Turkish pistachios and Bavarian potato pancake mix might not be on the shelves at the local grocery store, but they will soon be a click away at www.shopthepig.com.
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Fresh Brands Inc. (stock: FRSH) is joining an Illinois specialty foods distributor to launch an e-commerce site that will offer 10,000 exotic food items for home delivery anywhere in the United States. The company is the parent of Piggly Wiggly and Dick's Supermarkets.
"It allows customers access to items not found in the store," said Joe Livorsi, Fresh Brands' senior vice president of sales and marketing.
The site, which will be operated by Kehe Food Distributors of Romeoville, Ill., launches Oct. 10. By setting up the online program, Fresh Brands is, in effect, turning over the keys to the Kehe specialty food warehouse to its customers.
Items will be shipped via UPS, at standard rates, from the Kehe distribution center. Fresh Brands will make a small commission on all products sold to customers who reach the Kehe site through the Fresh Brands link, Livorsi said.
Kehe supplies specialty and imported foods to Fresh Brands supermarkets, and some items that are available in stores also will be sold through the Web site, Livorsi said.
But Kehe's inventory is much larger than the shelf space available in Fresh Brands stores, and the online site gives shoppers the chance to choose from an array of products, he said.