Online Grocery Shopping Is Returning to the Physical World

In the beginning, the internet gave us music, and music stores closed. Then it gave us news, and newspapers closed. Next came books, and yep, bookstores closed, too. One could readily imagine a future in which brick-and-mortar retail of all kinds would soon follow.

Grocery stores that found success on the internet are instead returning to the physical world with a hybrid business model: the "virtual" supermarket, a shop for smartphone users that carries photographs and bar codes instead of food. After the success of locations in mass transit stations from Seoul to Philadelphia, the virtual supermarket is about to hit the city above ground. Chinese supermarket giant Yihaodian announced this week it is opening 1,000 brick-and-mortar locations.