Peapod Online Grocer (US), LLC is an American

online grocer An online grocer is either a brick-and-mortar supermarket or grocery store that allows online ordering, or a standalone e-commerce service that includes grocery items. There is usually a delivery charge for this service. Brick-and-mortar superma ...

y delivery service. By February 2022, it changed its name to Peapod Digital Labs. The company is based in

Chicago, IL (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and operated in several U.S. cities. It is owned by Netherlands-based

Ahold Delhaize Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize N.V. (in Dutch literally "Royal Ahold Delhaize"), commonly known as Ahold Delhaize, is a Dutch multinational retail and wholesaling company. Its name comes from a merger between Ahold (Dutch) and Delhaize Group (Belg ...

, which operates Stop & Shop, Food Lion,

Giant-Landover Giant Food of Maryland, LLC, also known as Giant, is an American supermarket chain with 169 stores and 159 full service pharmacies located in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.https://stores.giantfood.com/ , giantfoo ...

in the USA, and other supermarkets in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Greece, Serbia and Romania. It used to deliver from its own Chicago-area and other warehouses in the Midwest until its Midwest operations ceased in early 2020. Peapod online grocery had operations in 24 U.S. urban markets, and was once the largest online grocery delivery company in the United States.

Overview

Peapod Online Grocer (US) was founded in 1989 by Andrew Parkinson and Thomas Parkinson. One early proposal for a name for the new company was IPOD, an acronym for Information and Product On Demand. The brothers, taking marketing considerations into account, decided on the friendlier sounding "Peapod" instead. Before 1996, Peapod Online Grocer (US) provided an online grocery shopping service in a partnership with Jewel supermarket in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and surrounding towns;

Kroger The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company that operates (either directly or through its subsidiaries) supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States. Founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cincin ...

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and ...

; Randall's in Houston, Texas, and

Safeway Safeway is an American supermarket chain founded by Marion Barton Skaggs in April 1915 in American Falls, Idaho. The chain provides grocery items, food and general merchandise and features a variety of specialty departments, such as bakery, del ...

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

in 1993. In 1996, the company launched its website and became one of the earliest internet

start-up A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

s; the company ranked 69th on the

Inc. 500 ''Inc.'' is an American business magazine founded in 1979 and based in New York City. The magazine publishes six issues per year, along with surrounding online and social media content. The magazine also produces several live and virtual events ...

list of fast-growing privately held U.S. companies. That year the company held an

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

on NASDAQ. Between 1997 and 2000, Peapod expanded into

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most p ...

and Watertown, Massachusetts, Long Island, New York, and Norwalk, Connecticut in partnership with Stop & Shop. In late 2000, they added Washington, D.C. and surrounding towns through Giant of Landover, and in 2011 they also started serving the Philadelphia market with Giant of Carlisle and Manhattan with Stop & Shop. In October 2017, Peapod Online Grocer (US) announced it was moving its headquarters from suburban

Skokie, Illinois Skokie (; formerly Niles Center) is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, neighboring the City of Chicago's northern border. Its population, according to the 2020 census, was 67,824. Skokie lies approximately north of Chicago's d ...

to downtown Chicago. In 2019, Peapod held 9% of the online grocery delivery market in New York City, behind

FreshDirect FreshDirect is an American online grocery company and among the first enterprises to sell and deliver perishable foods to consumers without maintaining a retail operation. Established in New York City, the company serves the New York metropolita ...

(68%),

Instacart Instacart is an American company that operates a grocery delivery and pick-up service in the United States and Canada. The company offers its services via a website and mobile app. The service allows customers to order groceries from participatin ...

(13%), and

Amazon Fresh Amazon Fresh is a subsidiary of the American e-commerce company Amazon in Seattle, Washington. It is a grocery retailer with physical stores and delivery services in most major U.S. cities, as well as some international cities, such as Berlin, H ...

(9%). In February 2020, Peapod announced they would be ceasing operations in the Midwest ( Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin) and focus exclusively on serving the East Coast. However, the headquarters for Peapod Digital Labs, which runs the e-commerce technology for Ahold Delhaize's U.S. grocery brands, remained in downtown Chicago. In June 2000, global grocery corporation

Royal Ahold Koninklijke Ahold N.V. was a Dutch multinational retail company based in Zaandam, Netherlands. It merged with Belgium-based Delhaize Group in 2016 to form Ahold Delhaize. History Growth in the Netherlands The company started in 1887, when A ...

bought 51% of Peapod's shares, and in August 2001, Royal Ahold bought out the entire company. As a result, Peapod cancelled its contracts with all grocery companies except for Royal Ahold's two main American chains, Stop & Shop and Giant Food (

and

Giant-Carlisle The Giant Company (formerly known as Giant Food Stores) is an American regional supermarket chain that operates stores in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia and provides online shopping and delivery to New Jersey through G ...

). This caused Peapod to abandon

Columbus Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to: * Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer * Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio Columbus may also refer to: Places ...

, Houston, and San Francisco entirely.

Mobile app

In February 2012, Peapod introduced signs at some SEPTA Regional Rail stations in Philadelphia which enabled smartphone users to shop for groceries using Peapod's mobile app on their phone and scanning the

barcode A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly referred to as linear or on ...

s of items listed on the signs. The grocery delivery occurred later in the day.

Recognition and awards

In 2017, Peapod Online Grocer (US) was listed as "one of the oldest and most popular online grocery services in the marketplace." The NPD Group's Chief Food Industry Analyst, Harry Balzer, considers Peapod the top online grocery delivery service and believes that could be used as a model for delivery services, such as

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology co ...

and Walmart, if they move into the business of online groceries.

References

External links

Official website
{{Online food ordering Ahold Delhaize Companies based in Chicago American companies established in 1989 Retail companies established in 1989 Transport companies established in 1989 Internet properties established in 1996 Online grocers American grocers Online retailers of the United States

Overview

Mobile app

Recognition and awards

See also

References

External links