The service claims to be extra-convenient due to users' ability to choose among several local places for pickup or different windows for delivery – or even to purchase the ingredients from a list in-store on their own. And all meals are fast and easy to prepare, with instructions available on the eMeals app or website. The Quick & Healthy plan, for instance, offers dinner entrees with no more than eight ingredients, as well as side dishes that go from stove to table in 30 minutes or less.
“Over the past decade, we’ve provided millions of weekly meal plans to consumers across the country, which naturally led to our expansion into the meal-kit space,” said eMeals CEO Forrest Collier. “Because of our experience and our use of grocery delivery and pickup partners, no other meal kit provider has the same food-style variety, depth of recipes and shopping affordability. We are the perfect solution for people who want the convenience of meal kits, but with lower cost and more personalized choices.”
eMeals plans to add more retailers and delivery services to its list of partners, and is willing to partner with new ones to also provide pickup or delivery for the service.
Increased Exposure Needed
Meal kits are a big business today, exploding into a $1.5 billion market over the past five years, according to Rockville, Md.-based Packaged Facts. That number is projected to double in the same timespan to come.
However, with an arguably oversaturated market for delivery services and grocers rolling out their own kits – along with Amazon introducing its own kits and likely to sell them in Whole Foods stores, which it now owns – it's becoming vital for delivery services to seek added exposure and captive audiences inside brick-and-mortar stores, especially as shoppers seek to purchase products wherever, whenever and however they desire. Services that have already partnered with brick-and-mortar retailers include Purple Carrot with Whole Foods, a partnership that complements Whole Foods' natural and organic model with Purple Carrot's commitment to plant-based eating, and Gelson's Markets with Chef'd, a partnership that complements Gelson's upscale model with Chef'd's gourmet, chef-developed products.