Amigo Tuvalu, just came across the following article. PPOD mentioned. I know, you're just playing the volatility (g):
Little growth seen for online grocery retailing
Market research firm Forrester Research Inc. said the opportunity for e-tailers of grocery store items online is not likely to be a significant part of total industry sales over the next five years. "There's a lot of hype around on-line grocery sales, but the reality is that, for the next five years, it will remain a tiny market," said Maria LaTour Kadison, senior analyst in Forrester's On-line Retail Strategies service. In a report, LaTour concluded on-line grocery sales will to be held back by limited geographic availability, delivery and membership fees, a small target audience, and uncertainty about the market itself.
In a now-familiar pattern for online retailing, the Forrester analyst saw brighter prospects for specialty-item sellers, like NetGrocer, than for full-service retailers, like Peapod Inc. Constrained by the costs and limitations of delivering fresh and frozen products to a limited audience of high-income on-line families, full-service providers are struggling to make a profit. Despite a compounded annual growth rate of 92 percent over the next five years, full-service grocery sales will only reach $4.5 billion in 2003, less than 1 percent of total industry sales in 2003. Forrester expects retailers selling gifts, nostalgia items or bulk replacement goods (staples like tissues and sugar) to eclipse full-service grocery sales and climb to $6.3 billion by 2003. Gifts will comprise half of all specialty revenues.
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