Safeway Plc and International Business Machines Corp

Food & Drink Weekly, Dec 21, 1998

Safeway Plc and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) said they are starting up the world's first personalized remote shopping service, which will allow customers to submit grocery orders in advance through hand-held electronic organizers. The organizers will enable customers to preselect their weekly groceries from individually tailored, computerized shopping lists, compiled from their own past purchases.

Customers select their choice of groceries and then attach the device to a telephone line which transmits the order to Safeway. Over the next few years, customers will probably be able to digitally order groceries using the technology in devices such as TVs and mobile phones.