The Internet is receiving blame for the recent closure of family operated, Blenheim City SuperValue Plus. Co-founder and company director John McHugh claims that significant losses incurred in setting up its pioneering Internet shopping service (Supermarket.co.nz) added to the company’s untenable position. Commenting on the Internet enterprise, co-director Warren McHugh said, “It was a fact that Internet grocery shopping was only successful when filing orders within local catchments. The Supermarket.co.nz had tried to cater for the whole of New Zealand, sourcing all supplies from Blenheim and freighting them anywhere in the country for only 12 per delivery”. There is an important lesson to be learnt from the misfortune of Blenheim City SuperValue Plus. New Zealand supermarkets, especially those located in smaller towns and cities, should carefully evaluate the likelihood that Internet services will provide enough value to be able to justify the high overheads involved with running such a service. Perhaps if Blenheim City SuperValue Plus had opted to rebrand as Fresh Choice, an option granted to them by Progressive Enterprises, instead of setting up as an Internet supermarket the McHughs would not be out of business, 75 staff would not be unemployed and Marlborough’s economy would be much better off.