Off your trolley

Do online supermarkets really deliver? Cotton Ward clicks her way through the weekly groceries.

More people are leaving behind parking hassles and flimsy carrier bags in favour of point-and-click of online supermarkets.

There’s no need to set foot in the mall again when you sign up at one of the four major online stores: GreenGrocer.com, ShopFast, Woolworths or Coles.

But are they as good as they’re made out to be? Is online shopping the solution to supermarket drudgery or just a cute idea whose time has yet to come?

To help you choose the best, I road-tested each online service. That meant ordering a variety of items and comparing ease of shopping, price, cost and accuracy of delivery and freshness.

Overall, the results were impressive.

Despite the large number of products available, no single store was able to supply every item. The selection at the online stores doesn’t always match the variety in the supermarket aisles.

For example, there is a brand of yoghurt and a stir-fry sauce available in Coles and Woolworths that is nowhere to be seen at their online stores. However, I managed to get about 98 per cent of our list items from every vendor.

With the exception of Coles, the quantities of meat and seafood were larger than I would have liked.

If you don’t intend to freeze seafood or eat fish every night of a week, this is something to consider.

Compared with only ix months ago, the Web sites and services have expanded dramatically and improved. Each site totes up the cost of items as you buy them, either automatically or by asking you to update your basket.

Delivery costs range from $5.95 to $13.69, which is reasonable when you consider it costs about $5 to have goods home-delivered after you’ve loaded your own trolley.

ShopFast and GreenGrocer deliver six days a week and charge different fees for peak and off-peak times. Coles and Woolworths have daily deliveries and don’t charge extra for this service, but you would already have paid their standard fees of $13.69 and $12.50 respectively.

After delivery costs, the pricing of food online is generally about the same as in real-world stores. If you don’t have a credit card, you won’t be able to shop at GreenGrocer.com. The other stores accept Eftpos at the door. Once you’ve ordered, the delivery person will whisk your goods straight through to the kitchen counter.

The main drawback of cyber shopping is the difficulty in checking whether a new product or different brand is the item you want. The online stores are slowly including product descriptions and photos, but there’s still a long way to go.

It still takes about three orders to set up a comprehensive shopping list. Trawling through the lists to find what you want is the most tedious part of the experience. But, as your master shopping list builds, it becomes very straightforward. However, you may still find yourself making a trip to the corner shop to pick up food you either forgot to select, or to buy a brand or speciality available only at the local deli.

Www.consult analyst Ian Webster says online grocery shoppers are the most satisfied of all Internet consumers. “They are the most enthusiastic of all online shoppers,” Webster says. “For some, shopping online is truly wonderful.”

He says about one in 1000 grocery shoppers uses an online service. “The challenge the supermarkets have is working out how to encourage more people to use it and to determine the size of the market.”

More people than ever are enjoying the convenience of online shopping, says ShopFast’s marketing director Rob Fitzpatrick. He says the service has about 90,000 users, which covers more than 5 per cent of Sydney households.

One of the major concerns about online shopping is that you can’t see the quality of fruit and veg. To get around this, GreenGrocer.com rates the produce and gives tips on what to buy in a twice-weekly email.

“Our customers are fairly fussy,” says CEO Douglas Carlson. “We deliver to top hotels and restaurants, such as Level 41, and our customers get the same high quality. That’s what separates us from everyone else.”

The company was founded in 1997 and has about 75,000 registered shoppers.

GreenGrocer.com’s Web site has fewer bells and whistles than the others and, Carlson says, this minimises the chances of technical hitches. “We’ve kept it simple so customers can use it from work and don’t have as many problems with corporate firewalls.”

Big bite
In December Woolworths bought 38 per cent of GreenGrocer.com, and the company expanded its range of supermarket items. So does this mean it will be merged with the supermarket chain? “No, Woolworths values the fact that we cover a niche segment of the market,” says GreenGrocer.com boss Douglas Carlson.

