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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. Som
by 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 agoKroger 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 agohttp://preppared.com http://preppared.com is the website where you can see the meals that Kroger currently offers. It's $14 per 2 servings in SE Michigan last I purchased.
- tedmiston 8y agoFirst time seeing this site. I wonder if they will also add the one-step meal kits and the mix-n-match kits to it as they roll them out more broadly? I'm not seeing those two on the site currently.
- ghaff 8y ago>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. Part of it is that there are definitely people who want to cook a meal from "scratch" with their SO but need some structure and pre-packaging to get started. I suspect some it though is that when you're shipping things, you're probably better off shipping things in their raw state if possible. Personally, if I were to buy a kit at a local grocery store to bring home for dinner, I'd like to see onions pre-cut, etc. as much as reasonable. I don't mind cooking at all but if it's going to be a bunch of effort I'll just do my own thing; I don't need a kit. If I can grab something that only needs 15 or 20 minutes of active time to put on the table, that's appealing.
- tedmiston 8y agoI'm the type that likes to save time cooking too. The Kroger kits today do include pre-prepped vegetables. Example - https://www.kroger.com/p/prep-pared-meal-kit-vietnamese-inspired-spicy-lemongrass-pork-with-coconut-rice-cabbage-salad/0001111019057 https://www.kroger.com/p/prep-pared-meal-kit-vietnamese-insp...