Online grocer Peapod heads north to Madison

Skokie-based Internet grocer Peapod announced the expansion of service to Madison, Wisc.

Shoppers can create personal lists, read nutrition information online, sort products rapidly by price or by nutrition criteria and take advantage of personalized online coupons. Groceries are selected per customer specifications from Peapod, and can be delivered as soon as the next day after the order is placed.

Peapod, with operations in Lake Zurich, serves more than 300,000 customers each year and is owned by Royal Ahold, an international food retail and food service company from The Netherlands. The acquisition, which took place in 2001, has allowed Peapod to employ a more integrated bricks-and-clicks business strategy: expanding its partnerships with Ahold U.S.A. stores (Stop & Shop and Giant); leveraging the buying power of Ahold to make higher volume, lower-priced purchases; lowering distribution and transportation costs; and boosting inventory management to reduce out of stocks.

Founded in 1989 as a smart shopping option for busy people, Peapod today stands serves 22 U.S. markets in communities in the states of Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Maryland, District of Columbia, Virginia, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey. The Skokie-based company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Royal Ahold in The Netherlands, has achieved over 13 million deliveries since its late 1980s inception.