Michael And here's something new from the internet: Since grocery shopping isn't exactly one of the most interesting activities, even though the stores are open day and night, weekdays and weekends, there's now a new service to prevent the fridge from being empty: WebVan, the internet delivery van, brings groceries directly to your home. Here's how it works: On the website webvan.com, you can choose your items, and there's more variety than even in the largest supermarket. Personally, I always measure the size of a supermarket here using the milk index I invented: How many different types of milk are there? Not dairy products like yogurt and cottage cheese, but regular milk in bottles or cartons. In Germany, there might be about 5. Here in the USA, it's always 10-15. And at WebVan, I counted: 28.

And the best part is that the items are cheaper than in the supermarket, even with delivery. After selecting your items on the website, you proceed to checkout--still online--and choose when the goods will be delivered, usually the next day. You can select a half-hour time slot between seven in the morning and eight in the evening (for example, 7:30 PM - 8:00 PM) when the WebVan guy comes by with his delivery van, brings the items to your door, and spreads them out on the kitchen table. Shopping is fun this way! (Editor's note: WebVan went bankrupt in 2001, like many young companies in the internet sector.)

• More topics you might be interested in:

  	The History of California
  	Santa Barbara
  	Minimum wage and sweatshops
  	Volkszählung
  	Hairdressers in the USA
  	First names and their abbreviations
  	Speaking American with the Pros
  	Visa for the USA

  
  

• More topics you might be interested in:

  	The History of California
  	Santa Barbara
  	Minimum wage and sweatshops
  	Volkszählung
  	Hairdressers in the USA
  	First names and their abbreviations
  	Speaking American with the Pros
  	Visa for the USA