Have you spotted them yet? The vans with the big fuzzy peach on the side? Rachel Eichstadt had.

“I’d seen them around the neighborhood and thought I’d try it,” says the stay-at-home Lake Highlands mom, who has joined the growing ranks of neighborhood folks who are ordering their groceries online.

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“I used the Homegrocer website (www.homegrocer.com) and am a happy customer,” says Eichstadt, whose son is 10 months old.

“Prices seem pretty competitive and even better than what I have been paying for Matthew’s organic baby food – I was impressed that I could find that online.”

Leading Dallas and the nation / Would it surprise you to know that our neighborhood ranks among the top four Dallas-Fort Worth communities when it comes to utilizing on-line grocers? That’s right: Lakewood/Lake Highlands, the Park Cities, Plano and Coppell are the top area battlegrounds for the nation’s on-line grocers.

Perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise since our neighborhood includes some of the most affluent, dual-income, Internet-savvy surfers in the country, according to research conducted by online grocers.

“Dallas is a very wired city,” says Homegrocer spokesperson Stacy Drake. “And that’s typically what is looked at along with the type of demographics you have in those particular neighborhoods.

“Our market in Lakewood and Lake Highlands is households with children and annual incomes over $70,000, and our sales figures really say something about what’s going on there.

“Lakewood and Lake Highlands consistently are great performers for us. And the ones who do the ordering? Women – 92 percent.”

Does it really work? / Homegrocer’s Drake says the company’s average customer orders 2.5 times a month with an average order of $105, but so far Eichstadt says she only orders about once a month when “Freddie” has devoured his 20-pound bags of dog food.

“My true motivation was that I’d just had a baby, and I thought that instead of taking him to the store, I would use the Internet. And then it became real handy for whenever I order heavy things.”

“I love it!” says neighborhood homemaker and corporate writer Alesia Ritenour, who is a Groceryworks customer (the vans with the funny vegetable animal art – www.groceryworks.com).

“I’ve been very happy with them. It took awhile the first time to get everything in the system, but you know, they have your standard – the Fast Shop.”

Ritenour had some of the same motivations as Eichstadt: “What I like to do is buy my big dog food and Cokes and bottled drinks that are heavy, things I don’t feel like bringing in myself. I load up on that stuff and let the driver bring it in. That’s the big benefit, I think, that they’re bringing it to your countertop.”

She says besides buying food for Allie, the family’s golden retriever, shopping online has advantages with her two children, ages 9 and 6.

“Going to the store…they’re still at the age where they’re throwing things in my buggy, and I end up at the checkout counter not knowing I’m buying a bag of M&Ms and two packs of gum.”

Learning along the way / That’s one of the points Groceryworks founder Kelby Hagar likes to make: Online, a mom can do her grocery shopping while a child is taking a nap as opposed to wailing on the candy aisle. The “carrying the heavy stuff” (such as dog food) angle was something the company didn’t entirely anticipate, Hagar concedes.

“One of the things we found in the process is that people buy bigger sizes (online) than they typically will in the store,” Hagar says.

“This is contrary to what we thought – we thought with the access to home delivery that people would order smaller quantities more often. But it’s actually just the opposite; they buy very large ‘stock up’ products.”

“And our top selling item is – bananas.”

So who’s ordering all those bananas? The company’s number one target, Hagar says, is a two-income family with children. Second place is divided between the elderly and disabled, “20-somethings who are used to running their lives over computers,” and stay-at-home moms.

Hagar says Groceryworks’ first-time users have pretty much returned to shop again – the challenge is getting people to try it the “first time.”

“Shopping for groceries online for the first time is very similar to going into a new grocery store. You’ve got to figure out how the aisles work, and where they put products.

“Your first trip online takes about an hour. After that – five to 10 minutes.”

Despite her online success, Ritenour says she still likes to run to her neighborhood “brick-and-mortar” grocery store once during the week to get an item or two.