MAKING A LIST AND CHECKING IT TWICE

You need a basic list or a couple of dockets from previous shopping trips because the most difficult aspect of online grocery shopping is that once you click on a department, such as “laundry”, you’re faced with a huge product list.

Some of the sites feature recipes. Click a button and all the ingredients will be delivered.

Use the fastest connection available

A 56KBps dial-up connection at home can be incredibly slow when you’re searching through several online “aisles”. It’s better to compile lists and scroll through the sites using a faster Internet connection, for instance at work (don’t tell the boss).

Check your order

Do this the first couple of times you order until you’re familiar with the site, as it can be easy to select the same item twice.

Specify expiry dates

None of the services has a fixed policy about expiry dates, apart from checking the items haven’t expired. If you’re not happy with items received, you can get replacement products. You can include instructions such as “ripe bananas wanted” .

Cheapest prices

Fruit, vegetables and meat tended to be cheaper at GreenGrocer.com and ShopFast and all the other items were mostly cheaper at Woolworths and Coles. When I checked the online prices for 10 items from Coles and Woolworths online against the same stores in Leichhardt, prices were identical.

Return recyclable boxes

Unpack and give these to the driver immediately, otherwise they’ll be sitting around your house for a week.

The chill factor

A laid-back Cotton Ward imagines she’s a tree and lets her cares slip away.

Transcendental Meditation
www.tm.org

You don’t need a long beard and flowing white robes to gain the full benefits of US-based Maharishi Mahesh’s method. Download the free online video and book that teaches you how to do it properly. As you become more advanced, try “yogic flying”, which involves the body lifting up and moving “forward in short hops”. It’s best to practise this in groups so you can create a surge of energy that promotes “positive, harmonious trends” throughout society.

Mind, body and modem

www.bodymindandmodem.com

If yogic flying isn’t impressive enough, wow your friends by making it impossible for even the strongest challenger to bend your arm or lift you off the ground. Aikido Kokikai is a martial art based on the philosophy that with correct relaxation, your body and mind become more powerful. Relax by focusing on one point, correcting your posture, and doing “ki” exercises to develop your mystical inner force.

The Anxiety Panic Internet Resource

www.algy.com/anxiety/relax.html

Terrified of the dentist? Or eating in public? Or of your partner’s driving? This site was started by a teacher in Tennessee (identified only as “Steve”) to advise people on how to relax during panic attacks. There are heaps of suggestions, including visualisation, muscular relaxation, abdominal breathing and “meditative” gardening (not the Backyard Blitz variety).

The Charlotte Community of Mindfulness

www.coe.uncc.edu/~billchu/sangha

You’ll be watching every move you make when you join in the meditation for mindful living at this US-based Buddhist group’s site. There’s a handy icon to click so your computer will make a bell sound every five minutes as you do a five-step recitation.

First, burn some incense, then dwell on various forms of suffering and injustice and vow to cultivate “compassion”, “loving kindness” and “deep listening” and to practise “mindful eating, drinking and consuming”.

Visit the Stress-O-Meter

www.relax123.com/som/som_f.html

Find out just how close to the edge you are using the Stress-O-Meter. If you score highly it suggests you use techniques such as imagining you are a mighty tree or an unravelling ball of string.

Sam Houston State University Counselling Centre relaxation techniques

www.shsu.edu/~counsel/relaxation.html
“Please lean back in your chair. Make yourself comfortable …” You’ll learn how to achieve deep muscular relaxation using the traditional Western method of progressively tensing and relaxing each part of your body. There’s a full script aimed at online users and it encourages you to take some time to look away from your screen and scan your body for any “tensional spots”.

HypnoGenesis

www.hypnos.co.uk/hypnomag

“When I snap my fingers, you will start doing a striptease …” Embarrassing? You bet. But hypnosis is about more than television theatrics, where it is sometimes presented as an evil power that takes over your mind. It is most often used for therapeutic purposes to improve mental, emotional and physical health. HypnoGenesis is an online magazine that seeks to “demystify” hypnosis. Topics featured include subliminal suggestions and how to tell whether you are hypnotised.

