overall Netgrocer, Peapod and Albertsons offer a wide variety of products that, while having problems inherent to online grocery shopping, are also very convenient for grocery delivery of non-perishable goods right to your door.

Learn more about this author, Paul Stanway.
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