Igourmet.com is the big cheese on the Internet

WEST PITTSTON, Pa. - A perky "personal shopper" skims along warehouse aisles - market basket in one hand, order printout in the other - assembling the order: an exotic black sea salt from India, a trio of olive oil, vinegar and olives from Italy, and, from the refrigerated cheese room, vacuum-packed wedges of an award-winning fresh chevre from Humboldt, Calif., and a creamy blue from Bavaria.

The basket is inspected, the order verified, then moved on for packing. The order, which came in on the Internet at 4:45 a.m., goes out in a FedEx pickup at 12:30 p.m., less than eight hours later.

It is one of about 600 orders shipped from igourmet.com's 40,000-square-foot warehouse in this mountain town of 4,800, eight miles north of Wilkes-Barre, on this relatively slow, post-gift-season day in January.

During its November-December peak period, about 300 temps churned out up to 4,000 orders per day. As a result, this otherwise inconspicuous concrete warehouse - at the far end of a charming street lined with modest old homes and mini-manses - is, dollar-wise, FedEx's biggest single-location customer on the East Coast.

And that's without including some items such as frozen crab and shrimp cakes, frozen cheesecakes, caviar, and, most recently, wines (sold only in 26 states) that are shipped directly from their producers. The company, which relocated here in 2004, has become a key factor in the economic revival of this quaint town.

Spencer Chesman's business seems to be flourishing, despite the push to buy as much fresh locally grown food as possible.

"The Europeans just don't understand the American mail-order phenomenon," Chesman said. "People are buying clothes, electronics and, now, food online - even when they have a fresh gourmet cheese shop a few blocks away. They just want everything delivered to their door."

When Chesman, now 36, starting selling imported cheeses on the Internet in 1997, no one knew who his ultimate customer might be. Or if the venture would become more than a hobby, an extension of his mother's catalog, International Gourmet World of Cheese Club, the retail side of the family import business based in Elizabeth, N.J. (That's where the fortuitous "i" came from, well before iPods and other Internet shorthand.)

But helping out in the family business from age 4 and earning a master's in business administration from the Stern School of Business at New York University put a qualified edge on his intuition. In 1999, he quit his day job with JP Morgan and jumped into the expanding Internet marketplace.

Igourmet.com was among the earliest retail food sites on the Web.

Ten years after his entry into online retailing, his little business is considered the largest Internet retailer of gourmet cheese in the country, grossing an estimated $12 million in sales in 2006. The site attracts more than five million visitors a year, luring shoppers with more than 850 specialty cheeses from 16 countries and thousands of other items from 73 countries.

For the last four years, igourmet.com has been rated the "best gourmet food" Web site by Forbes Magazine. In December, Consumer Reports gave igourmet.com top billing in its comparison of mail-order food gifts.

Although about 70 percent of igourmet's products are channeled through his father's firm in Elizabeth, Chesman has many other suppliers as well, including those for artisan-produced pici (pronounced "peachy") pasta from Tuscany, and Olio Carli, Italy's most popular olive oil.

Not only does Chesman have a handle on what his customers want, he also has a fix on who his customers are. He ticks off stats with computer-like speed and precision:

Two-thirds of igourmet.com customers are women (an interesting point since statistics show that women constitute fewer than 50 percent of Internet users).

Most are in the 35-to-55 age range.

Most reside in the nation's coastal regions.

Their average household income is about $75,000.

"Our product line is gourmet and premium quality, but affordable."

Chesman is the third generation of a family immersed in the gourmet-food business, most notably importing specialty cheeses, for almost 90 years. His grandfather pioneered cheese imports, working with a cheesemaker he befriended in France during World War I.

"That was before refrigeration, before air freight," said Chesman. Back then, he explained, cheese was shipped on passenger liners and kept cool by storing it below the waterline, but far from the boilers.

After his business outgrew its original headquarters in Westchester, N.Y., Chesman moved to West Pittston two years ago for strategic reasons:

The town's central location put igourmet.com in reach of 40 percent of its customer base by FedEx two-day home delivery, and about two hours from Port Elizabeth and incoming shipments as well as key metropolitan areas. "When you're shipping perishable foods," Chesman explained, "that is doubly important. And express shipping adds about $11 to a customer's cost."

Warehouse space was available and affordable, as was a stable workforce with a strong work ethic.

It didn't hurt that his wife, Jessica - who also has an MBA from Stern and whom he named president of the company in 1999, before they started dating - grew up in the Wyoming Valley.

"I thought moving here would be a culture shock, but I love it," said Chesman, who installed a playroom for children of staff, including the Chesmans' own 18-month-old son, Tucker. They expect their second child in April.

And the business is continuing to grow. "We thought we'd never outgrow this space, but we are bursting at the seams, growing about 50 percent annually, consistently," Chesman said. A second warehouse is due to open in Salt Lake City later this year.

But the Chesmans are at home now in Pennsylvania, where Jessica Chesman has a very large family with more aunts, uncles, cousins and kin than she can count. Her mother was one of seven siblings, most of whose families remain in the area.

"We felt so anonymous in New York," she said. "... Here, we feel so welcomed."