Meat Industry INSIGHTS Newsletter

981148 Hams Bring Home the Bacon on the Internet

November 28, 1998

VANCOUVER, WA - With apologies to Mother Goose, Egghead.com, Inc. announced that its “little piggy went to market” via the Internet when the company combined ham and EGGS for the first time in e-commerce.

When first offered, Egghead.com quickly auctioned more than a ton of smoked hams produced by Lazybonesa Inc., a small Brookfield, Wisconsin-based specialty meat supplier that markets spiral-cut holiday hams. Egghead expects to auction more than 2,000 of the hams by Christmas on its Internet auction site at www.egghead.com. The hams are ready to eat when delivered.

Egghead vice president and chief of merchandising, Jim Kalasky said, “These sales are 'no pig in a poke!' Selling ham is bringing home the bacon for EGGS.”

Lazybones(tm) president, Joe Kleiser said he expects Internet sales to allow his company to grow rapidly. “Selling our hams over the Internet is the most exciting thing to happen to Lazybonesa since the day we opened our business,” Kleiser said.

Until now, Lazybones'(tm) annual production of 22,000 hams has been sold exclusively through two company stores in Brookfield and Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, and through a small number of upscale specialty stores. “When we watched our hams come up for sale on the computer screen for the first time, it was like watching our company go public,” Kleiser added. “The Internet allows us to sell our rural Wisconsin hams nationwide.”

Egghead.com is the first national retailer to close its chain of stores and move its business to the Internet. It is among the top 10 Internet retailers according to Media Metrix.

“Our menu goes well beyond ham and EGGS,” Kalasky said. “We provide wholesalers and manufacturers simple and direct access to the 20 million businesses and consumers who visit our sites each quarter.”

“We're pigging out,” CEO George Orban concluded.

This Article Compliments of...

Iotron Technology Inc.

[counter]

Meat Industry Insights News Service
P.O. Box 553
Northport, NY 11768
Phone: 631-757-4010
Fax: 631-757-4060
E-mail: sflanagan@sprintmail.com
Return to Home Page