Daily Harvest dangles Taylor Swift tix to promote Kroger distribution

“Fresh Perspectives” is a new Winsight Grocery Business column from Executive Editor Russell Redman, who will share insights on news, trends, people, issues and events in and around the grocery industry.

It looks like there will be some dancing in the freezer aisles at Kroger Co. stores over the next couple of weeks.

Online fruit-and-vegetable meal service Daily Harvest on Tuesday announced its debut in grocery stores with a line of frozen food and beverages at more than 1,100 Kroger Co. supermarkets nationwide.

In support of the brick-and-mortar distribution, Daily Harvest has launched the “Step Into the F V Era” (i.e. fruit veggie) promotion offering customers a chance to win VIP tickets to “The Era’s Tour” of pop singer Taylor Swift (yes, the artist who ignited a meltdown at Ticketmaster because of overwhelming demand for her concert tickets).

To participate, shoppers must post a video of themselves “dancing, stepping or strutting down the freezer aisle” on TikTok or Instagram at their local store, tag @DailyHarvest (including the #DHFruitVegEra hashtag) and use Daily Harvest’s official F V Era sound, New York-based Daily Harvest said. They can get “bonus points” for peeping Daily Harvest at the store, showing Daily Harvest in the video and tagging the store.

Daily Harvest's Taylor Swift ticket contest supports its rollout at Kroger, with the brand's new frozen items due to be in over 1,100 stores by mid-August. / Image courtesy of Daily Harvest

Ten winners—showing “the most creative freezer-aisle strut,” Daily Harvest said—will each receive two VIP suite tickets to Taylor Swift’s concert at the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, on Aug. 7 plus $1,000 for travel. The contest deadline is Aug. 2 at 10 a.m. ET, and the company said winners will be chosen and contacted by 5 p.m. ET on that day.

Daily Harvest began rolling out its frozen products to Kroger Co. stores—including under the Kroger, Dillons, Fry’s, Fred Meyer, QFC, Ralphs, Smith’s and Harris Teeter banners—and said the items are slated to be available at all 1,100-plus locations by Aug. 13.

The Daily Harvest frozen products include portobello/pesto, artichoke/spinach and tomato/basil flatbread; butternut squash/chimichurri, spinach/shiitake grits, cauliflower rice/pesto, sweet potato/wild rice hash and brussels sprouts/tahini harvest bowls; and
mint/cacao, mango/greens, chocolate/blueberry, acai/cherry, banana/almond, strawberry/peach and mango/papaya smoothies.

According to Rachel Drori, founder and CEO of Daily Harvest, the retail distribution with Kroger will further the meal service’s mission of helping consumers incorporate more fruit and vegetables into their diets.

“Launching as a direct-to-consumer brand helped us build recognition as a brand with a steadfast mission, and expanding beyond our online community will allow us to make that much larger of an impact,” Drori stated, adding, “To remove the friction between our intent to make better choices and our actions, I’m excited to meet even more of our community in Kroger stores throughout the country with our craveable, quick-to-prep food, made with whole fruits and vegetables you can see.”