Wandering the Aisles of a Virtual Grocery Store

Tonight’s dinner is just a click away when you grocery shop online. Shopping Made Easy is an Internet grocery store serving Orange County, though the company plans to start delivery in L.A. sometime soon.

More than 10,000 items are stocked on https://www.shoppingmadeeasy.com. Customers browse aisles the same way they would at a conventional supermarket. Click on an aisle, and a list of sections appears on screen. Click on the bread, rice and stuffing aisle, for example, and macaroni, angel hair and spaghetti are three of the sections to choose from. Click again, and a list of brands and varieties appears.

Orders e-mailed by 2 p.m. are delivered later the same day. The customer pays for orders by cash or check at home.

Customers may be very specific with orders. For example, if you want paper towels with a particular pattern, you can specify it on your e-mail order. “We are really about personal service. Someone once said we are like room service for the home,” explained Cathy Townsend, director of sales and marketing for Shopping Made Easy. The Costa Mesa-based service hopes to expand nationwide.