5 ms·

I feel like they should have Meal-Kits at grocery stores. They could make them with all the extra food they have. That way you can go pick up 3 of them and then

I feel like they should have Meal-Kits at grocery stores. They could make them with all the extra food they have. That way you can go pick up 3 of them and then grab more groceries if need be. It would be way better than all the frozen meals they have.

knieveltech 9y ago
Isn't the grocery store already basically one large meal kit?
- fanpuns 9y ago
  Love this comment so much I just had to comment and tell you :))
ghaff 9y ago
It's not like grocery stores keep a bunch of extra food on hand that they don't expect to sell. But, to your main point, a number of chains and other stores have started doing this. I'm a little surprised it's not more common though, of course, there's a lot of pre-chopped vegetables etc. so once you're in the store, gathering up the ingredients for a quick meal is pretty straightforward.
- dbot 9y ago
  Cooking involves 3 steps: (1) recipe selection, (2) ingredient acquisition, and (3) cooking. Blue Apron takes care of the first two, which I don't enjoy, and let's me do (3), which I very much enjoy. A grocery store doesn't solve (1) and only partially solves (2) (often has item availability, too much quantity issues, and then I have to measure it, too).
  - ghaff 9y ago
    I'd argue prep and cleanup are in there too which I enjoy less. Some kits help with the first and none help with the second :-) But that's a good way of looking at it. Personally I like selecting (and modifying) recipes. I agree that getting the ingredients is often a pain--especially to the degree they invalidate the first step. My general philosophy is that if any of these services get people cooking rather than eating fast food that's a good thing.
nerdponx 9y ago
They kinda have this at some stores in the form of pre-chopped/sliced produce.
adolph 9y ago
Most I visit already offer this service although not in a customer comprehensible way. I think this is because grocery stores are typically managed as little fiefdoms with produce, meat, bakery doing their own thing. Each will produce some kit-like packaged meals and sometimes cooperate with other units. I've yet to see a high level of coordination in the manner of the meal kit services.
ryanmarsh 9y ago
This is a great point. It would save the wife a ton of time. We've tried all the meal-kit services and the ingredients are mediocre. I really can't understand why the grocery stores aren't getting in on this, along with what Shipt is doing (grocery delivery). Makes no sense to me.
framebit 9y ago
Down here in the South, Publix is already pushing a concept like this that's obviously a response to Blue Apron and others. Just the other day I saw a store manager walking the aisles pitching it to customers.
ashark 9y ago
One of the grocery stores around here (a Price Chopper, maybe?) has a "cooking class" thing on weekends that's more like bulk meal preparation. You prep a whole bunch of the meal you signed up to make, and get some number of family-portioned bagged-to-freeze meals with minimal extra work required when it comes time to cook them. So you very efficiently make a bunch of one thing but get some servings of four or five different meals (you get to pick which ones you want). You pay in based on what you want to take home. The cost is often under what it'd take to buy the ingredients for it, somehow. My wife does it every so often, the results are great and it takes way less time than the combined shopping and prep/cooking would for the same number of meals. [EDIT] reworded sentence to make it clearer.
dnzm 9y ago
Some chains in the Netherlands already do this; they'll have a few different kits (a curry, a soup, a stew for example) with enough vegetables and a recipe for around 3. They don't include meat but you can add those yourself. Not exactly sure how popular they are.

knieveltech 9y ago

Isn't the grocery store already basically one large meal kit?

fanpuns 9y ago
Love this comment so much I just had to comment and tell you :))

ghaff 9y ago

It's not like grocery stores keep a bunch of extra food on hand that they don't expect to sell. But, to your main point, a number of chains and other stores have started doing this. I'm a little surprised it's not more common though, of course, there's a lot of pre-chopped vegetables etc. so once you're in the store, gathering up the ingredients for a quick meal is pretty straightforward.

dbot 9y ago
Cooking involves 3 steps: (1) recipe selection, (2) ingredient acquisition, and (3) cooking. Blue Apron takes care of the first two, which I don't enjoy, and let's me do (3), which I very much enjoy. A grocery store doesn't solve (1) and only partially solves (2) (often has item availability, too much quantity issues, and then I have to measure it, too).
- ghaff 9y ago
  I'd argue prep and cleanup are in there too which I enjoy less. Some kits help with the first and none help with the second :-) But that's a good way of looking at it. Personally I like selecting (and modifying) recipes. I agree that getting the ingredients is often a pain--especially to the degree they invalidate the first step. My general philosophy is that if any of these services get people cooking rather than eating fast food that's a good thing.

nerdponx 9y ago

They kinda have this at some stores in the form of pre-chopped/sliced produce.

adolph 9y ago

Most I visit already offer this service although not in a customer comprehensible way. I think this is because grocery stores are typically managed as little fiefdoms with produce, meat, bakery doing their own thing. Each will produce some kit-like packaged meals and sometimes cooperate with other units. I've yet to see a high level of coordination in the manner of the meal kit services.

ryanmarsh 9y ago

This is a great point. It would save the wife a ton of time. We've tried all the meal-kit services and the ingredients are mediocre. I really can't understand why the grocery stores aren't getting in on this, along with what Shipt is doing (grocery delivery). Makes no sense to me.

framebit 9y ago

Down here in the South, Publix is already pushing a concept like this that's obviously a response to Blue Apron and others. Just the other day I saw a store manager walking the aisles pitching it to customers.

ashark 9y ago

One of the grocery stores around here (a Price Chopper, maybe?) has a "cooking class" thing on weekends that's more like bulk meal preparation. You prep a whole bunch of the meal you signed up to make, and get some number of family-portioned bagged-to-freeze meals with minimal extra work required when it comes time to cook them. So you very efficiently make a bunch of one thing but get some servings of four or five different meals (you get to pick which ones you want). You pay in based on what you want to take home. The cost is often under what it'd take to buy the ingredients for it, somehow. My wife does it every so often, the results are great and it takes way less time than the combined shopping and prep/cooking would for the same number of meals. [EDIT] reworded sentence to make it clearer.

dnzm 9y ago

Some chains in the Netherlands already do this; they'll have a few different kits (a curry, a soup, a stew for example) with enough vegetables and a recipe for around 3. They don't include meat but you can add those yourself. Not exactly sure how popular they are.