Meal Kit Delivery Services in the U.S.

• Executive Summary
  • Overview
    • Scope of Report
    • Report Methodology
    • Why Meal Kits?
    • How Meal Kit Delivery Services Work
    • The Attractions of Meal Kit Delivery Services
    • An Industry Disrupter
    • A $1.5 Billion Market and Growing
  • Trends and Opportunities
    • Projecting the Future
    • Are Meal Kit Delivery Services Ripe for Mergers, Acquisitions, and IPOs?
    • Opportunities for Regionals, Unique Marketing Angles, Retailers, and CPG Brands
  • The Consumer
    • Half of All Consumers Use Food Delivery Services
    • Other Surveys
  • The Marketers
    • More than 150 Meal Kit Delivery Services in the USA
    • Ahold's Take on Meal Kits
    • Blue Apron Targets Would-Be Chefs
    • Chef'd Is Bringing Professional Chefs Into America's Kitchens
    • Affordability a Key Appeal of Cooking Simplified
    • Din Recreates Restaurant Meals at Home
    • Foodstirs: Baking and Foodcrafting Kits at the Core
• Trends and Opportunities
  • Key Points
    • Projecting the Future
    • Are Meal Kit Delivery Services Ripe for Mergers, Acquisitions, and IPOs?
    • Opportunities for Regionals, Unique Marketing Angles, Retailers, and CPG Brands
    • Celebrity Chefs
    • Targeting Singles, Empty Nesters, Ethnic Groups
• Overview
  • Scope of Report
  • Report Methodology
  • Why Meal Kits?
  • Changing Eating Trends
  • Started in Sweden
  • How Meal Kit Delivery Services Work
  • But Are Meal Kits Really Cooking?
  • The Attractions of Meal Kit Delivery Services
    • Saves Time and Stress of Shopping and Meal Planning
    • Freshness a Huge Selling Point
    • No Food Is Wasted
    • Teaches Cooking Skills
    • Almost Foolproof
    • Promotes Discovery and Introduces Variety
    • Makes Exotic Ingredients Available Everywhere
    • Lets Consumers Create a Gourmet Meal at Home
    • Cost-Effective, Healthier Alternative to Takeout and Eating Out
    • Fun to Do
    • Brings People Together
    • Promotes Portion Control and Caters to Special Diets
  • The Criticisms
    • It's Like Paint-by-Numbers
    • Too Expensive for Most People
    • Something Intangible Is Lost
    • Too Much Packaging/Environmentally Unsound
    • Do Not Eliminate Grocery Shopping Entirely
    • What? No leftovers?
    • Too Much Work
    • Too Much Cleanup
  • Target Market
  • Marketing Meal Kits Through Celebrity Chefs and Co-Branding
  • Marketing, from Word-of-Mouth to National TV
  • An Industry Disrupter
  • A $1.5 Billion Market and Growing
• The Consumer
  • Key Points
  • Demographic Targets
    • Marketers Target Professionals, Busy Families, and Millennial Urbanites
  • Packaged Facts Consumer Survey
    • Half of All Consumers Use Food Delivery Services
    • Meal Kit Consumers Also Favor RTE Food and Grocery Deliveries
    • Most Pizza and RTE Food Consumers Use Chain Restaurants for Delivery
      • Table Consumers Using Food Delivery Services in the Past 30 Days, 2016 (percent of U.S. adults)
    • Most Meal Kit Consumers Under Age 45
    • A Whopping 79% of Meal Kit Consumers Have Kids at Home
    • Hispanics and Blacks Prime for Targeting
    • One Out of Three Meal Kit Consumers Lives in the West
    • Nearly Two Out of Three Meal Kit Users Are Urban
    • Meal Kit Users Well-Educated
    • Meal Kit Delivery Use Increases Along with Income
      • Table Consumers Using Food Delivery Services in the Past 30 Days: By Age Group, 2016 (percent of U.S. adults)
      • Table Consumers Using Food Delivery Services in the Past 30 Days: By Presence of Children by Age, 2016 (percent of U.S. adults)
      • Table Consumers Using Food Delivery Services in the Past 30 Days: By Ethnic Group, 2016 (percent of U.S. adults)
      • Table Consumers Using Food Delivery Services in the Past 30 Days: By Region, 2016 (percent of U.S. adults)
      • Table Consumers Using Food Delivery Services in the Past 30 Days: By Locality (Urban, Suburban/Outer Suburban, Rural), 2016 (percent of U.S. adults)
      • Table Consumers Using Food Delivery Services in the Past 30 Days: By Level of Education, 2016 (percent of U.S. adults)
      • Table Consumers Using Food Delivery Services in the Past 30 Days: By Household Income, 2016 (percent of U.S. adults)
  • Other Surveys
    • Brick Meets Click: How Consumers Are Using Online Grocery
    • NPD Group on Cooking at Home
• The Marketers
  • Key Points
  • More than 150 Meal Kit Delivery Services in the USA
  • Ahold USA
    • A Supermarket Chain's Take on Meal Kits
    • Peapod Teams Up with Barilla to Develop Meal Kits
    • Giant Carlisle Introduces In-Store Meal Kits
  • Blue Apron, Inc.: The Nation's Leader
    • Largest Meal Delivery Kit Service Targets Would-Be Chefs
    • Efficiency Minimizes Waste, Maximizes Profitability
    • New Subscription Program Lets Customers "Wine and Dine"
    • Decreasing Packaging, Increasing Market Penetration
  • Chef'd, LLC
    • Bringing Professional Chefs Into America's Kitchens
    • Predictive Analysis Ensures Supply Meets Demand
    • Wide-Ranging Appeal Spans Demographic Groups
  • Cooking Simplified
    • Affordability a Key Appeal
  • Din Inc.
    • Recreating Restaurant Meals at Home
  • Foodstirs Inc.
    • Baking and Foodcrafting Kits at the Core
  • FreshDirect LLC
    • Online Grocer Delves into Meal Kits
  • Gobble
    • "10 Minutes and One Pan"
  • Green Blender
    • Smoothies Only
  • Green Chef
    • Certified Organic Meal Kits
  • Handpick, Inc.
    • Smart Groceries
  • HelloFresh USA
    • Healthy, Tasty, and Jamie Oliver
  • Home Chef
    • Variety, Flexibility, and a Midwest Approach
  • Hungryroot Inc.
    • Recipes Let Vegetables "Masquerade as Other Foods"
  • Just Add Cooking
    • Eco-Friendly, New England Regional
  • Marley Spoon
    • Competing with "The Weekly Grocery Shop"
  • Munchery
    • Locally Sourced, Gourmet Meals Cooked by Chefs
  • Pantry
    • A Meal-Kits-Only Grocery Store
  • PeachDish
    • Modern Southern Cooking
  • Plated
    • A Premium Service for the "Evolved Eater"
    • Shark Tank Success Story
    • A Leader in Sustainability
  • The Purple Carrot
    • Plant-Based Vegan Meals
  • Saffron Fix Inc.
    • Ethnic Indian Meals
  • Sun Basket
    • Healthy California Lifestyle
  • Terra's Kitchen LLC
    • Eco-Friendly Packaging
  • Tyson Foods, Inc.
    • Mainstream Food Producer Joins the Fray

