MIDDLETON, Wis. -- It's the kind of idea that might have people scratching their head, but Brian Wiegand hopes it's the kind of idea that in a few years has people wishing they'd thought of it first.

Two weeks ago, Weigand and co-founder Mark McGuire (not the baseball player) launched Alice.com. The Middleton-based Internet company sells consumer packaged goods straight to consumers -- items like toilet paper, laundry detergent and toothpaste.

No matter how necessary these items are, they're far from sexy.

"We looked at this market and said there's just nothing being sold. Toilet paper and laundry detergent are just not being sold online," Wiegand said. "Less than a half percent of it is online currently."

The name -- Alice -- is the center of the company's marketing strategy. Brightly colored blue and black boxes read, "Everyone needs an Alice," referring to the ease of the site designed to take care of a boring chore that eats away at time with family and at the gas in the tank. Shipping from Alice.com is free.

"I think as soon as you realize you can save money, save time, that there's no reason you wouldn't do this," Wiegand said.

The site sells more than 6,500 individual household projects, including foodstuffs, although nothing perishable is on the shopping list. Features include helpful reminders of when to re-order an item, and Wiegand said over time, the site learns shoppers' habits and gets better at predicting when they'll need things.

The interface is clean and fun, designed to feel like shoppers are picking an item up off of a store shelf and dropping it into their cart. A customized "my products" section includes a personal digital shelf showing only the things you regularly buy, allowing people to easily re-order them by dropping an item into their cart.

The site in many cases offers lower prices than other online and brick-and-mortar retailers. Manufacturers' coupons are automatically applied to an item when people buy it, without them even having to look through the paper for it. If a coupon exists for a product, shoppers get the savings by doing nothing extra.

The company’s business model is predicated on that very fact. Merely acting as a conduit for manufacturers to sell their products directly to customers. There is no mark up on item cost.

However, Wiegand's venture turns a profit from the fees manufacturers pay Alice.com for offering the savings, in the same way they would pay a newspaper to print their coupons. Only, in many cases Alice.com undercuts the price of those fees, making it an attractive business opportunity.

Manufacturers also benefit from specific customer data, which until now was something only expensive research could provide.

As much as Wiegand wants to make Alice.com a success, he's already looking down the road at selling the company.

"If you do your job well, you grow it, you make a difference, you disrupt an industry -- make things really special for consumers. Naturally, someone wants to come in and purchase it," he said. "The Internet has really changed a lot of industries and I think it will really change this industry as well."