According to TheStreet, some of the meal kits are under the Takeout Kit and Home Chef brands. Each meal kit company is still responsible for fulfilling the orders, while sources say that Walmart will get a referral fee and a small commission.
The Sunnyvale, California-based Takeout Kit was the first meal kit company to be featured on Walmart.com on Dec. 3, and Home Chef kits were made available the next day.
There are now nearly 30 meal kits on the site, including Takeout Kit’s global cuisine offerings with two-month shelf lives, such as Chicken Tikka Masala with Rice for four, which costs $35, and German Beer Garden Spatzle, also $35.
Chicago-based Home Chef offers more traditional American cuisine on the site, including the Everyday Supper collection that serves three meals for two people each, for a total of $59.70. The $79.60 Family Favorites box, which includes Tex-Mex Turkey Taco Salad and Salmon with Brown-Butter Tomato Relish is already out of stock, as are four other Home Chef products.
“This is a low-risk model for Walmart to see if their eCommerce shoppers will have an interest in meal kits, and if so, which ones are the most interesting to them,” said Michael McDevitt, the CEO of Terra’s Kitchen, in September. “There’s no infrastructure risk, no marketing risk.”
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According to previous reports, the meal kit market is worth more than $2 billion, so it makes sense that big players want to get in on the act. Albertsons recently acquired meal kit company Plated for $200 million, and Amazon is already eyeing the market after it bought Whole Foods. This past spring, Campbell Soup Company invested $10 million in Chef’d, and Peapod.com sells meal kits that are backed by Conagra Brands.
