Longtime online regional grocer SimonDelivers.com has succumbed to cost pressure and waning customer interest and will end operations by the end of July. The company began serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN, area in 1999.
Employees were notified last week and about 19,000 active customers received an e-mail explaining the plan.
SimonDelivers.com was an early retailer of online groceries, using a central warehouse location and contracting with local farmers for produce. During its span of business, SimonDelivers.com has delivered about four million orders to about 180,000 customers, the company says.
Management says rising fuel and food prices contributed to SimonDelivers.com’s demise. “SimonDelivers has enjoyed significant support in the community,” says Liwanag Ojala, president. “Unfortunately, that support was not enough to combat the current economic conditions, which have affected our costs and our customers’ purchasing decisions. We are grateful to our customers, vendors, partners and especially our employees, who have been committed to proving the viability of an online grocery delivery service for the last nine years.”
SimonDelivers.com’s 2007 web sales were flat at $60 million, compared to the prior year, according to Internet Retailer estimates. The company is No. 168 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide.
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