Japan's fussy food shoppers finally go online amid pandemic

Inside an Aeon shopping mall in Japan, May 28. Major Japanese supermarkets have recently begun large-scale spending on e-commerce infrastructure. — Reuters

TOKYO: The coronavirus has forced Japan's notoriously fussy food shoppers to abandon doubts about online grocery stores, sending retailers such as Aeon Co scrambling to meet a surge in delivery demand.

Although Japanese shoppers aren't alone in going online during the outbreak, the shift is remarkable for a country that had been expected to take years to embrace online food shopping because of a zeal for fresh and perfectly presented produce.