Milk, bread, and eggs, delivered to your ... gas station?
Buying bananas, milk and chicken online has little in common with adding shoes, a cellphone or books to an electronic shopping cart. Books can sit on the stoop for a few hours, cellphones don't melt, and in all but extreme circumstances, no one waits at home for two hours hoping the delivery van pulls up with a box of shoes.
The differences add up to dismal online sales for grocers, who have so far been left behind by the e-commerce revolution. But reluctant shoppers may finally be coaxed to point, click and scroll their way through their grocery lists as big-name stores have figured out an innovative technique, called "click and collect," to meet them halfway—literally.
This story about a brand-new way to shop for groceries called Click and Collect, being test marketed in Boston, Washington, and Chicago, appeared on both CNBC.com and on the NBCNews.com home page this week.