Everyone wants in on the grocery delivery game these days, it seems, from Amazon.com Inc. to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Which is why Thomas Parkinson is all pedal to the metal.
The co-founder and chief technology officer of Peapod LLC, Mr. Parkinson is leading the sector's oldest incumbent beyond its original business. All at once, the company is branching out into office food deliveries, opening a downtown Chicago office to lure tech talent, expanding its warehouses here and on the East Coast and turning former bank branch offices and Starbucks into free pickup sites for customers who can't commit to a two-hour delivery window.
Peapod, a unit of Dutch retail conglomerate Royal Ahold NV since 2001, also is starting to deliver office supplies and other bulk orders to businesses. He says the Skokie-based service ultimately wants business-to-business deliveries to account for as much as 30 percent of overall revenue.
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