Unique gift basket online

A revival in online grocery shopping may be at hand. A cautious expansion into e-commerce has been taking place by traditional grocers such as Albertsons, while the granddaddy of online sales, Amazon, has now jumped into the fray.

Though still termed a test, Amazon debuted a gourmet food store in November that offers tens of thousands of products, including perishables such as meat and cheese. The launch coincided with the holiday gift season to judge customer response to buying hard-to-find and specialty food items through the Internet.

"Amazon.com's goal is to offer customers the largest selection of the tastiest foods and make it easy for everyone to find, discover and buy gourmet foods at great prices," said Jason Goldberger, senior category manager, Amazon.com Gourmet Food.

Among the unique offerings are more than 700 types of cheese, alligator and buffalo meat and peeled cherry tomatoes from a monastery in Rome. The company has teamed with national merchants, such as Dean & DeLuca, as well as smaller suppliers, including Alaska Smokehouse and Dave's Gourmet.

The assortment includes baking supplies, bread, dessert, cheese, confectionery, coffee, tea, produce, gift baskets, health and natural foods, jams and jellies, low-carb and sugar-free foods, meat and seafood, oils, vinegar, salad dressings, grains, seasonings, prepared meals, appetizers, condiments, seafood, snacks and soup. Regional and ethnic foods are also featured, broken down into 19 main segments and then even country-specific breakdowns, such as Tanzanian cuisine.

A sampling of items and prices noted early last month included Moroccan Argan oil for $19.95, Ibarra Mexican chocolate for $2.85, two live Maine lobsters for $53.35 and a Jumpin' Java coffee gift basket for $29.95.