Sendik's Food Markets will launch an online ordering service this year, co-owner Ted Balistreri said Wednesday.
The chain of eight Sendik's stores will put its entire inventory online but will not offer delivery, Balistreri said in an interview after a speech to the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.
The Sendik's service will be the second of its kind in the area in the past decade. In 2001, Pick 'n Save offered an online order service that required shoppers to pick up orders curbside at the stores. Pick 'n Save dropped the program a year later after it was not well received by customers.
"Our approach will be completely different," Balistreri said. The Balistreri family operates stores in Whitefish Bay, Mequon, Grafton, Wauwatosa, Elm Grove, Franklin, Greenfield and Germantown.
Peapod, a national online grocer, delivers orders in the Milwaukee area and southeastern Wisconsin from a distribution center in northern Illinois.