Safeway widens delivery of Web orders

Safeway.com is expanding its online services to the Seattle area starting next week. On July 28, the Pleasanton, Calif.-based supermarket giant will begin delivering online orders to some residents in 34 cities in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties in Washington state. It will then fully expand the service to include a total of 115 zip codes in the region by Aug. 11. The move brings the total number of markets served by Safeway and its sister company Vons.com to eight.

The company said it has hired 42 new workers in the Seattle area for the launch. Tesco, the largest food retailer in the United Kingdom, is providing the technology for the services and also has a 35 percent stake in the online venture.