The mad dash to the supermarket on the way home from work may soon be just a bad memory. Imagine ingredients for dinner waiting for you in a little box on the porch.

The old-timers remember when having groceries delivered to your house was commonplace. The man from the store would come by and children would run outside with their mothers' list of rice, coffee and Vienna sausage.

Not eggs, because that came from the family's chicken. Not milk, because you traded eggs with the family across the street who kept a cow. Not meat, because Papa and his buddies went hunting on the weekends, and not vegetables, because Mama kept a garden. But the other staples, like Vienna sausage.

The youngest generation may grow up knowing the same kind of convenience, though perhaps not the personal touch of having the delivery man know your name and remember that the Vienna sausage is your favorite.

It's those in the generations between, those who don't remember plantation stores but weren't born into the online revolution, who can't get over books being delivered by FedEx, shopping for shoes without a mall, and, yes, ordering pizza with your TV remote and buying groceries with the click of a mouse.

At www.Amazon.com, which has done a solid job of living up to the goal of being a one-stop super retailer, you can buy Hawaiian Sun guava juice, two six-packs for $8.99, and have it shipped just about anywhere.

Of course, you can go to the store, buy two six-packs on sale, wrap 'em up yourself and stand in line at the post office, but poho, waste time, unless you have that kind of time on your hands, and if you do, why are you spending it mailing guava juice? Go holoholo and take it yourself as omiyage.

This changes the whole Mainland college care package scene. Hawai'i kids don't have to throw hints to Auntie about wanting li hing mui powder. Amazon.com has that, too — two packages from $5.99 plus shipping. Kaipo can order his own.

From the comfort of your home computer you can order all this from Amazon: