In our modern hustle and bustle society, many people are looking for more ways to save time and money. With today's increases in technology and greater access to the internet, many look to find an online grocery that has the ability to meet the individual demands of their home or business. Buying food, paper products, toiletries, and other household items online can be a great way to find everything you need in one location and save money on the things that you already use, particularly if you live in a remote location or a smaller rural community, where access to niche items is often limited.

While the idea of an online grocery is nothing new, greater product sourcing, shipping, and inventory management capabilities have allowed existing online groceries to be better able to meet the demands of a broader range of customers. Many online grocers can now ship products to the upper 48 states in the US, and a lot of times provide this as a free service to customers, making shopping online even more convenient.

Online grocery stores have been available since around 2000, when Washington based Home Grocer raised a record-breaking $245 million in start-up capital to launch its website. http://news.cnet.com/HomeGrocer.com-raises-245-million-in-IPO/2100-1017_3-237824.html Shortly after the site's launch, Home Grocer was bought out by rival Webvan, in a $1.2 billion dollar deal. http://news.cnet.com/2100-1017-242384.html However, less than a year after the buyout, Webvan pulled the plug on Home Grocer, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Following the collapse of the venture, former Home Grocer CEO Terry Drayton managed to salvage some of the companies assets, and set out to revamp the existing site. http://www.seattlepi.com/business/30729_drayton10.shtml The site was later purchased again by Amazon. Since that time, many other online groceries have come to the market. While Home Grocer was at first only available in the Seattle area, it is currently working on expanding to serve other areas. In the meantime, others have entered the arena of the online grocery market, such as Groceries Express, which offers nationwide delivery of non-perishable products and frozen food delivery in the Detroit area, and Net Grocer, which specializes in military care packages.

For years the downside to many of these sites has been what has deterred many from shopping for groceries online in the first place: shipping of a large grocery order can be expensive, and that's a cost that many consumers don't want to eat. But it's a new entrant in the online grocery business that has many consumers and manufacturers of boxed goods buzzing as well, and that's the new Alice. Alice.com has a unique competitive edge over other online grocers in that it is not a retailer. Alice has no mark-up on the products that it sells, and is instead an outlet for manufacturers to reach out to consumers and market their products in an online environment. Because of this strategy, the products offered at Alice are not only more affordable than other groceries, but provide a viable way for many consumers to shop online, find those niche products that can't be found locally, and still save many. Alice offers free shipping on all of its products, and even has a unique user system that reminds shoppers when they need to repurchase those everyday commodities like toilet paper or toothpaste. The site also offers a wide variety of grocery coupons and free samples of name brand products.