Peapod inks partnership with meal planning tool

Ahold US’s e-commerce division Peapod on Wednesday said it has teamed with DinnerTime.com, a meal planning technology company that generates customized recipes and shopping lists for busy families. 

In the 24 U.S. markets served by Peapod, DinnerTime members can select Peapod as their desired grocer. The website recommends meals based upon each household’s tastes, budget, time constraints, health concerns, food allergies, and other dietary restrictions and preferences. The partnership allows for shoppers who create meal plans at DinnerTime’s site to order those ingredients and receive delivery through Peapod, said Charlie Moore, a co-founder of Baltimore-based DinnerTime.

The partnership is the first transactional arrangement between a food retailer and DinnerTime, which until now had primarily gone to market through corporate wellness programs, Moore said. Individuals can also subscribe to DinnerTime for a monthly or annual fee.

DinnerTime otherwise “scrapes” available online sales fliers to highlight sale prices on items for customers who identify on DinnerTime’s site where they prefer to shop, Moore said. The company said its site could generate 10 million different meal combinations.

DinnerTime was founded in 2010 by Moore and his wife Laura, a former Bain & Co. retail and consumer products consultant, who serves as the company’s CEO. 

“The genesis of our business was to solve the everyday problem of ‘What’s for dinner?’ and our CEO, who happens to be my wife, had the brilliant idea that we could solve it with math and data,” Moore said. “She understood the consumer product industry and trying to get the right products on the right shopping list as well as the supermarket industry through her consulting work. We set out to build a technology platform the delivers a highly personalized answer for each unique family.”

DinnerTime members who join Peapod for the first time receive 60 days of free delivery and $20 off their first order of more than $100. 

“At Peapod, we understand that our customers are not just shopping for ingredients, they’re shopping for convenient meal solutions,” Carrie Bienkowski, Peapod’s chief marketing and creative officer, said in a statement. “With over 40 million orders delivered, we’ve helped our customers save time and money while getting dinner on the table. Partnering with DinnerTime was a natural choice and we’re thrilled to offer its members our service to simplify grocery shopping and streamline their meal planning process.”