Web groceries a hit in B.R. – What’s new

A fast-growing Internet-based grocery delivery startup serving Baton Rouge has added Prairieville and Denham Springs to its delivery area, says James Pellerin, president and co-owner of Valet Grocery.

Launched in January, valetgrocery.com is an independent, locally owned business that offers $5 home delivery of groceries to customers who select and buy items on its website. Orders placed by 8 p.m. can be delivered the next day and within a one-hour time slot. The delivery area is up to 14 local ZIP codes and counting.

“Eventually we hope to serve all of Baton Rouge,” Pellerin says.

Valet Grocery offers a broad array of groceries and other supermarket staples. In early August, a gallon of Kleinpeter whole milk sold for $5.68, an 18-ounce box of Cheerios was $3.98, a one-pound bag of Community dark roast coffee was $3.99, and a 2-liter Diet Coke was $1.98. Over in the meat department, three 16-ounce ribeye steaks sold for $23, while a pound of Manda smoked sausage was $3.58.

Valet Grocery has arrangements with a few suppliers, and its staff also purchases groceries from at least seven area grocery stores. Pellerin says the company completed paperwork necessary to allow it to buy groceries sales tax-free so its customers don’t have to pay the taxes twice.

Pellerin, 45, spent the past two decades in the computer business. He first pondered convenient grocery delivery as a young man living in Rayne, where he would help his elderly grandmother shop for groceries every couple of Saturdays.

“It wasn’t quality time, and it took a while for us to do the shopping,” Pellerin says.

As well as appealing to busy heads of households and homebound customers, valetgrocery.com has caught the attention of out-of-town parents who can set up groceries-only accounts for their children who’ve gone away to college.

“We have people who set up accounts for their grandparents, and we never meet the customer, but the grandparents’ faces light up when fresh groceries show up at their door,” he says.

Learn if they deliver to your ZIP code at valetgrocery.com.