Looking Into Meal Kits

When I was a kid I loved the idea of kits for model airplanes, cars, tanks and ships and that mystery box you could order from the back of comic books with the magic tricks, sea monkeys and x-ray glasses. Imagine my disappointment when I found out they didn’t work! 

Then, I grew up with a natural distrust of kits and things that are packaged together in a box. Meal kits delivered to your door with recipes, ingredients and fresh products are at the top of the list along with car salesmen. I think many consumers might agree.

Earlier this week several of the biggest food companies on the planet—Tyson, Hershey and Campbell Soup—said they were entering the fray in segment that’s been called “the Uber of food” It seems that everyone wants to be the Uber of something.

I understand why marketers would want to get involved. It’s a way to bolster flagging sales of some packaged foods and get people back into the kitchen and away from fast food and other eateries. And it provides marketers with a fresh food halo among consumers who are not enamored of packaged goods in a fresh food world. Additionally, there’s a lot of upside potential since NPD reports that only 3 percent of consumers have tried meal kits. This makes me think that offering a limited number of meal kits might be an opportunity for retailers and an adjunct to their prepared food offerings.

The downside is that a number of meal kit companies have already gone down in flames this year alone. Shipping truly fresh food is an expensive proposition and what do you do in urban areas if people are working and deliveries can’t be secured at their apartments? There is also the question of cost and whether the business is sustainable in an economic downturn (an inevitability) when people tend to tighten their belts on expenses.

Maybe I’m wrong. But I’m still haunted by those x-ray glasses.