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Fred Meyer stores in Central Oregon started offering this week the ClickList online shopping service, in which customers choose their products online and pick them up curbside for a $4.95 fee.

Fred Meyer’s parent company, Cincinnati-based Kroger Co., is aggressively rolling out the service in markets large and small. It’s already available in several Portland-area locations, Washington and Idaho, spokesman Zach Stratton said in an email. Kroger stock analysts have been interested in how the chain, as a traditional grocer, will fend off competition from Amazon, which offers two-hour delivery on grocery and other items in Portland and other major cities.

Wal-Mart, which now derives a significant portion of its revenue from grocery, offers a similar service to ClickList, but it’s not available in Central Oregon. Delivery services by Safeway and Albertsons also are not available in this market.

At Kroger’s first-quarter earnings release in June, CEO Rodney McMullen said the service, called ExpressLane in some places, was in 25 markets with more to come. The company spends about $230,000 to launch ClickList in each store and has hired 12 ClickList staff members at both Central Oregon locations, Bend and Redmond, Stratton said.

ClickList launched in Redmond on Tuesday, and the launch date for Bend was to be determined after an inspection Tuesday, Stratton said. The company website on Monday was allowing orders to be placed for pickup in Bend on Thursday. Shoppers can choose from among 40,000 items, which for now are limited to food and household supplies.

In general, orders placed by midnight will be available for pickup as soon as 8 a.m. the next day, according to a ClickList fact sheet. Stratton said the company is working toward same-day turnaround.

Kroger doesn’t expect to lose in-store shoppers. The company has found that ClickList users still shop inside stores, McMullen told analysts in June.

In Bend, Fred Meyer is competing with 20 different grocery stores from traditional brands like Albertsons and Safeway to independents and new entrants like Eugene-based Market of Choice.

Fred Meyer is competing for labor as well. On Tuesday, the chain was part of Kroger’s nationwide one-day hiring event, the second such recruiting effort the company has held this year.

Here are more details on how ClickList works:

During the online checkout, customers choose a one-hour window for pickup, which can be from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week. Payment is made at pickup with credit, debit or cash. Digital coupons loaded onto shopper cards will be applied at pickup, and paper coupons can be redeemed at pickup as well. Online prices reflect the in-store price on the day of pickup. Prices may change between the time the order is placed and the time of pickup. Substitutions can be made on out-of-stock items, and the less expensive price will apply. Order selectors will choose produce, meat and seafood for quality and freshness and store them appropriately until it’s time to load them into the car.

— Reporter: 541-617-7860, kmclaughlin@bendbulletin.com