Parents or Nannies who stay at home with children are normally the ones who also get groceries. The problem is with children this becomes an ordeal beyond what can be imagined. Many times the shopper will have to cut the shopping short because they are unable to deal with the child. I know of experiences where the child was so difficult, groceries were left at the register unpaid for as the parent or nanny could not last any longer with a screaming child. The stress that this causes on the child's caretaker is intense. On the grocery store's side they lose the benefit of extended shopping or shopping by that parent at all. It will also increase the other shoppers' frustration because they have to hear the child screaming.
By partnering with local stores, an online shopping site with a delivery service can be set up to solve all of these issues. Not only with people pay the premium to have their goods delivered, the stores can also increase sales through a much more calm shopping experience for the other patrons and the parent, the impulse buying inherent in online shopping, and direct marketing techniques more easily executed because of the data collected when someone shops online at their store's site.
I know of many families who return weekly form the store begging for such a service.
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This service exists in many metropolitan areas.
Freshdirect offers this service in NYC
a few of the major grocery chains already have this system, such as peapod, which is a delivery service from stop and shop, i think its stop and shop, but anyway, i think shaws and some others have delivery services based on online shopping already, which deliver the morning after the order is placed.
I like this idea, and to piggyback on it. It would be convienient if one of the supercenter's could upload their produce section online. Then as consumers use produce at home, they could make a virtual shopping list(I imagine some large appliance/Refridgerators could apply an application to their "online" appliances). This list could be uploaded to the Supercenter when the consumer is ready to shop. They'd recieve a choice for scheduling pickup times, and while they are coming home from work or just stopping through before heading to a party, pay and pick up their produce in a "drive-through" style location.
In the 19th century, shopping was often done this way. a woman would send a note to town once a week, and the groceries would be delivered later.
I believe a "compromise" service would be most feasible today. That is, a shopper would e-mail a shopping list, or rather check off items on an on-line shopping list, and then come into the store to pick them up. (Payment would have been made already by credit card, online.) The visit to the store would be so brief there'd be very little screaming-child problem. I think some grocery chains already offer this service.
I would like to expand on RogerKnight's idea. One of the things that keep people away from these services is their desire/need to look over produce, meat and other perishables before they buy. But packaged items such as cans of peas and tomotoes, juices could be ordered on-line in advance and picked up at the store when you go to choose your fresh fish, meat and produce. The site could maintain your "every week" shopping list and display it for you to check or uncheck as desired. You could add items to the current shopping list and select to add to the ongoing shopping list.