The Washington Post has a story about how meal kit businesses - which saw strong growth during the pandemic, with some of them rescued from likely death by a surge in people cooking and eating at home - are struggling to remain relevant as the nation starts to put Covid-19 in the rear view mirror.
According to the story, "Meal-kit delivery giants like HelloFresh, Sunbasket and Blue Apron are faring worse or dealing with much slower growth, especially compared to 2020 record highs, partly due to fierce competition from more than a dozen newer companies like Freshly, EveryPlate and others. Plus, several grocery stores, like Kroger, are also getting in on the action, with its purchase of Home Chef. Competition is also coming from fully reopened restaurants hustling to regain customers, as well as delivery companies like DoorDash and Uber Eats."
At the same time, the story says, "rising inflation across most categories of food has meant more families are increasingly budget-conscious, which means cutting back on meal kits."
- KC's View:
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The question that occurs to me is whether these meal kit companies, from the moment that they saw business start to improve because of the pandemic, started preparing for a post-pandemic world.
The betting here is that for the most part, they didn't.
