Startup
services like Blue Apron that deliver all the ingredients of a meal, plus
recipes, are hot, hot, hot! Venture
capital investors are throwing big
money at them. (More on that later.)
And since their main marketing tool is offering free trial meals, the
VCs are essentially giving away food to anyone who might later consider spending about $10 a
person for the groceries to make a meal.
There
are tons of these services beyond Blue Apron and by signing up for the free trials of all of them, you could eat some fancy, full-scale
dinners for a pittance. Could
be the biggest benefit -- besides Uber -- that you personally ever get from
techie VCs.
(Find a list of meal kit services
below.)
The meal kit phenomenon reminds me of paint-by-the-numbers projects, or buying a shelving unit
from IKEA. They give you the
instructions and materials and you put the product together yourself.
Seems
like the people who really love meal kits after the trial period are busy non-cooks
tired of restaurants, who like the thrill of feeling like a Maker.
I
know couples in Santa Barbara and the Sonoma wine country who work a lot and
are hooked on the convenience and quality. Also, a pair of retired Northern California friends thoroughly enjoy opening
their weekly box of pretty recipes and
groceries, like a big Christmas present. Their only complaint : “No more catfish!”
However,
a well-heeled single Silicon Valley friend, who’s both practical and clever, canceled
after a week or so because she says the service was too pricey and cookie-cutter for
her.
In
my trial with Blue Apron, I fit into the group that happily opens the big box full of surprises, lining up all the cute containers on the counter. But the novelty soon wore off for me. For the amount of time, packaging
and dirty dishes, I ended up with just 2 meals at a time. Plus, the $10-$12 per person would actually take me take me pretty
far at the market (Each box has the makings for three meals. Each meal serves 2. Total cost per box: about $60.) And finally, I LIKE to go to my favorite veggie,
fruit, meat and bakery vendors and stock up.
Oh
yeah, about that VC money. Last year the top meal-kit companies attracted $477.6 million, more than triple their 2014 haul.
Some meal kit services that want you.
Blue
Apron
Freshly
Plated
Sun
Basket
Hello
Fresh
Home
Chef
Munchery
Purple
Carrot
Lastly, today's Tasty
Tidbit: Drinkable chilled soup is now
a thing. It’s sold under the brand
Zupa Noma only on the West Coast so far. It comes from Sonoma Brands, founded by Jon
Sebastiani, yes, he's related to the Sebastiani wine family.
