But more than a decade later, tech-savvy retailers and retail-savvy tech companies are ready to try again. In San Francisco, bright green Amazon Fresh trucks rumble through downtown, delivering groceries straight to apartment doors. Walmart is sending its own grocery trucks down the same streets. Even eBay and Google will bring packaged food right to your door. And at least one app-powered startup — a latter-day Webvan in spirit, if not in strategy — promises to deliver nearly any groceries you want.

Online grocery shopping is back. The question is whether it will work this time.