Brothers Andrew and Thomas Parkinson founded Peapod in 1989 in Evanston, IL. The Parkinson brothers' goal was to offer a convenient way for consumers to accomplish their grocery shopping.

Peapod began test marketing in Evanston in July, 1990 with about 400 households. The orders were placed online, just not over the Internet. Peapod would provide software to customers and even sell the modems customers would need to dial in directly to Peapod. During these early days, Andrew and Thomas would do the picking and packing themselves, and make deliveries using their own cars - with their wives and other friends helping out as needed! As demand for the service grew, Peapod expanded operations to include much of the greater Chicago area, which is currently its largest market. Peapod soon extended into additional markets, and began taking orders over its own web site (www.peapod.com) in 1998. To date, Peapod provides service in Greater Chicago area, Greater Boston area, Connecticut, Long Island, New Jersey, New York, Baltimore and Washington D.C.

The brothers remain very actively involved in Peapod today. Andrew is the president and Thomas is the chief technology officer.

Peapod first began picking orders right from the shelves of the local supermarkets. In Chicago, they were partnered with Jewel Food stores, in San Francisco the partner was Safeway, in Ohio you could find them filling orders at the local Kroger and in Texas, Randall's was the retail partner. In these early days, Peapod partnered with the grocery stores just to fill the orders, but it soon became evident co-branding with the store was the route to survival. Peapod was by far ahead of the curve, and was fast becoming the format of the future.

Since joining forces with Ahold, Peapod has pursued a "clicks and bricks" strategy. This strategy employs what we believe is a winning model with meaningful advantages for our customers. This partnership also allowed Peapod to expand our partnership with Stop & Shop from Boston and Long Island to Southern Connecticut (Peapod by Stop & Shop) and in Washington D.C. with Giant Foods, (Peapod by Giant). The D.C. opening was accelerated by the acquisition of the Chicago and Washington operations of Streamline.com. The acquisition brought us two state-of-the-art facilities, added talent and knowledgeable management and employees to our business. These advantages go hand in hand with the efficiencies that our employees are working hard to achieve on the logistics and distribution side of the business. Our objective is to pick, pack and deliver Peapod's orders in the most efficient manner possible, while maintaining the high quality of our products and our service.

Peapod has one model (centralized distribution) with two formats (wareroom/fast-pick center and warehouse). Both provide next-day delivery, capitalizing on a supply chain that keeps the cold chain intact. This allows us to use the assets of the store as we open markets, and then transition to warehouses as the business grows; leveraging the power of Ahold stores helps us maximizes quality, minimize out-of-stocks, control inventory and provide superior service.

Peapod prides itself on exceeding customer's expectations and providing friendly and superior service for each and every customer. The company stands by its 100% Satisfaction Guarantee - meaning that if something about the shopping experience or order is not to a customer's liking, Peapod will make it right.