Some OTC medication orders getting special handling at Peapod.com

Online wine and liquor merchants—and online grocers that sell alcohol—already grapple with state and local regulations that restrict such sales by state or municipality. Now, online grocer Peapod.com is adding to a list of ordered items requiring similar special scrutiny some over-the-counter medicines such as some antihistamines, according to Tom Parkinson, senior vice president and chief technology officer.

That’s because some OTC medications have been determined to contain ingredients that could be used in the production of illegal drugs meth and phetamine, a fact that has caused Illinois and other states to pursue legislation prohibiting the sale of large multiples of such medicines to single customers, says Parkinson.

Peapod is looking to its order management system to help ensure compliance. In its Chicago-area market, for example, Peapod already has built into its order management system data by ZIP code and city on any municipalities that restrict the sale of alcohol so as to prevent fulfillment of those orders. It’s now preparing to install a data checking system that will automatically prevent fulfillment of orders of multiples of the identified OTC medications.

“Right now we are doing that manually, but it’s not scalable,” says Parkinson. “It’s complicated because you have to figure out which products have these ingredients in them. It’s a lot for our web site to deal with.”