Meal Kits and Grocery Squaring off as Consumers Weigh Cost Against Convenience

Eating has changed more in 20-odd months than in the prior 20 years. Delivery aggregators became the pandemic pantry for millions and grocery stores continued to do brisk business despite the COVID-19 contagion.

Meanwhile, meal kits helped bridge the freshness of grocery with the convenience of delivery for real home-cooked meals — without the need for shopping or prep.

With current inflation levels obvious after a trip to the grocery store, consumers who’ve been living on delivery since early 2020 are weighing these three competing options, with meal kits starting to make more economic sense to many consumers seeking both sustenance and savings.

In a comparison, CNET reported, “Many cheap meal kits have easy recipes, starting at as little as five bucks a serving — even less if you snag a sign-up offer. Dinnerly and EveryPlate, both of which clock in at $5 a serving, are the most budget-friendly outfits.

“There are also midrange options such as HelloFresh and Home Chef that may cost a few bucks more per serving, but they allow for more customization and have more recipes to choose from each week.”

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Financial consulting firm Ramsey Solutions recently did an analysis of costs for meal kit recipes versus the ingredients for the same dishes purchased from grocery stores. It revealed that the more complex the dish, the more competitive meal kits become.

In that analysis, a meal kit pizza averaged nearly $40 for four servings compared to the grocery store version, which came in at just under $24 for four servings. However, the “Meatloaf With Sweet Potatoes and Green Beans” meal kit, for example, beat grocery pricing by a small margin.

There’s always a premium attached to convenience, so meal kit math works — or doesn’t — depending on a swathe of variables, ranging from eating habits to frequency to dietary restrictions.

Progressive Grocer reported that meal kit “providers know that they face tough challenges, pandemic or not, and the race is on to acquire more affluent customers, better hold onto existing ones and find the right products for a company’s particular customer base.”

Focusing on higher income households is one approach that meal kit firm Blue Apron is pursuing, according to Progressive Grocer, noting that “Blue Apron has since made more effort to land consumers with higher incomes, along with increasing its spending on brand awareness.”

The report adds that Blue Apron built on those efforts, along with pandemic-driven trends, to grow sales.

See also: Blue Apron, Aspiration Team on Credit Card With Green Rewards