Insight Meditation Online

www.aspire.org/walk.html

Don’t fancy being tied up in a knot holding the lotus position for hours? Then try a walking meditation. Here you’ll find illustrated photos of how to properly raise, lift, push, drop, touch and press down with your foot. Intense awareness is essential. It’s best to start with walking meditation and then do a sitting session without a break so you develop a “continuity of awareness” that carries through into daily activities.

What is EEG Biofeedback?

www.eegspectrum.com/articles/faq.htm

Biofeedback is a type of Aerobics Oz Style designed for the brain. It can be used to train yourself to reach deeper stages of relaxation. Electrodes are placed on the scalp using gel and two others are attached to the ear lobes to monitor your brainwaves. Then you’re coached to consciously change the patterns displayed on a screen. Don’t worry – there are no electric shocks. It’s painless and the first session usually takes about two hours and follow-ups last about 40 minutes.

Integration of Behavioural and Relaxation Approaches

http://text.nlm.nih.gov/nih/ta/www/017txt.html

Which is better? Relaxation or behaviour modification? This research looks at studies about reducing chronic pain and insomnia. The conclusion is that there is “strong evidence” for using relaxation techniques to reduce chronic pain and for using hypnosis to alleviate pain associated with cancer. The behavioural therapies, such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and biofeedback, had moderate results, depending on the problem.

Meditation therapy screensavers

www.meditationtherapy.com

Be the most laid-back person in your office by downloading one of three free screensavers. The first one, Floating Emptiness, features a rotating 3-D cube that presents images of a meditating monk and a dharma wheel of truth. The second, Triple Treasure, features three floating pyramids and the third, Jewel of Awakening, has images of seated buddhas. All are accompanied by meditative chants.

I’ll be there for you

The “fight-or-flight” response has been touted for years as the typical way people respond to stress. However, American research shows women prefer to “tend and befriend”. Women had been excluded from stress research until five years ago because it was believed that monthly fluctuations in hormones created stress responses that varied too much to be considered statistically valid.
ILLUSTRATION: Caught napping: being asleep is about as relaxed as you can get – just don’t try it at work. Photo: Tanya Lake

Power to the people

Online voting was meant to encourage participation and empower the masses, but what are they voting for? Cotton Ward reports.

It has been touted as the breakthrough that will revolutionise democracy for everyone. It could dramatically change the participation rate in companies’ annual general meetings and grassroots levels of government. We can sit back and relax at home, leisurely sort through complex issues, then hit a button to make our choice. The voice of the people has spoken.

The reality is a little different though.

So far online voting has been used for little more than helping to vote for the top performance in the Eurovision song contest and deciding whether the production of Beanie Babies should continue. Even here, these polls have been marred by enthusiastic multiple voters who make perverse or unsuitable choices.

Online voting’s great contribution to democracy may have a while to wait before hitting prime time.

Issues such as security and fraud are still a major concern. And what about poor minorities that don’t have online access? A recent US National Science Foundation report showed that online voting could not be safeguarded by even the most advanced technology available and it “should not be implemented for the foreseeable future”.

The report was compiled for the foundation by 36 experts in computing, political science and elections, who warned that Internet voting posed a “significant risk to the integrity of the voting process” and should not be used in public elections until “substantial technical and social science issues are addressed”.

It said Internet voting could be conducted at traditional polling sites or shopping centres and libraries, where it could be monitored by election officials. The foundation has set aside about $US3 million ($A6 million) so researchers can apply for grants to look for solutions.

And even if everyone had easy access to the Internet from home, would we bother using it to vote? Last March, the US branch of Election.com conducted online polling and Internet voting in the Arizona Democratic Presidential Primary, and the company claims there was a more than 600 per cent increase in the participation rate (voting isn’t compulsory).

But the University of Sydney’s American Studies expert, Professor Henry Albinski, is less enthusiastic. “I’m not sure that it would promote more participation. You need to be mindful that the Net is used overwhelmingly for entertainment or casual purposes. It’s not transforming a community into thoughtful voters.”

