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Albertsons snaps up meal kit startup Plated

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Re: Albertsons snaps up meal kit startup Plated

#21

Post by tyingq »

ThrustVectoring wrote: post #20
tyingq wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if one might buy a national pizza delivery chain. Then you get an established driver network too.

Pizza delivery chains are largely operated as franchises, from what I remember. Buying Papa John's would get you the existing relationships with franchisees and the right to use the trademark. It wouldn't get you direct access to drivers - their paychecks are paid by entities like Rain City Pizza LLC.

You can structure franchise agreements in a way that gives you control.

There's some evidence pizza chains do that. http://www.bluemaumau.org/15086/jury_smacks_domino’s_death_s...

Or they could just give franchise owners enough incentive to participate.

Re: Albertsons snaps up meal kit startup Plated

#22

Post by tclancy »

foolfoolz wrote: post #19

maybe just me, I don't see meal kits going away but I think they are niche and temporary subscriptions at best. people are paying for convenience. an obligation to making a big dinner is not convenient if they were much cheaper, and give you more choice on what says its active, and faster activation turnaround (maybe at 3pm I decide if I want the dinner kit for tonight) then it might make more sense. I do not buy the…

>an obligation to making a big dinner is not convenient

As someone who likes to cook (and has test-driven 3 or 4 of these services), I don't see them as that at all. Blue Apron, et al are paint-by-number compared to actually cooking from a normal recipe where you have to measure and prep. I liked having them as an option, but they didn't scratch my "cooking" itch at all. They were more like a convenient way to put a decent, healthier dinner on the table in almost the same time you could do Hamburger Helper or some frozen bag meal.

Re: Albertsons snaps up meal kit startup Plated

#23

Post by digikata »

I think the disconnect to be bridged here is the quality expectations between a meal kit ingredients, and just picking up ingredients at the supermarket yourself. I don't think the kits coming out of just reassembling the existing inventory a many supermarkets would quite be as attractive unless some additional logistics are added to make higher quality ingredients available.

Re: Albertsons snaps up meal kit startup Plated

#24

Post by cbhl »

digikata wrote: post #23

I think the disconnect to be bridged here is the quality expectations between a meal kit ingredients, and just picking up ingredients at the supermarket yourself. I don't think the kits coming out of just reassembling the existing inventory a many supermarkets would quite be as attractive unless some additional logistics are added to make higher quality ingredients available.

Grocery stores already have workers inside that prep food to make them ready-to-eat or easier-to-cook -- pre-chopped vegetables and fruits in plastic trays; soups and rotisserie chickens; cakes in the bakery section.

I think the real question is whether there is enough volume at a given grocery store on meal kits that they can afford to hire a person who just spends their day assembling and stocking meal kits by the deli section, or if this load will get shifted to existing employees.

Re: Albertsons snaps up meal kit startup Plated

#25

Post by vlahmot »

digikata wrote: post #23

I think the disconnect to be bridged here is the quality expectations between a meal kit ingredients, and just picking up ingredients at the supermarket yourself. I don't think the kits coming out of just reassembling the existing inventory a many supermarkets would quite be as attractive unless some additional logistics are added to make higher quality ingredients available.

I've only used BlueApron and HelloFresh but the quality of the ingredients has been comparable to stuff picked up at Safeway.

The real value for me besides time saved (and the insane coupons/free meals) is using ingredients that I wouldn't have otherwise picked up. I'll just grab button mushrooms most of the time but getting some different variety is nice.

I also usually grab the store brand meat because its cheaper. It's not like the grass fed organic whatever isn't there, I just usually won't pick it up.

Re: Albertsons snaps up meal kit startup Plated

#26

Post by chimeracoder »

CapnCrunchie wrote: post #16
x2f10 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>But it seems kind of antithetical to how grocery stores make money. They're low margin, high volume businesses. And this directly attacks volume. Not necessarily. The margin on meal kits are stronger than the ingredients alone (e.g. sliced fruits & veggies). In relation to the volume, meal kit buyers still need to eat. The hungry buyer must cook at home (w/ groceries), go to a restaurant, or buy a second meal kit. T…

>Grocery stores can market these meal kits as more affordable, healthier, and 'hip'. I did a meal kit service for a little while, and my biggest complaint was that it was not any cheaper than if I were to go out to eat, but I still had to cook the meal and clean up afterwards. If there were a cost savings versus going to eat at a restaurant, I would have kept the subscription.

Where do you live?

