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Albertsons snaps up meal kit startup Plated

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Re: Albertsons snaps up meal kit startup Plated

#41

Post by KGIII »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #14
Nition wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the major national supermarkets here does delivery[1]. There's also a cheaper option where you can pick up but they do the shopping for you, so you can just stop by and get your cart. Both are actually a really nice service and good value for the time you save too, but I'm not sure how popular it actually is. You do miss out on being able to select your own fruit, meat etc, but they did a good job the couple o…

New World is starting to roll out grocery delivery, they're trialing it in a couple of stores in Auckland.

NZ is a bit smaller than Colorado. I'd expect it to be easier to service. It makes me wonder why it hasn't already caught on? I know it's popular/common in some parts of Europe, and that it has been for a while.

Re: Albertsons snaps up meal kit startup Plated

#42

Post by toomanybeersies »

KGIII wrote: post #41
toomanybeersies wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

New World is starting to roll out grocery delivery, they're trialing it in a couple of stores in Auckland.

NZ is a bit smaller than Colorado. I'd expect it to be easier to service. It makes me wonder why it hasn't already caught on? I know it's popular/common in some parts of Europe, and that it has been for a while.

I think it's just that everyone is close enough to a supermarket, it's easy enough to just go there on the way back from work, or just pop to the supermarket. It's not worth paying to get someone to do the groceries for you.

I don't think I've ever lived further than a 15 minute walk from a supermarket.

Re: Albertsons snaps up meal kit startup Plated

#43

Post by KGIII »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #42
KGIII wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NZ is a bit smaller than Colorado. I'd expect it to be easier to service. It makes me wonder why it hasn't already caught on? I know it's popular/common in some parts of Europe, and that it has been for a while.

I think it's just that everyone is close enough to a supermarket, it's easy enough to just go there on the way back from work, or just pop to the supermarket. It's not worth paying to get someone to do the groceries for you. I don't think I've ever lived further than a 15 minute walk from a supermarket.

I think that's also true in Europe. I've never lived in the UK, for example, but I've stayed there for six months while working. Food delivery was very common in London.

At the time, there was no web interface and you had to make a phone call. Still, it was pretty common.

Curiously, when I was really young (1960s America), I remember a grocery store that delivered to our house. We even had a diaper delivery/disposal service, but I digress. I'm not sure if it was a local thing, nor am I sure when it stopped. I do know that it existed in two different localities, because we moved a lot. (Military family.) I'm pretty sure it wasn't always just a grocery list, but that they had meals that came with a recipe card and the ingredients. The recipe cards still existed when my mother passed away. I have no idea if they still exist. I suspect not.

So, at one point, it was at least in use and then fell out of fashion. Now, it's coming around again.

Anyhow, thanks for the info. It seems to be gaining in popularity. Maybe there's room for you to get in on the ground floor and make some money.

Re: Albertsons snaps up meal kit startup Plated

#45

Post by amigoingtodie »

ethbro wrote: post #5
WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #2

This is just the start. Eventually all supermarket companies will buy a meal kit company.

Curious what the value proposition would be. I mean, I can see delivery + pre-existing logistics network. Or selling better kits in stores. Or a segue to delivered groceries. But it seems kind of antithetical to how grocery stores make money. They're low margin, high volume businesses. And this directly attacks volume. Buying a grocery delivery startup seems like it would make way more sense as a first step.

There is money there.

People are willing to pay a premium for convenience.

Not having to travel to the grocery store, not having to wait in line, not getting mad at the person who cannot bag your groceries, and not having to buy excess amounts of ingredients, nor measuring them, I consider valuable.

Also, Plated offers meals w/ ingredients that would take me a full day of travel to source.

If somebody is already willing to travel to the store, why would grocery delivery increase their existing customer spend?

Re: Albertsons snaps up meal kit startup Plated

#46

Post by amigoingtodie »

hkmurakami wrote: post #13
milesokeefe wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regardless of feeling overwhelmed, the convenience of picking up one meal kit box vs knowing what ingredients to get, finding them, getting the right amount (often the minimum is far too much for the meal), etc. is huge. AFAIK a lot of the margins for online meal kit companies is the shipping+packaging cost. Grocery stores don't have to pay for shipping to the customer and can keep the boxes refrigerated which would…

I've used a meal kit once or twice. I cook multiple meals for myself a day. But even for me, a person not in a meal kit business' target demographic, I can appreciate the value of not having to spend 10 minutes looking for the butter that was moved to some other location by the elves that run the Supermarkets.

Or buying four sticks of butter when all you need is a pat.

Re: Albertsons snaps up meal kit startup Plated

#47

Post by amigoingtodie »

nosuchthing wrote: post #9
gscott wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe a high percentage of young people go into a supermarket and are overwhelmed. Supermarkets need employees to tell people what can be done with the food they find on the shelves to remain relevant and buying a pre-packaged fresh mailed to you food company is trying to fix a symptom of that actual problem.

Recipes are everywhere though. Plated's market is probably for people who mostly want to save time, but don't want fast food or frozen meals.

And who can't get the same quality ingredients locally.

Re: Albertsons snaps up meal kit startup Plated

#48

Post by amigoingtodie »

vlahmot wrote: post #25
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.…

The quality at my local Kroger and WalMart are inferior to the quality of the meal delivery meats and vegetables.

I use HelloFresh, HomeChef, and Plated.

Re: Albertsons snaps up meal kit startup Plated

#49

Post by amigoingtodie »

cbhl wrote: post #24
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…

None of the meal delivery stuff comes pre-chopped.

It will have the proper size, though.

Re: Albertsons snaps up meal kit startup Plated

#50

Post by pbreit »

chimeracoder wrote: post #36
rrdharan wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in New York (four years in Manhattan and a couple more in Brooklyn). I think "incredibly easy" is a gross exaggeration. I supposed you might be talking about the street carts, but street meat is questionably healthy / "good". The deeper you get into parts of Queens it's certainly possible, but I think the previous poster had in mind some sort of sit down establishment rather than street food.

I live midtown, and yes, it is incredibly easy to find prepared food for dinner that is cheaper than what these meal kit services charge, or even cheaper than the equivalent in groceries. I'm not talking about street carts either.

If heat lamp slop is your thing, by all means. Not sure it's that comparable, though.
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