8 ms·

I'm always surprised there aren't more kits like what you would find in Blue Apron/Plated/Home Chef/etc in grocery stores. I would buy A LOT more, and probably

I'm always surprised there aren't more kits like what you would find in Blue Apron/Plated/Home Chef/etc in grocery stores. I would buy A LOT more, and probably even overpay because of convenience if I could walk into my local Harris Teeter/Krogers/Food Lion and just pick up a 3 meal/2 person box with most of what I need.

ghaff 8y ago
Given the amount of semi-prepared food (chopped up veggies and so forth) that most supermarkets already stock, it's surprising how slow most of them have been to jump on this bandwagon. I have a pretty well-stocked pantry at home, but there are lots of times I'd be willing to cook something up quickly if I could just swing by the store and pick up a couple of meal kits. My problem with the mail order kits is that I have to plan the week before and I have to commit to multiple meals over the course of a week, neither of which are really a fit for me.
- Shivetya 8y ago
  I have noticed a distinct improvement and selection in recent years if not just the past six months. I too am surprised at how stores haven't made the leap. There seems to be resistance to combine the items and instead they want customers to visit each department separately. This can work if the store develops a kiosk or such which gives customers suggestions and quick path to the selections. Good signage could path customers quickly through the store without the appearance of too much diversion. Perhaps Kroger realized that to break the dominance of each department within the storm that a 3rd party was needed
  - maxerickson 8y ago
    I think it is just a tough needle to thread. They can't charge all that much of a premium over unprepared foods and then they have to balance demand and waste and so on.
Itaxpica 8y ago
I’ve seen occasional store-branded ones at supermarkets in upstate NY, so it looks like the tide is at least starting to shift. I agree with you that it’s surprising it didn’t happen sooner, Blue Apron has been around for years now.
- ghaff 8y ago
  Frankly, the typical supermarket probably already has most of the pieces to assemble--perhaps with the addition of some spices and other add-ons like salad toppings. There are tons of marinated kabob sticks and the like, pre-made salads, chopped veggies for stir fries, etc. This is more prepared than a lot of meal kits are but, for a lot of scenarios, that may be a feature rather than a bug. The fact that it's probably easier to get 75% prepped meals at a supermarket rather than shipped to you may be an advantage. One of the common complaints about meal kits is that they can still be fairly time consuming. I know that's one reason I don't use them. If I'm going to cook a full meal, it's really not that hard for me to just do it from the base ingredients.
naner 8y ago
I've seen meal kits in Publix (in the meat dept) I'd be surprised if other stores didn't do this as well.
mbreese 8y ago
The Kroger in my area already has two options for this. When you walk in, you can choose a 2 person box that is all ready to go. They normally have 2-3 options available. The other option is more akin to the frozen meals-ready-to-heat (like those from Bertolli). These are stored in a frozen case where you have 8-10 different options. You can get a pre-measured serving or mix/match by the pound. Granted, this is a very new store in the Kroger home of Cincinnati and used for a lot of testing, but it's something they have been working on. The problem for these bigger companies is that they are big companies. What works for large, urban markets doesn't work for their more rural stores. So finding the mix of services can be hard, especially when you don't have the floor space to devote to new products. Also, integrating these types of products into your existing distribution network can be a challenge. I've been impressed though by how much these companies still do try to innovate in response to competition. For example, when Amazon bought Whole Foods and opened up Prime delivery of groceries in our area, Kroger within weeks started to offer their own 2-hour delivery service. But again, this isn't a service that would be practical to offer across their entire footprint.
- tedmiston 8y ago
  Hello from Cincinnati :) This sounds like the Newport Kroger I frequent as well. I've been really happy with the pilots they've done there too as far as the one-step kits and the frozen case. What's your take on the Prep+Pared meal kits?
  - mbreese 8y ago
    We’re near the Kroger in Oakley. It’s strange the mix of technology different stores have. One store near us (Hyde Park) has the equipment to effectively scan items into your cart as you go to pay without a checkout line, but doesn’t have the new food kits. As far as the kits, I don’t think we’ve tried them. My family has been pretty happy with Hello Fresh, so we haven’t tried the Kroger kits. The thing I have found particularly difficult with meal kits is how they handle kids. It can be hard to expand palettes and cooking styles, but still have something that two adults and two kids will still want to eat (let alone be able to make it fast).
