•••Tickets, please: Want to add event ticket sales to your list of customer services? The TicketsLive Network, Dewitt, N.Y., (www.ticketslive.com) is shopping for supermarkets that want to operate a ticket outlet. "There are numerous options open to supermarkets," says Fred Maglione, vice president, corporate sales and new business development, for TicketsLive. "Supermarkets can create their own ticket distribution network brand; sell and dispense tickets; they can choose only to fulfill Internet, pre-paid ticket orders; or they can dispense tickets through ATM machines in their stores." Only a minimal investment for equipment (a printer) is needed, as long as the store is hooked into an Internet provider.



• Not so funny: A not-so-funny thing happened on the way to establishing a company Web site—no one could find you in the maze of more than three million sites out there in cyberspace. If that is the scenario that your company faces, help is on the way in the form of Web Ad.vantage Inc., Bel Air, Md., a marketing and promotional firm specializing in consulting and building Web site traffic and awareness (www.webadvantage.net). Grocery retailers have been targeted by Web Ad.vantage Founder and President Hollis Thomases in a study to determine the effectiveness of grocers going on-line, "Grocery Retailing On-line—Advice from an Internet Professional." Some suggestions that grocers can incorporate are: Have your Web site developed by a professional; think like a consumer—is the site easy to navigate?; add value for the consumer to keep them coming back, such as on-line coupons, recipe exchanges, nutritional information and a Kids Korner.