“For some reason, I don’t know why, I like to get my milk. The brand that they (Groceryworks) carry, I wasn’t familiar with. But I order produce, meat, everything else.

“I find their prices very comparable, and sometimes I shop the specials, even though I haven’t tried using coupons yet.”

Meet the players / Going to the grocery store is something most of us have to do, Hagar says, and our buying habits tend to be repetitious.

“You and I and every average family in America buy roughly 200 items over the course of our ‘grocery lifetime’ – we buy the same exact products, the same brands.

“The Internet clearly has the computer power to retain that list for you – so instead of walking down the same aisle every week, you can simply push a button – we can eliminate some of the drudgery of everyday life.”

Groceryworks has received such a large proportion of its favorable feedback on the “Shop Fast” feature that the company is expanding its capacity on its new website.

“The first list will have the top 200 items that consumers buy,” Hagar says. “The second list will show the most frequently purchased 50 items. We also save any past order you’ve placed.”

In other words, remember last year when you threw your annual Christmas party with grandmother’s traditional recipes? If you used Groceryworks, this year you can just call up your grocery list from that event and instantly order all the ingredients you need once again.

The dot.com grocer refers to Dallas as the “third coast of the dot.com industry.”

“When we first started, Texas in general and Dallas in particular weren’t viewed as new technology hotbeds, which we thought was absolutely crazy.”

“Dallas is certainly much more respected as a ‘new tech corridor’ than it was when we were out pounding the pavement for financing.”

All this from February 1999 to now?

“It’s been a wild ride,” laughs Hagar.

Meanwhile, Seattle-based Homegrocer, which began in June ’98 and only came to Dallas this past June, has already been snapped up by Webvan, a national online grocer with a merchandise list closer to a Sam’s or a superstore than a rank-and-file food store.

Homegrocer operates out of a gigantic warehouse in Carrollton; Groceryworks’ similarly mammoth warehouse also is in Carrollton.

When asked if she could be lured from Groceryworks by the superstore itinerary of Webvan, Ritenour conceded she could be tempted.

“I would definitely shop for other items. I’m a firm believer in buying over the Internet, open to buying office supplies or Target-type items and toiletries that we need.”

Homegrocer’s top products are (in order) milk, chicken, bananas, baby food and stamps. Unlike Groceryworks, Homegrocer offers flowers and will be expanding into non-food items such as Old Navy clothing, electronics, garden supplies and cutlery.

What about bricks and mortar? / So how are traditional grocers responding to the online initiative?

Albertsons was the first brick and mortar store to offer the online grocery option (Albertsons.com), launching in January 1998 in Dallas. The company’s web site and operations are structured much like Groceryworks and Homegrocer – a large fulfillment center, home delivery in short time frame (a 90-minute window in their case) and about 16,000 items in stock.

However, Albertsons gives its customers the added option of picking up their online order at the store.

Dallas-based Minyard’s hasn’t joined the web-based home delivery game but, like Kroger’s, Minyard’s participated in the recently closed-down Priceline.com grocery program, which allowed consumers to go online and bid for grocery items in up to 240 product categories; about a minute later, the service advised whether or not a bid had been accepted.

Priceline.com spent more than $350 million developing the grocery program, and a companion gasoline sales program, before the company ran out of money last month and cancelled the grocery and gas programs. Priceline’s other web-based sales efforts, including the much-publicized airline ticket program, continue to operate.

Saving time, money or both / The key is whether the technophile in question is shorter on time or money.

For Eichstadt and Ritenour, it’s time.

“I plan to continue doing it,” Eichstadt says. “Even though I honestly love to grocery shop – I know that sounds strange – but I almost did not do the Internet because of that.

“I thought maybe I might save money because I wouldn’t be tempted…but I’m still tempted by different things I see online.”

Ritenour says: “Between work and the children and…you know, just busy everyday life, I decided to try it one time and see how I liked it, and I got hooked right away.

“I think it’s just easier than going to the grocery store.”