koolba 8y ago
Free business idea: A store dedicated to exactly this. Imagine instead of many different, individually packaged, products, you have one (or maybe a handful) of pre-packaged meals for one or two people. The retail space and checkout would be insanely efficient as you'd just grab and go. You'd have the green angle too as there wouldn't be any excess packaging to keep the food fresh nor carbon emissions from all the individual deliveries. Just standard refrigerators and pictures of happy patrons walking home with their meal kits. The recurring subscription model, i.e. the holy grail of high valuations, could be added as well. Either through the usual $X/period gets you Y meals or maybe just a discount ($Z/month to get Q% off). Or taking it to the next level, imagine a meal kit vending machine. The owner would stock it each day (say around 3pm) and customers could grab their own meals with a quick swipe of their card. Same idea as the store but reducing the retail space from a mini store to a couple square feet.
- dboreham 8y ago
  I think you described Mark's and Spencer food stores.
  - te_chris 8y ago
    Was going to say, sounds somewhat like M&S
  - Willwhatley 8y ago
    Are their only sites in Hong Kong and Macau? This is the site linked from the only location I could find in Google Maps. http://global.marksandspencer.com/hk/store-locator/ http://global.marksandspencer.com/hk/store-locator/
    - ghaff 8y ago
      They're all over the UK at least.
      - Willwhatley 8y ago
joezydeco 8y ago
My local Mariano's (a Chicago/Milwaukee chain now owned by Kroger's) was trying just this the other week. They had some kits (maybe they were HomeKits) in a cooler in the deli section. Maybe it was a test.
- taco_emoji 8y ago
  Total nitpick but Mariano's is not in Milwaukee (where I live), although for all I know the very similar Metro Market stores we have could just be an identical model with different branding (since they're both owned by Kroger).
  - joezydeco 8y ago
    Oof. My bad. Yeah, Mariano's is an offshoot of Roundy's. It was Bob Mariano getting his revenge on the Dominick's chain in Chicago. The Metro markets are the Mariano's-alike in Wisconsin, I think?
niftich 8y ago
Most higher-end grocery stores in the US sell trays in which the raw, unfrozen ingredients are assembled and require baking -- a sort of upmarket TV dinner. Some sell kits that have some groupings of the ingredients packaged separately, because they need to be cooked separately or in different ways. I'm not a market researcher, but I'm guessing these existing products are packaged in this way for convenience, to appeal to people who want a complete meal with little effort. I can imagine that the thinking goes, if the customer went to the grocery store, they either want to browse and select the ingredients from the entire store themselves -- y'know, the entire reason you stock quality ingredients and furnished the store in an appealing way -- or they're looking for something more prepared that they can grab and go. The now-hip contemporary subscription meal kit is a box of raw ingredients packaged separately, and there's a fair bit of effort that needs to be expended to prep and cook. The fact that it shows up at your door is great for convenience, but the fact that you have prep for 30 minutes isn't. Most meal kit companies have embraced the prep as an experience to be marketed, and that's smart -- clearly, people exist who will pay for the experience. But in this space, retention is low, and it's hard to be profitable because of the costs of logistics and assembly. Upmarket grocery stores are in a perfect position to make this style of product work, because they already have the logistics around ingredients figured out, and they have labor on hand in stores and in their distribution and prep centers. And, in theory, they're even cheaper to prepare than the meal trays they sell today. But it remains to be seen whether paying a hefty premium for a pre-selected box of raw ingredients at a grocery store will be a hit or an object of ridicule.
- tedmiston 8y ago
  Kroger has an offering in at least 1 store as a pilot here like like what you described called one-step meal kits. There's definitely an upcharge but they're pretty good, very easy, healthier than TV dinners, and cheaper than getting takeout delivered. They also have a new offering that's a bunch of containers of frozen things like shrimp and potatoes where you can pay one price by the lb and mix and match across 10-15 different options. It's nice if you want a flexible portion size, just cooking for 1-2, etc.
  - nwilkens 8y ago
blang 8y ago
I believe QFC (part of Krogers) does this. At least i've seen signs for it, I've never used it though.
rednerrus 8y ago
Costco has teamed up with Blue Apron.
gm-conspiracy 8y ago
I am a Home Chef subscriber and have a Kroger that is literally a 7 minute drive from my house, but the quality of meat and produce at my local Kroger is much lower than what I can have delivered (many of the ingredients are not even sold at my local Kroger).