However, he says it might ease the feeling of resentment generated by compulsory voting. “This could mean people might be more inclined to ponder their vote instead of feeling resentful of having to attend a polling place.”

As for non-compulsory council elections, Albinski says online voting will mainly benefit “the more alert and aggressive members of the community”.

“There’s a seductive notion that the Internet will create much greater public demand for a voice in public questions. But I’m not inclined to accept that. People are not interested in a lot of issues, especially if they’re not compelled to vote. There is continual apathy.”

In an attempt to overcome voter apathy, NRMA Ltd will conduct an online vote for its board of directors between July and November. With a potential two million voters, the company holds Australia’s largest non-government elections and its members vote voluntarily. This could become the largest legally-binding corporate Internet vote held in the world.

NRMA Ltd deputy president Mary Easson says the NRMA is keen to encourage as many as possible to vote. “We’re looking for ways to make voting easier, quicker and more convenient,” she says.

“It’s clear that an online voting option has the potential, over time, to radically increase the participation rate of members and more accurately reflect their views and concerns.

“We hope we can improve on the percentage of members who voted in the last election in 1999. At that time about 23 per cent of members voted, however on average it was often only about 6 per cent.” Traditional postal voting will still be available.

There aren’t any figures on how many NRMA members use the Internet, but the company’s Web site attracts 25,000 visitors each week. There are no plans to install computers with online facilities in branch offices or to hold annual general meetings online.

While proxy voting is not an option in elections for directors, it has been a source of controversy for the NRMA Insurance Group Ltd (NIGL). In the April 2000 election for the demutualisation of NIGL, there were complaints that the proxy forms were confusing and unfair. The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) made NIGL place advertisements to clarify the proxy voting instructions.

“We haven’t decided yet whether we’ll allow proxies to be sent over the Internet,” Easson says. “We don’t want to cause confusion as this would compromise the integrity of the voting process.”

She says the NRMA looked at the possibility of online voting a couple of years ago, but “the safeguards weren’t good enough”.

The process will be subjected to strict security measures, similar to those of postal voting, with the presence of a returning officer and the opportunity for scrutineers to check the counting of votes. Online votes can be scrutinised by examining paper audit trails that identify the time and date the votes were received.

Now and Zen

The New Age Reviews
Cotton Ward gets in touch with her inner self.

The Chopra Centre for Well Being

www.chopra.com

Spiritual guru Deepak Chopra and two best-selling authors, psychologist Wayne Dyer and health enthusiast Louise Hay, will share their thoughts about spirituality and wellbeing at a one-day event, Today’s Wisdom, in Sydney on March 31. Chopra wrote the best-sellers Ageless Body, Timeless Mind and The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success. He practises ayurveda, a 5,000-year-old healing tradition that originated in India.

Feng Shui resources

www.3dglobe.com/fs/theory.htm

According to the Chinese art of feng shui, moving your furniture around can change your destiny. Visit this hub and gasp at the confession of Lin Yun, of the Black Hat Sect: “The best advice I can offer is … that you are better off believing yourself instead of … me. I am a wandering impostor whose predictions have been 99.9 per cent wrong.” His followers claim, however, that he was misquoted.

How to see auras

www.worldtrans.org/spir/aura.html

Never seen an aura? Aussie Robert Bruce outlines an “easy new way” to do this. The technique seems similar to when you look at those 3-D pictures – “relax and concentrate” and “focus the eyes in a special way”. He suggests practising by first looking at the aura of a book covered in blue or red paper (these create yellow and green auras, which are the easiest to see). Next, try several books at a time, then a pot plant.

Nature Spirit Magic

www.witchway.net/ritual/nature.html

The ability to communicate with “nature spirits” comes in handy when you’re practising magic rituals in the forest. The idea is that each plant, animal and rock has a spirit and these can join together to create “spectacular physical manifestations”, such as swirling clouds, birds flying overhead in circles and insects, birds and animals joining in with your chants.

