Online Grocery Web Site Questions

External Since: Jan 18, 2004 Posts: 2

Hi all,

I'm interested in setting up a small-scale online grocery ordering
ebusiness. I've done several hours worth of research reading about
past failures and current businesses. I'm wondering what steps I
might need to take to make this a reality, legally. I'm assuming I
can't just go out, get a DBA, and advertise products from various
grocery stores...

Will I need to have a contract drawn up in order to do business of
this sort with a grocer? I plan to only charge a delivery fee, which
will be either fixed or vary linearly with price.

I'm also curious about alcohol delivery and what I would need to do
here as well (i.e. would I need a liquor license in order to do
this?).

I'm considering offering a similar service with common items from
department stores too; if there are any major differences in laws that
I would face here, please let me know.

Thanks for any information/direction provided.

David

External Since: Jul 05, 2003 Posts: 275

On Sun, 18 Jan 2004 00:52:01 -0600, David D
<daviddNO31415spammers DeleteThis @yahoo.com> wrote:

>I'm interested in setting up a small-scale online grocery ordering
>ebusiness. I've done several hours worth of research reading about
>past failures and current businesses. I'm wondering what steps I
>might need to take to make this a reality, legally. I'm assuming I
>can't just go out, get a DBA, and advertise products from various
>grocery stores...

Howdy David,

Amongst your reading you should have found one of the major reasons for
failure is not having sufficient funds for at least one years operation
without any income.

What you have in mind is a 24/8 full-time job. Somebody has to be checking
for orders frequently enough to ensure all deliveries happen in a timely
fashion. There are no weekends off unless there's someone to fill in for
you.

>Will I need to have a contract drawn up in order to do business of
>this sort with a grocer? I plan to only charge a delivery fee, which
>will be either fixed or vary linearly with price.

If you've got a years worth of income in the bank plus several thousand to
get the web site built properly, there's no point going any further until
you have contracts with at least one grocery store. They will expect you to
be a licensed business and have liability insurance. If you are trying to
work from home, you've got some major hurdles to get past.

>I'm also curious about alcohol delivery and what I would need to do
>here as well (i.e. would I need a liquor license in order to do
>this?).

I'd suggest staying well clear of this area.

>I'm considering offering a similar service with common items from
>department stores too; if there are any major differences in laws that
>I would face here, please let me know.

You've got months of reading and learning ahead.

Thanks, Chris <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.bizynet.com" target="_blank">http://www.bizynet.com</a>
BIZynet Coordinator cgunn DeleteThis @bizynet.com
Moderator of biz.general, biz.marketplace.discussion, biz.healthcare,
biz.marketplace.web-design, biz.marketplace.international & others