ghaff 8y ago

Given the amount of semi-prepared food (chopped up veggies and so forth) that most supermarkets already stock, it's surprising how slow most of them have been to jump on this bandwagon. I have a pretty well-stocked pantry at home, but there are lots of times I'd be willing to cook something up quickly if I could just swing by the store and pick up a couple of meal kits. My problem with the mail order kits is that I have to plan the week before and I have to commit to multiple meals over the course of a week, neither of which are really a fit for me.

Shivetya 8y ago
I have noticed a distinct improvement and selection in recent years if not just the past six months. I too am surprised at how stores haven't made the leap. There seems to be resistance to combine the items and instead they want customers to visit each department separately. This can work if the store develops a kiosk or such which gives customers suggestions and quick path to the selections. Good signage could path customers quickly through the store without the appearance of too much diversion. Perhaps Kroger realized that to break the dominance of each department within the storm that a 3rd party was needed
- maxerickson 8y ago
  I think it is just a tough needle to thread. They can't charge all that much of a premium over unprepared foods and then they have to balance demand and waste and so on.

Itaxpica 8y ago

I’ve seen occasional store-branded ones at supermarkets in upstate NY, so it looks like the tide is at least starting to shift. I agree with you that it’s surprising it didn’t happen sooner, Blue Apron has been around for years now.

ghaff 8y ago
Frankly, the typical supermarket probably already has most of the pieces to assemble--perhaps with the addition of some spices and other add-ons like salad toppings. There are tons of marinated kabob sticks and the like, pre-made salads, chopped veggies for stir fries, etc. This is more prepared than a lot of meal kits are but, for a lot of scenarios, that may be a feature rather than a bug. The fact that it's probably easier to get 75% prepped meals at a supermarket rather than shipped to you may be an advantage. One of the common complaints about meal kits is that they can still be fairly time consuming. I know that's one reason I don't use them. If I'm going to cook a full meal, it's really not that hard for me to just do it from the base ingredients.

naner 8y ago

I've seen meal kits in Publix (in the meat dept) I'd be surprised if other stores didn't do this as well.

mbreese 8y ago

The Kroger in my area already has two options for this. When you walk in, you can choose a 2 person box that is all ready to go. They normally have 2-3 options available. The other option is more akin to the frozen meals-ready-to-heat (like those from Bertolli). These are stored in a frozen case where you have 8-10 different options. You can get a pre-measured serving or mix/match by the pound. Granted, this is a very new store in the Kroger home of Cincinnati and used for a lot of testing, but it's something they have been working on. The problem for these bigger companies is that they are big companies. What works for large, urban markets doesn't work for their more rural stores. So finding the mix of services can be hard, especially when you don't have the floor space to devote to new products. Also, integrating these types of products into your existing distribution network can be a challenge. I've been impressed though by how much these companies still do try to innovate in response to competition. For example, when Amazon bought Whole Foods and opened up Prime delivery of groceries in our area, Kroger within weeks started to offer their own 2-hour delivery service. But again, this isn't a service that would be practical to offer across their entire footprint.

tedmiston 8y ago
Hello from Cincinnati :) This sounds like the Newport Kroger I frequent as well. I've been really happy with the pilots they've done there too as far as the one-step kits and the frozen case. What's your take on the Prep+Pared meal kits?
- mbreese 8y ago
  We’re near the Kroger in Oakley. It’s strange the mix of technology different stores have. One store near us (Hyde Park) has the equipment to effectively scan items into your cart as you go to pay without a checkout line, but doesn’t have the new food kits. As far as the kits, I don’t think we’ve tried them. My family has been pretty happy with Hello Fresh, so we haven’t tried the Kroger kits. The thing I have found particularly difficult with meal kits is how they handle kids. It can be hard to expand palettes and cooking styles, but still have something that two adults and two kids will still want to eat (let alone be able to make it fast).