Karma and reincarnation

http://members.home.net/lumiere/karma/mystknow.htm

Joseph Morales has taken all the hard work out of researching Eastern texts about karma. He says: “I have always found the descriptions by Eastern teachers to be frustratingly vague. I set out to find out what, exactly, the doctrine of karma is.” So what is it? “Beginningless.” Hmmm. Later, he says karma is “a spiritual-magnetic energy form” that generates a vibration that continues to vibrate in the mind. A bit of a boomerang theory – when you do something it comes back at you.

Angel Haven

www.angelhaven.com

Share your angelic experiences, dreams and poetry, send an angel gram, read weekly columns and buy angel figurines. Discuss whether that white ball of light you caught a glimpse of out of the corner of your eye was actually an angel. Or “plan a trip to meet an angel” (a fancy way of saying “meeting up with friends”). Heavenly.

Homeopathic Educational Services

www.homeopathic.com

Californian Dana Ullman describes this practice as a system of using plants, minerals or animals to stimulate the natural defences. Homeopaths try to find substances that cause similar symptoms to those from which the patient is suffering. Ullman says it’s based on the “law of similars” used in conventional therapies such as immunisation.

Yoga Research and Education Centre

www.yrec.org

The centre estimates there are 20 million yoga practitioners throughout the world, so it won’t cost each of us much to donate a total of $US11 million ($22 million) to build the first yoga university in the West. The “Instant Good Karma!” link takes you to a page where you’re asked to give $20 towards this project. Don’t be put off by this, because it has an excellent beginner’s tour.

Astrology

www.astrology.com

Kelli Fox offers free horoscopes, Chinese astrology, zodiac signs and compatibility tests. She gives you lots of information free, but for more details you have to pay. The personality profile was interesting, but contained many generalised statements.

Back in Rogue

CLUBS
COTTON WARD behaves herself at one of Sydney’s longest-running clubs.

Where Rogues Nightclub,16-18 Oxford Square, Darlinghurst [update: now the Gaff]

When Fridays, 8pm-late

How much $16.50

More information 9380 9244

The flyer for Friday nights at Rogues invites me to join “Sydney’s elite, including personalities from the media, entertainment, modelling industry, corporate business and celebrities”. Who could resist?

Accompanied by my little brother Ray, we arrive at the Darlinghurst club at 10.45, where my fear that this evening may not be as exclusive as I at first thought is confirmed: there is a queue of about 20 people ahead of us. My brother, who is 23, takes one look at the crowd and says, “I feel too old to be here.” Most of them look as though this is their first outing since their high-school formal. There are a lot of Britney lookalikes with glittery halter tops, cowboy hats and tall sandshoes. The guys look like they’ve come straight from a Saturday 6 o’clock Mass – smart and conservative.

Once inside, there’s a lively cafe in the courtyard where lots of men are chatting loudly. There are two levels – a cafe/restaurant that converts into a bar and dance floor, and the nightclub downstairs.

About a dozen people are jiggling on the dance floor under four disco balls to a song featuring lots of no, no nos and yay, yay, yays.

Despite the claims on the flyer and the fact that in recent weeks members of the Australian and West Indian cricket teams, Bardot and Evander Holyfield have been spotted here, tonight it appears to be a celebrity-free zone. Maybe we’ll have more luck star-spotting downstairs.

Drinks in hand, we head to the lower level, which is pleasantly crowded. The sandstone cavern features two bars, plenty of seating and candlelight. The music sounds like 400 different versions of Spiller’s Groovejet, and amazingly, when a favourite track starts playing, everyone gives a hearty round of applause.

The latest incarnation of this club, which has been operating in one form or another since the mid-’80s, seems a resounding success, but the name this time around, at least, is a misnomer. With a combination of such a young crowd and the rather risque (if somewhat dated) name, it’s easy to picture a lot of very worried parents at home waiting up, but I’ve seen worse things at a church disco.