Although Armando Gutierrez has been somewhat preoccupied lately as spokesman for the Miami relatives of young Elian Gonzalez, he is fortunate that his interests in the Doral-based Internet start-up, LatinGrocer.com, are being looked after by his son, Armando Jr.

The younger Gutierrez is a computer science major at Florida International University but for about a year now he has been getting most of his schooling as the company's computer guru, webmaster, and de facto operations chief.

Speaking recently at company headquarters, as traffic rumbled by outside on the Palmetto Expressway, Gutierrez Jr. remarked, "Someday I want to do a Masters either in computer science or business, but I feel like I have already acquired the practical equivalent here."

LatinGrocer.com was launched in a barrage of publicity on April 28, 1999, as an on-line purveyor of foods, consumables and small appliances that appeal specifically to Latin tastes.

Gutierrez Jr. explained, "My father and his three partners started the company because they understood that it can be almost impossible to get real Latin foods and the like outside of places like Florida. Offering such products on the web, for delivery worldwide, seemed like a natural. Their original estimate was correct; almost 95% of our customers are outside of Florida, with some as far away as Germany and Japan."

The company processes all orders out of its Doral facility, which consists of a showroom, offices and a warehouse, and it dispatches them twice daily via UPS, unless postal delivery is required.

"Some customers of course just make an occasional purchase," noted Gutierrez Jr., "but others seem to do the bulk of their grocery shopping with us on line. It's very convenient to just click and then have your order delivered to your door in a few days. We guarantee shipment within 24 hours of your order, and we offer normal UPS shipping for free."

LatinGrocer.com's web site is in Spanish and English and it is linked to the company's wholesale web site, B2BGrocer.com.

According to Gutierrez Jr., "After getting the retail site up and running, we realized that various grocers and wholesale distributors of Latin foods around the country were also a natural market for ordering on line, and since we already had agreements in place with our various suppliers, it was a logical progression to open the wholesale web site. For us, having both retail and wholesale operations means spreading our risk over two related but different markets, and a potentially stronger bottom line."

Yet Gutierrez noted that, "growing too fast may be the biggest danger in a type of business as new as ours. If that happens you can get hurt financially. We are pleased with our pace so far. We were the first to market with a Latin food web site, and in the world of dotcoms, being first matters. As long as you keep customers happy, you retain their loyalty."

Retaining their loyalty means, in part, responding to their overall wants. Thus, LatinGrocer.com now offers a limited range of perishables, such as jamon serrano, cheeses, and seafood.

According to Gutierrez Jr., "perishables are difficult to ship, because of the need to pack them properly in dry ice, but our customers love it when they receive a ham marked 'product of Spain.'"

All that's required to order from LatinGrocer.com is a visit to their web site, where you can also find out more about their company.