I had the same experience with Blue Apron, but I also live in Manhattan, where it's about 20-30% cheaper for a single person to get takeout/delivery than it is to buy groceries and cook - and that's before accounting for the cost of time.

Comparing the prices in the suburbs, though, that's not the case. And as soon as you add a second person (or more) to the mix, of course, it becomes cheaper to cook.

Re: Albertsons snaps up meal kit startup Plated

#27

Post by QAPereo »

fernly wrote: post #17

Plated should be able to lower costs by participating in Albertson/Safeway's purchasing system. Everything that they pack in a meal kit is also an SKU for a grocery store. Then, there's lovely marketing synergy. On the one side, people going through the store looking for the stuff they need to cook for dinner, are going to see how "oh, I could have all this packaged up for me and sent to my door and I wouldn't have t…

Safeway also has their own grocery delivery service, so there's more synergy for you. I do think by far the biggest bonus here is gaining access to Safeway's experience, and supply chain. It's not an easy thing to get right, and definitely easier in most cases to buy that existing expertise/system, or be bought as in this case.

I wonder if more delivery systems might go this way, instead of partying with a bunch of restaurants that mostly can't support them because of their existing terrible margins. In a sense Amazon and Whole Foods are already there now, since Whole Foods has a huge line of prepared foods, pizzas, sandwiches, etc... and they already deliver. If they expanded that a little bit, use their own supply chains and produce, and essentially set up warehouses to prepare various kinds of meals to be rapidly delivered by Amazon. Basically everything they need is already there, it's just putting it together. How often would that kind of option win out over something relatively overpriced, and often potentially less healthy like Caviar, Dining In, or Dashed?

Re: Albertsons snaps up meal kit startup Plated

#28

Post by fotbr »

tclancy wrote: post #22
foolfoolz wrote: post #19

maybe just me, I don't see meal kits going away but I think they are niche and temporary subscriptions at best. people are paying for convenience. an obligation to making a big dinner is not convenient if they were much cheaper, and give you more choice on what says its active, and faster activation turnaround (maybe at 3pm I decide if I want the dinner kit for tonight) then it might make more sense. I do not buy the…

>an obligation to making a big dinner is not convenient As someone who likes to cook (and has test-driven 3 or 4 of these services), I don't see them as that at all. Blue Apron, et al are paint-by-number compared to actually cooking from a normal recipe where you have to measure and prep. I liked having them as an option, but they didn't scratch my "cooking" itch at all. They were more like a convenient way to put a…

There's no way I'm doing a subscription.

I'm open to trying new things, and regularly do when I'm traveling, but at the end of the day I'm a midwestern, meat and potatoes type of person.

I've yet to see one of these services that would work for me without feeling like I'm wasting my money more often than not.

I'd LOVE to have a paint-by-number, better than hamburger helper, set of options I can pick up from the grocery store on the way home. Give me a rotating choice of two or three meal kits as a regularly stocked, non-subscription item, and I'd be thrilled. I'm sure there would be some I'd really enjoy, some I'd like to try, and others I'd avoid.

Re: Albertsons snaps up meal kit startup Plated

#29

Post by jhbadger »

fernly wrote: post #17

Plated should be able to lower costs by participating in Albertson/Safeway's purchasing system. Everything that they pack in a meal kit is also an SKU for a grocery store. Then, there's lovely marketing synergy. On the one side, people going through the store looking for the stuff they need to cook for dinner, are going to see how "oh, I could have all this packaged up for me and sent to my door and I wouldn't have t…

But one issue is that the quantity might not be a sellable SKU. Quite often in Blue Apron, I'll get a tiny amount of say, smoked paprika. A grocery store would sell that in a container containing many servings probably costing $5-$10.

Re: Albertsons snaps up meal kit startup Plated

#30

Post by [deleted] »

CapnCrunchie wrote: post #16
x2f10 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>But it seems kind of antithetical to how grocery stores make money. They're low margin, high volume businesses. And this directly attacks volume. Not necessarily. The margin on meal kits are stronger than the ingredients alone (e.g. sliced fruits & veggies). In relation to the volume, meal kit buyers still need to eat. The hungry buyer must cook at home (w/ groceries), go to a restaurant, or buy a second meal kit. T…

>Grocery stores can market these meal kits as more affordable, healthier, and 'hip'. I did a meal kit service for a little while, and my biggest complaint was that it was not any cheaper than if I were to go out to eat, but I still had to cook the meal and clean up afterwards. If there were a cost savings versus going to eat at a restaurant, I would have kept the subscription.

[deleted]
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