Will Meal Kit Mania Kill the Restaurant Business?

When Amazon entered the meal kit arena it was another blow to both the grocery sector and restaurant sector.  Today meal subscription services the ilk of Blue Apron, Hello Fresh and Plated are growing faster than any retail food sector before according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru®.  

Technomic recently reported that meal kit companies are pantry busters as they deliver fresh, pre-prepped ingredients (plus instructions) to be cooked by consumers at home thus consumer do not need to visit a grocery store represented a $1 billion business in 2015. However they are projecting US sales alone will grow tenfold over the next five years that takes them to $ 10 billion in 2020.

Regular readers of this blog know that our Grocerant Guru® documented consumer customer migration from restaurants to the grocerant niche filled with Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food back in 2011.  Then he made many presentations talking about the migration he tag as “The 64 inch HDTV Syndrome”.  

That $10 billion dollar number will put a big dent in both restaurant customer count numbers and grocery store numbers as consumers are finding new non-tradtional locations to obtain grocerant niche fresh prepared food including drug stores and liquor stores.

The Technomic study noted that “47 percent of consumers said they would reduce their restaurant takeout and delivery spending if they subscribed to a meal kit … and Thirty-seven percent said they would cut back on in-restaurant dining”.

Today legacy food retail companies must be aware that as Bill Bishop recently stated while on a grocerant tour with our own Grocerant Guru® “today the rate of change is faster than ever before and accelerating”. Success does leave clues and one clue is consumer continue to migrate from legacy retail foodservice sectors for the Grocerant niche. 

Since 1991 retail food consultancy Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche for more on Foodservice Solutions® or for a Grocerant Scorecard visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant, www.FoodserviceSolutions.us   Email: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us