"New Technological Developments - PCs and the Internet"
Shops on the box
Fed up with wasting hours rushing round the supermarket on Saturday morning? Perhaps Internet shopping will help make this weekly struggle a thing of the past. Celia Dodd checks out the virtual store and finds the future has almost arrived
Anne Wiggett, a secondary school teacher with two children, used to drag herself around Asda on her way home every Friday night, but now, in what might be the early signs of a social revolution, her 19-year-old son Roger does the whole family shop from his desk at work. His new-found enthusiasm for domestic duties is directly linked to his computer capability.
"It's brilliant. It takes about 15 minutes to order £70 worth of shopping, and if h get the order in by 9.30 am I can even get some rocky road pie delivered in time for lunch," says Roger, whose workplace is taking part in a trial shop-on-the-net scheme run by Waitrose.
"The supermarket's shoppers pick better stuff than I could - the broccoli's never manky and I really get the feeling they know who I am. It's really changed our lives. Mum gets home a couple of hours earlier and isn't so moody when we get in."
It seems that the changing roles in the Wiggett family are part of a wider social shift which could relieve women permanently of at least one household chore. Just as men who don't cook will barbecue, men are much more likely to offer to shop if the Internet's involved, even if they are 19 years old.
Thousands of people are discovering the benefits of filling a virtual trolley with virtual shopping and having it materialise on their doorsteps within hours. They are on the frontline in the latest battle between the big supermarkets who have within their sights a home-shopping market likely to be worth a total of £16 billion within 20 years. Trial schemes are testing the most efficient and cost-effective ways of delivering direct to consumers who increasingly expect technology to make their lives easier.
Tesco, the market leader, is testing two variations of electronic shopping in parts of London and Leeds: a Tesco Direct catalogue oil CD-Rom and a website of the internet where browser-shoppers compile a shopping list, pay by card and arrange a home delivery at a cost of £5. Its Internet Superstore is one of the 10 most frequently visited websites in the UK, but in an attempt to overcome consumer resistance to the worldwide web, Tesco has even launched its own Internet connection service, similar to AOL or Compuserve.
Sainsbury's Orderline, available through about 20 stores, takes orders via the Internet or by phone or fax once you have compiled your own personal shopping catalogue on a visit to the store; if you pick up your shopping the charge is £3.50, for home delivery it's £5. Sommerfield is testing a similar home-shopping service in Chippenham and Cannock, and lceland runs one from 230 of its stores.
But however useful these services can undoubtedly be, the supermarkets may be taking a big gamble. Retail analyst Neil Mason of Mintel, who recently published a report on Internet shopping, says: "There's a lot of hype, but our own research has found that actual usage is very small, while the costs of delivery and admin are high. The deciding factor over the next 18 months will be whether supermarkets can get the usage high enough to make it profitable."
For the supermarkets, the biggest problem is that less than a quarter of households have access to the worldwide web. That's why Waitrose has chosen to restrict its service - officially launched last month as Waitrose @ work - to workplaces, where computers are a more familiar tool; same-day delivery to one site also cuts Waitrose's costs dramatically. Currently on trial with two offices using the Intranet, their internal systems, the service is proving popular, not just because of the captive audience (both companies are miles from the nearest supermarkets) but because there's no delivery charge and the stuff arrives in the carpark within hours of ordering.
But there are teething troubles with all the schemes, particularly with delivery and speed of ordering. When you log on to the Tesco website you are likely to be greeted by all apology for the delay in available delivery slots - some customers have to wait three days rather than the original next-day promise...
And what happens when electronic shopping takes off and spreads across the country? Will the roads be clogged with delivery vans? Paul Arnold of Tesco insists not: "It's more likely that it will take cars off the road, because instead of eight or nine customers all driving to Tesco,a single van will deliver to them all. But we're not trying to get people out of superstores - perish the thought. Internet shopping will appeal to a certain number of customers - at the moment how many that will be remains an open question."
(© THE GUARDIAN 6.8.1998)