Webvan, the only online grocery delivery service operating here in San Diego, has announced it will shut down and file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This is bad news. I used one of their predecessor companies, homegrocer.com, quite a bit. Maybe a year or so back, homegrocer.com got gobbled up by Webvan. I didn’t use Webvan as much, because they were more expensive and more difficult to deal with, and they screwed up a delivery on me. That’s the kiss of death in any delivery-based business.

It turns out they couldn’t compete with the regular supermarkets. We have three huge supermarket chains in southern California, who are more that capable of putting anybody out of business. Looks like they’ve done it again. Goodbye, Webvan, you were an idea ahead of your time.