PDQuick Joins NetZero to Offer Free Net Access

As more of its customers go online to order freshly prepared meals and groceries, PDQuick in Camarillo has updated its Web site and formed an alliance with NetZero of Westlake Village to provide customers with free Internet service.

The number of PDQuick online shoppers has doubled this year, company officials said, and that number is expected to double again next year. The alliance with NetZero, a provider of advertising-financed Internet access, is intended to remove one of the barriers to online grocery and food shopping by giving customers free access to the Internet.

Under the agreement, PDQuick customers will receive a NetZero CD-ROM for free Internet access with their delivered grocery and food orders. The NetZero home page, which PDQuick customers will access with these CDs, features links directly to the PDQuick Web site.

PDQuick’s Web site has been upgraded, company officials said, to enable customers to shop in “virtual grocery-store aisles” by navigating the company’s online site map.

“Our users will be able to get onto the Internet for free and find what they want on our site more easily,” said Dan Frederickson, PDQuick’s chief executive. “That means they will be saving time and money. PDQuick will save money too, as online order-taking is much more cost-effective than handling phone-in orders.”

PDQuick, which until recently went by the name Pink Dot, delivers name-brand grocery and supermarket products, as well as made-to-order meals, in under one hour.