On Saturday, August 3, 2013 10:31:41 AM UTC-7, sf wrote:
> On Sat, 3 Aug 2013 18:11:47 +0100, "Ophelia"
>
> > wrote:
>
> > "Kalmia" > wrote in message
>
> > ...

> > > How did they bill? Per spent lb of food schlepped? Distance to your
> > > house? Time spent gathering the stuff? I just wonder how they figured the
> > > fee.
>
> > > My mother used to call an indep. mkt which catered to the carriage trade,
> > > and would deliver anything you wanted, be it a bottle of milk or a hundred
> > > dollar order, for a flat fee of five bucks. Sadly, that market folded.
>
> > > The rich, the ill, the elderly,-- I bet even the lazy-- loved that
> > > delivery system. They had great meat, produce, and also odd items you
> > > cudn't find in the the big chains.
>
> > schlepped = delivered?
>
> carried
>

Carried or dragged. The connotation is "against considerable resistance."

The model during the dotcom boom was Webvan. They had their own warehouses;
would pick your order, and deliver it.
Then Peapod survived -- they worked out of local supermarkets.

In Manhattan there's something called Fresh Direct.