Igourmet.com is the big cheese on the Internet

January 25, 2007|By Marilynn Marter INQUIRER FOOD WRITER

WEST PITTSTON, Pa. — A perky "personal shopper" skims along warehouse aisles - market basket in one hand, order printout in the other - assembling the order: an exotic black sea salt from India, a trio of olive oil, vinegar and olives from Italy, and, from the refrigerated cheese room, vacuum-packed wedges of an award-winning fresh chevre from Humboldt, Calif., and a creamy blue from Bavaria.

The basket is inspected, the order verified, then moved on for packing. The order, which came in on the Internet at 4:45 a.m., goes out in a FedEx pickup at 12:30 p.m., less than eight hours later.

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It is one of about 600 orders shipped from igourmet.com's 40,000-square-foot warehouse in this mountain town of 4,800, eight miles north of Wilkes-Barre, on this relatively slow, post-gift-season day in January.

During its November-December peak period, about 300 temps churned out up to 4,000 orders per day. As a result, this otherwise inconspicuous concrete warehouse - at the far end of a charming street lined with modest old homes and mini-manses - is, dollar-wise, FedEx's biggest single-location customer on the East Coast.

And that's without including some items such as frozen crab and shrimp cakes, frozen cheesecakes, caviar, and, most recently, wines (sold only in 26 states) that are shipped directly from their producers. The company, which relocated here in 2004, has become a key factor in the economic revival of this quaint town.

Spencer Chesman's business seems to be flourishing, despite the push to buy as much fresh locally grown food as possible.

"The Europeans just don't understand the American mail-order phenomenon," Chesman said. "People are buying clothes, electronics and, now, food online - even when they have a fresh gourmet cheese shop a few blocks away. They just want everything delivered to their door."

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When Chesman, now 36, starting selling imported cheeses on the Internet in 1997, no one knew who his ultimate customer might be. Or if the venture would become more than a hobby, an extension of his mother's catalog, International Gourmet World of Cheese Club, the retail side of the family import business based in Elizabeth, N.J. (That's where the fortuitous "i" came from, well before iPods and other Internet shorthand.)

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