The Festive Food Season Is Longer Than Ever; Peapod Predicts Busiest Online Grocery Days To Start Nov. 18 And Run Through Dec. 27

CHICAGO, Nov. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Peapod, the country's leading online grocer, today shares how busy families will be getting their festive on with the help of the green elves at Peapod. Savvy shoppers are expected to flock to online grocery delivery to help during a particularly busy time of year when food is at the heart of so many celebrations.

Based on prior years' sales trends, Peapod predicts the week leading up to Dec. 25 to be its busiest week of the year. For one day traffic, Peapod expects the most popular date for pre-Thanksgiving site visits to be Sunday, Nov. 18. However, the busiest day of the entire year for Peapod site traffic is expected to be Dec. 27 as people re-stock after their Christmas celebrations and prepare for New Year's Eve parties.

"Peapod offers convenient shopping solutions with a wide variety of products to help shoppers get everything they need on their lists, all ahead of their holiday gatherings," said Spencer Baird, senior vice president of merchandising for Peapod. "We've been paying attention to our customers' most shopped-for items during the holiday season, and we'll be doing everything we can to help everyone have a happy and joyous holiday season by offering stress-free solutions and bringing groceries right to shoppers' doors."

Hack Yes!
It's not just using home grocery delivery that will help busy families save time while prepping for the rush of holiday meals and entertaining. According to Peapod's sales trends, we can tell a lot about the smart meal prep shortcuts people are using this holiday season.

• Cranberry Sauce: Instead of making it from scratch, holiday hosts are looking to conveniences like pre-made cranberry sauces about 2.5 times as much as loose cranberries.
• Stuffing: Essential to every Thanksgiving meal, Peapod sells 17.5 times more stuffing mix than stuffing bread! While a recipe from scratch can take over an hour, the box mixes are usually done in less than 15 minutes. For a speed scratch version that uses a boxed mix but still lets chefs give it their own spin, this Cornbread Stuffing with Chorizo is a happy medium that bakes for just 30 minutes.
• Dinner Rolls: Pre-made breads are an excellent time saver. As the fifth most searched item leading up to Thanksgiving, pre-made breads are easy to pop in the oven for a quick warm-up vs. baking from scratch.
• Pumpkin Pie: There's no shame in getting a little help in the baking department either and searches for pumpkin pie are expected to spike to their highest on Nov. 17.

Christmas and New Year's Eve are no different with many customers looking to Peapod to make their seasonal preparations easy. In the top five searches, frozen appetizers and hors d'oeuvres indicate a desire for some easy shortcuts to wow guests, and searches are expected to peak on Dec. 30.

New Peapod Virtual Butcher Shop
How's this for a holiday hack? Getting your restaurant quality cuts of meat delivered right to your door is now possible with Peapod's "Gourmet Butcher Shop." In partnership with Meats by Linz, shoppers in Peapod's Chicago market will be treated to a test pilot this holiday season where they can custom order meat, specifying specific cuts and sizes to meet the needs of their holiday celebrations.

Ready to Roll
Much like the elves at the North Pole, the team at Peapod lives for this festive time of year. With 29 holiday seasons of home grocery delivery under its belt, Peapod's operations team knows how to ensure they are up to meet the increased demand. Now through the end of the year, Peapod will have added 5% more delivery timeslots for customers.

"We know that there's no room for error when it comes to the holiday meal," said Sean O'Keefe, vice president of Supply Chain Planning and Development for Peapod. "We always invest heavily in training our team members -- all actual employees of this company -- and truly take pride in the service we offer. This is our time to shine and we are excited to bring the very best to our loyal customers as well as those that may be trying home grocery delivery for the first time."

For more information about Peapod, visit Peapod.com. Also visit Peapod's free Mobile App, Alexa skill or follow company updates on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

About Peapod
Peapod, an Ahold Delhaize USA company, is America's leading online grocer with over 40 million orders delivered to date. Peapod's intuitive, inspiring website and award-winning mobile app allow customers to shop faster and smarter as well as save time and money with each order. Peapod is an easy and convenient solution for the busy consumer shopping for fresh groceries, pantry staples and meal solutions. Peapod offers delivery to both homes and businesses, and has over 200 pick-up locations.  Peapod is available in 24 metro markets across New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Maryland, District of Columbia, and Virginia.

SOURCE Peapod

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