By Shop Talk SUSAN STIGER Of the Journal

LITERALLY, DRIVE-UP CONVENIENCE: Sometimes the hardest things about picking up a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk are parking, getting out of the car and getting back in. Especially if you have small kids or a wheelchair.

Well, a good, hearty TA DA! is in order for busy folks in the Fourth and Candelaria area. And if all goes as planned, the rest of you will get drive through convenience stores in your neighborhoods, too.

For now, all thanks is due to Deborah Larntz, her daughter Katie and Mona Mazzia, who just broke ground at the corner of Fourth and Veranda, a block north of Candelaria, and hope to have Loveland Farms up and running by the second week of January.

Here's how it works: You, oh beleaguered working parent, fatigued career builder, teen in a hurry, earned-my retirement senior, drive up on either side of the 10x60-foot building where you read the menu boards for specials and lists of the basic inventory. You pull up, place your order and wait mere moments while the clerk grabs your goods, bags them with a total inventory list for future reference and tallies the total. You pay by cash or check, or slide your credit or ATM card through the gizmo, collect your necessities and pull out the other side of the lot. Perhaps you're so organized that you have already phoned, faxed or e-mailed in your order and it's ready to go. And the baby is asleep in the back, the kids have nothing (extra) to whine about and you don't have to get Dad's walker out of the backseat, just to get yourself some desperately needed Tylenol.

"This is something I've wanted to do for probably 18 years," said Deborah Larntz. "I'm originally from Miami. We always had drive- through convenience stores 40 years ago."

Larntz said they'll have at least 500 items, not including cigarettes -- those will add another 500 to the list. Anything you can get at a regular convenience store, you'll be able to get at Loveland Farms, she said. All brand names, no generics. Creamland milk, Starbucks coffee, your favorite bread, your toddler's favorite diapers. Ice cream, eggs, soda, cat and dog food, motor oil, peanut butter and so on.

No walk-up as of yet, 'til the owners get the business rolling and see what works. No intercom, either. You'll talk to real people. In a nod to the fixed-income set, senior citizens will get an across- the board 10 percent discount. Prices will be in line with those of any convenience store, Larntz said.

She's planning 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. hours, seven days a week, and another 99 more locations in the years to come. "That's the goal."

The green-colored building will be as environmentally green as the owners can afford to make it with a '50s Route 66 look.