Global Grocer: international shoppers click and buy from fledgling online food sellers

Latin Trade, April, 2004 by Corrie Maclaggan

And although she doesn't order fruits and vegetables because she likes to select those items herself, she finds the service convenient. Most Web-based grocery delivery services in Latin America, along with the older telephone-order services, charge a small delivery fee, about US$2, which is sometimes waived for orders above a certain amount, around $40, depending on the store.

As Latin American grocery stores wait for more domestic Web customers like Pineda, they're tapping the potential of overseas clients like Cubici-Gonzalez.

"I just couldn't believe that I can sit here in my house and buy groceries for my mom's house in Venezuela," says Cubici-Gonzalez, whose mother is an unemployed widow. "We Latin Americans have a completely different culture than people in other places. We don't abandon old people; we look after them. My mother gave me a lot of her life, and I feel a need from my heart to help her."