"The General Store, as part of its business plan strategy for rapid growth throughout the United States, intends to offer for sale Area Franchises," says CEO Glen Easthope. "A franchise allows an individual to purchase a region or multiple regions for exclusive sale and service of home-delivery groceries and products utilizing The General Store brand and online product network."
The company's Web site is being redesigned. A prototype reveals a site that will include sections for Investors, Franchises and Customers. The site touts its $4.95 charge for next-day grocery delivery, as well as its plan to offer an online catalog, a full-color catalog, a CD-Rom catalog and a proprietary DVD system. They plan to also accept telephone and fax orders.
The company just filed its Uniform Franchise Offering Circular (UFOC) application last month, so details on the franchise opportunities remain sketchy. It's interesting to note that the online grocery store market is growing-and it hasn't honed in on franchising as a viable expansion strategy. According to Jupiter Communications (http://www.jup.com), the online grocery market will grow from $350 million in 1999 to $3.5 billion in 2002. A huge market, right? Not exactly.
Although the industry will represent one of the largest online consumer categories in 2002, it will make up just 1 percent of the grocery market offline and on. Jupiter analysts point out that consumers are very price conscious when it comes to groceries. It will be some time before they're willing to pay
higher prices for the convenience of grocery delivery. Despite the challenges, online grocers like veteran peapod (http://www.peapod.com) and newcomer Webvan (http://www.webvan.com) are forging ahead. Their biggest challenge will be expanding. Jupiter points out that it's expensive and difficult to open regional distribution centers.
Maybe The General Store has hit on a solution. Franchising, after all, is one of the quickest, most inexpensive ways to spread a brand. Time will tell. The General Store's execution, however, may leave something to be desired. The phone number listed on its Web site is for a company called U.S. Tuxedo-not The General Store.
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