By Sonya Rabbitte, 5 February 2002 14:00
NEWS Tesco has joined forces with US supermarket chain Safeway to get its online arm up and running after several failed attempts. Tesco last year invested $22m in Groceryworks.com, the internet division acquired in 2000 by Safeway in the US. Trial services began last week in Oregon and Washington, with plans to gradually expand nationwide. Safeway - no connection to the UK supermarket chain - will follow the Tesco.com model of having employees pick and pack online orders straight off shop shelves, rather than operating the expensive warehouses favoured by defunct web grocers Webvan and Kozmo. Safeway operates more than 1,700 stores in the US and has annual sales of $34bn. In 2000, it paid $30m to acquire a controlling stake in Groceryworks.com, but the deal almost collapsed before Tesco invested last year.
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