Some people avoid supermarkets and buy their groceries online from firms such as Fresh Direct in America and Ocado in Britain.

ECONOMIST: Competition in your local supermarket is getting vicious

Before that Browett was at Tesco.com: selling groceries online also sounds like a strange start for someone hired to run a very upscale retail experience like the Apple stores.

FORBES: Browett's Departure From Apple: Why Did They Hire Him In The First Place?

Nielsen, a research firm, found that the two most common reasons Americans gave for not buying groceries online were delivery costs and the desire not to have to wait for a delivery.

ECONOMIST: Online grocers

Back when dotcoms boomed, some of the hottest new e-tailers were firms that promised to relieve people of the tedium of trailing around supermarket aisles allowing them to order their groceries online instead.

ECONOMIST: The lesson from online grocery | The

But less than 1% of total U.S. groceries sales happen online, despite the fact groceries accounts for one of the largest retail categories offline.

FORBES: An Online Grocer For Web 2.0. Just Don't Call It Webvan 2.0.

He's selling chunks of Priceline to Paul Allen, John Malone and Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, and investing the proceeds in a Priceline-like venture that sells groceries and gasoline online.

FORBES: Follow-Through

Tesco, Britain's largest supermarket chain, was able to take the lead in online groceries by devising a fairly simple system: goods ordered over the internet are picked from the shelves of the nearest supermarket and delivered to homes within set time slots.

ECONOMIST: Retailers are the top performers online

It recently bought a stake in Yihaodian, a fast-growing online retailer of groceries, consumer electronics and apparels.

FORBES: China Just One Reason Wal-Mart Stock Gets To $75

It's nice to have the week's groceries delivered and indeed both Tesco and Sainsbury's pushed up Christmas online sales of it by about 30% but it doesn't save money.

ECONOMIST: Why online retailing is booming so fast in Britain