rcjordan - 5:15 pm on Sep 5, 2002 (gmt 0)

>The fact is, however, they do buy those things online in large numbers and I don't know why.

Convenience, convenience, convenience.

Remember netgrocer? Louise was their poster child when they first opened up... she'd STILL be buying from peapod or anybody that had a decent number of SKUs and could ship what she wanted. Why go to the grocery store when the FedEx guy will bring them to you nicely boxed? Sure, delivering groceries to Podunk couldn't be done at a profit -but the reasoning still applies assuming the supplier doesn't break the price point. I buy a couple $K per year online, everything from gifts to business hardware -99% of those purchases are made online simply because it's more convenient.