Safeway.com Doubles in Size in San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento

PLEASANTON, Calif. - Safeway.com has said it has more than doubled in size in the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento areas since its mid-March launch and is now available to customers in 250 ZIP code areas, representing approximately 2.6 million households.

The service was introduced in Northern California on March 13 and reached 100 ZIP code areas in San Francisco, San Jose and Sacramento. Since then, more than a dozen local Safeway stores have been added to quickly double the breadth of Safeway.com's presence throughout the Peninsula, South Bay, East Bay and North Bay areas. Last week, service was expanded to include Crockett, Gilroy, Martinez and Morgan Hill. Safeway.com is signing up new customers at a rate of approximately 1,000 per day.

"We are on track in rolling out Safeway.com to eager consumers throughout the greater Bay Area and Sacramento," said Gary Rocheleau, the new president of GroceryWorks, Safeway's exclusive provider for online grocery shopping and delivery. "We've discovered plenty of pent-up demand from people who tried and liked online grocery shopping in the past. Shoppers continue to tell us they like the convenience, and they appreciate our on-time deliveries and the accuracy of Safeway.com orders."

During the month of April, the most commonly ordered items by online customers were fruits and vegetables, children's snack items, laundry detergent and diapers.

In Northern California, the average online order size at Safeway.com has been 52 items per delivery, with the largest delivery reaching 122 items. The busiest day of the week for Safeway.com deliveries is Friday, while Monday is the second busiest and Wednesday is the slowest day.