Meal Kit Delivery Services in the U.S.

Meant to solve the perennial problem of “what’s for dinner?”, meal kit delivery services offer consumers a convenient way to cook at home without having to do the meal planning and grocery shopping. Online portals let consumers order meals ahead from picture menus showing gorgeous photos of the finished dish, and the services deliver the pre-measured fresh ingredients along with recipes to their doorstep to help them cook chef-quality meals at home. Marketers are aiming for—and finding—a “sweet spot” with consumers who do not have the time, inclination, or know-how to shop for individual ingredients, navigate a recipe, and cook from scratch, yet do not want to eat yet another heat-and-eat prepared meal, order takeout food, or dine out. No wonder then that participants across the entire food spectrum—from grocery home delivery services like Peapod and FreshDirect, to packaged foods marketers like Barilla, to meal-kits-only grocery store Pantry—are climbing aboard the burgeoning meal kits bandwagon.

Scope and Methodology

Packaged Facts’ first-edition report, Meal Kit Delivery Services in the U.S., opens with an Overview chapter presenting a thorough introduction to this new and exciting business, exploring its history, the changing eating trends that are making it viable, how meal kit delivery services work, and attractions and criticisms of these services. The next chapter, The Consumer, concentrates primarily on analyzing data from a proprietary Packaged Facts National Consumer Survey conducted in February 2016 that delves into the scope and demographics of users of meal kit delivery services. Next, “The Marketers” profiles more than two dozen competitors and their strategies, including Ahold USA, Blue Apron, Chef’d, Cooking Simplified, Din, Foodstirs, FreshDirect, Gobble, Green Blender, Green Chef, Handpick, HelloFresh, Home Chef, Hungryroot, Just Add Cooking, Markey Spoon, Munchery, Pantry, PeachDish, Plated, The Purple Carrot, Saffron Fix, Sun Basket, Terra’s Kitchen, and Tyson Foods. The closing chapter, Trends & Opportunities, springboards off the past and current state of the market to explore the future of this market.

In addition to the Packaged Facts consumer survey, primary research for Meal Kit Delivery Services in the U.S. includes telephone and email interviews with executives at meal kit delivery services, with secondary research encompassing more than 300 articles in consumer and industry publications, websites, and blogs, as well as other reports by Packaged Facts, along with websites and literature from individual meal kit marketers.