koolba 8y ago

Free business idea: A store dedicated to exactly this. Imagine instead of many different, individually packaged, products, you have one (or maybe a handful) of pre-packaged meals for one or two people. The retail space and checkout would be insanely efficient as you'd just grab and go. You'd have the green angle too as there wouldn't be any excess packaging to keep the food fresh nor carbon emissions from all the individual deliveries. Just standard refrigerators and pictures of happy patrons walking home with their meal kits. The recurring subscription model, i.e. the holy grail of high valuations, could be added as well. Either through the usual $X/period gets you Y meals or maybe just a discount ($Z/month to get Q% off). Or taking it to the next level, imagine a meal kit vending machine. The owner would stock it each day (say around 3pm) and customers could grab their own meals with a quick swipe of their card. Same idea as the store but reducing the retail space from a mini store to a couple square feet.

dboreham 8y ago
I think you described Mark's and Spencer food stores.
- te_chris 8y ago
  Was going to say, sounds somewhat like M&S
- Willwhatley 8y ago
  Are their only sites in Hong Kong and Macau? This is the site linked from the only location I could find in Google Maps. http://global.marksandspencer.com/hk/store-locator/ http://global.marksandspencer.com/hk/store-locator/
  - ghaff 8y ago
    They're all over the UK at least.
    - Willwhatley 8y ago

joezydeco 8y ago

My local Mariano's (a Chicago/Milwaukee chain now owned by Kroger's) was trying just this the other week. They had some kits (maybe they were HomeKits) in a cooler in the deli section. Maybe it was a test.

taco_emoji 8y ago
Total nitpick but Mariano's is not in Milwaukee (where I live), although for all I know the very similar Metro Market stores we have could just be an identical model with different branding (since they're both owned by Kroger).
- joezydeco 8y ago
  Oof. My bad. Yeah, Mariano's is an offshoot of Roundy's. It was Bob Mariano getting his revenge on the Dominick's chain in Chicago. The Metro markets are the Mariano's-alike in Wisconsin, I think?

niftich 8y ago

Most higher-end grocery stores in the US sell trays in which the raw, unfrozen ingredients are assembled and require baking -- a sort of upmarket TV dinner. Some sell kits that have some groupings of the ingredients packaged separately, because they need to be cooked separately or in different ways. I'm not a market researcher, but I'm guessing these existing products are packaged in this way for convenience, to appeal to people who want a complete meal with little effort. I can imagine that the thinking goes, if the customer went to the grocery store, they either want to browse and select the ingredients from the entire store themselves -- y'know, the entire reason you stock quality ingredients and furnished the store in an appealing way -- or they're looking for something more prepared that they can grab and go. The now-hip contemporary subscription meal kit is a box of raw ingredients packaged separately, and there's a fair bit of effort that needs to be expended to prep and cook. The fact that it shows up at your door is great for convenience, but the fact that you have prep for 30 minutes isn't. Most meal kit companies have embraced the prep as an experience to be marketed, and that's smart -- clearly, people exist who will pay for the experience. But in this space, retention is low, and it's hard to be profitable because of the costs of logistics and assembly. Upmarket grocery stores are in a perfect position to make this style of product work, because they already have the logistics around ingredients figured out, and they have labor on hand in stores and in their distribution and prep centers. And, in theory, they're even cheaper to prepare than the meal trays they sell today. But it remains to be seen whether paying a hefty premium for a pre-selected box of raw ingredients at a grocery store will be a hit or an object of ridicule.

tedmiston 8y ago
Kroger has an offering in at least 1 store as a pilot here like like what you described called one-step meal kits. There's definitely an upcharge but they're pretty good, very easy, healthier than TV dinners, and cheaper than getting takeout delivered. They also have a new offering that's a bunch of containers of frozen things like shrimp and potatoes where you can pay one price by the lb and mix and match across 10-15 different options. It's nice if you want a flexible portion size, just cooking for 1-2, etc.
- nwilkens 8y ago

blang 8y ago

I believe QFC (part of Krogers) does this. At least i've seen signs for it, I've never used it though.

rednerrus 8y ago

Costco has teamed up with Blue Apron.

gm-conspiracy 8y ago

I am a Home Chef subscriber and have a Kroger that is literally a 7 minute drive from my house, but the quality of meat and produce at my local Kroger is much lower than what I can have delivered (many of the ingredients are not even sold at my local Kroger).