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Website Working As Personal Shopper For Consumers

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Nov 6, 2009 5:20 pm US/Eastern

Website Working As Personal Shopper For Consumers

MORE INFORMATION: Visit Alice.com

Reporting
Rick Dayton
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― The Sunday paper may have met its match in an online shopping service that's doing the hard work for the consumer.

The website Alice.com is named for the famed housekeeper from the hit 1960s television show "The Brady Bunch."

Aaron Tainter, an associate with a venture capital firm in Sewickley, says work keeps him busy but there is more that makes Alice.com attractive to him.

"One of the things I dislike is going to the grocery store," he says.

Tainter says he found the shopping service website this summer while doing research at work and he's used it ever since.

Dr. Audrey Guskey, of the Duquesne University School of Business, says there is a lot of things she likes about Alice.com.

"It's a lot of the staple things that we need all the time," Guskey said. "It is the toilet paper, it is the toothpaste, it is the paper towel. The stuff that you literally go to the store and you grab and you know you are going to need it in a couple of weeks or a month. It's literally like having a maid or someone who's assisting you."

But unlike the Brady's maid, this high-tech Alice is the consumer's personal shopper via the internet.

The website partners with major manufacturers of non-perishable items to make them available at a cost that is often less than you can buy it at the store.

For Tainter, it's more than just the money.

"I just want to save some time," he says. "I don't want to go and do this a couple times a month."

Joining Alice.com is free and so is shipping when you buy six items.

The set-up is quite simple as well. Pick the brands you like and the products you order on a regular basis, and put them on a virtual shelf.

Then it's as simple as pointing and clicking to buy the things you need. Also, Alice can even keep track of how often you need those items and tell you when to re-order.

"If I place an order today, two days from now I would expect a package on my doorstep," Tainter said.

He also says that he started with just a few items in his first order, but he's noticed his boxes getting bigger and bigger as he finds more items he likes on the Alice.com shelves.

Also, when it comes to coupons, Alice has you covered. If there is a coupon available anywhere in the United States, Alice finds it and automatically applies the coupon to your order.

Officials with Alice.com say they add an average of one major supplier every week. Those companies are going online in an effort to recapture dwindling market share in touch economic times.

"It's great news for the national brands because they have been slipping in their sales," Guskey says. "It's an opportunity for them to get into the homes and cupboards of Americans."

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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