SimonDelivers

SimonDelivers, Inc. was an online grocery that primarily served the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area of Minnesota, Rochester, Forest Lake, New Prague, Belle Plaine and Jordan, MN and western Wisconsin cities such as Hudson, New Richmond and River Falls. Founded in 1999, it was one example of a company that successfully weathered the dot-com boom and bust at the turn of the 21st century, in contrast to the famous "dot-bomb" grocery Webvan which was created around the same time but went out of business in 2001. SimonDelivers also had a financially difficult period that year, but secured $15 million in funding and had focused on developing the local market rather than expanding to other areas of the United States.

The company's name comes from that of founder Simon Foster. In January 2006, SimonDelivers surpassed three million orders. In 2005, the company began delivering to apartments and condominiums. As of 2005, the company operated 74 delivery vehicles (each bright yellow, emblazoned with large logos) from two distribution centers, one in New Hope, Minnesota, and one in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota.

On July 15, 2008, SimonDelivers announced via email to its customers that it was suspending operations within two weeks. President Liwanag Ojala cited increased food and fuel prices as factors in this decision. The real reason was that the company was never profitable, business had declined in the last two years, had depleted its cash, and could not obtain new funding.

On July 21, 2008, SimonDelivers announced on its website that it was closed and was not accepting orders.

On August 26, 2008, St. Cloud, MN-based grocery retailer, Coborn’s Incorporated, announced it had acquired (and will reopen) SimonDelivers as CobornsDelivers beginning in October 2008.

In late October 2008 CobornsDelivers resumed deliveries to former SimonDelivers customers.


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