Dive Brief:
- Meal kit startup Salted has teamed up with Whole Foods and other grocers to sell meal kits inside stores, rather than going the more traditional direct-to-consumer model, according to Tech Crunch.
- Salted plans to be in 2,000 stores by the end of next year.
- Each Salted meal kit includes seven to nine ingredients, and is packaged in a 4-inch-by-4-inch cube. Each kit also includes a recipe and a link to a how-to video.
Dive Insight:
When Salted first launched last summer, it came out with its SaltedEats product, similar to that of meal-kit delivery staple Blue Apron, only without the component of a subscription. The company found that the direct-to-consumer model wasn’t working for them and started making deals with stores to carry the products.
According to a recent Harris Poll, 25% of adults purchased a meal kit in 2016 and 70% of meal kit purchasers have continued to buy them.
Today’s starved-for-time consumers need convenience more than ever, and picking up a meal kit at the end of a shopping trip is an easy way to quickly get dinner on the table. It only makes sense for a meal-kit company to partner with grocery retailers.
Whole Foods is jumping on the craze with gusto. In addition to its new Salted deal, it also has a deal in place with Purple Carrot to sell its meal kits in select stores. Other retailers are experimenting with their own branded meal kits — Kroger and Publix being two of the latest.
Some analysts believe that the high prices of meal kits will discourage consumers once the fad dies down, but others see the segment as a lucrative business opportunity that will only broaden in the years ahead.