Here in Providence, RI we still have one delivery outfit, Munroe Dairy. I remember getting a tour of the facility they use when I as a kid and was suprised to see they still do deliveries.
The product mix is interesting too!
I called the dairy, and talked to Lindsay Armstrong-Mitchel. She told me that they still take orders over the phone, without benefit of an IVR system, although they prefer that customers use the web, since they have over 300 products and serve a multi-lingual client base.
Ms. Armstrong-Mitchel told me that their average phone order is $20, whereas the average web order is $35: phone orders, however, are more profitable, because their sales force can "upsell" higher-value items.
As an example, she cited a sale they had for "lobster ravioli" last December: they sold more online, but phone orders generated more, (and more profitable) follow-on sales for related items used in preparation of a sauce to go with the ravioli.
The company's customers, she said, are mostly young families, but they are seeing more childless, professional couples as time goes by.
I asked if they serve a lot of physically-challenged customers who are unable to shop for themselves, but Ms. Armstrong-Mitchel said that they have thirty routes, and handicapped customers are only one or two stops per route.
When I inquired what benefit her customers get by ordering deliveries: Ms. Armstrong-Mitchel told me that taking kids to the store is expensive, and told me that industry studies show families spend 40 extra dollars when they go to the supermarket, not just in "kiddie grab" items, but in impulse buys by adults.
Long story short: ordering groceries by phone is alive and well - and sometimes cheaper than going to the supermarket!
Bill Horne Moderator