Peapod, Skokie

Though barbecuing and baking apple pie are among America's favorite pastimes, shopping for the necessary ingredients can be a cumbersome chore. With this in mind, brothers Andrew and Thomas Parkinson founded Peapod based on the idea that people's time is precious. Their website allows online shoppers to browse thousands of grocery and household items and have them delivered or prepared for pick-up at the touch of a button, with added conveniences such as saved shopping lists and filters that highlight products with specific nutritional information. Shoppers can control the quality of their orders by requesting that Peapod's personal shoppers select yellow or green bananas, or deli meat that's sliced thick, or thin. Market-specific offerings ensure that buyers from New York to Chicago can also find signature, hometown foods.

But the brothers are anything but complacent about the Skokie, Illinois–based company's growing success, which has been documented by such media outlets as the New York Times. Thomas Parkinson demonstrated one of Peapod's latest innovations in a Fox Business report with Jeff Flock—virtual grocery-store aisles on commuter-train platforms, which allow customers to use their smartphone to easily pick out items for next-day delivery. Chicago Tribune reporter Mary Ellen Podmolik recently documented another innovation: pickup sites where customers can retrieve their previously ordered groceries without leaving their vehicle.