The meal kit has helped better the quality of human life, by helping people save energy and time thereby, channeling more time to getting more in touch with themselves, and other people in their lives.
The modern world is fast, and the amount of free time available for the working class citizen, had been reducing. But for a lot of people around the world, the threat of Coronavirus has given them a chance to slow down and take a second look at their lifestyles. People are trying to salvage as much free time as they can get, and use it efficiently. This has caused changes and modifications to conventional ways, by which people used to live their lives; almost everything that people buy now is ordered online. Of particular interest, is the increasingly popular meal kit; a modern revolution to create balance between convenience and home cooked food, they have impacted the food industry as a whole, and the lives of food consumers. With consumers around the world taking a real hard look at how they consume their food, Meal Kit has presented people with an amazing alternative. Conventional grocery shopping has been frowned upon over the last few weeks since Social Distancing has become a norm around the world and online delivery of prepped food taking a back seat, Meal Kits have once again emerged as the only logical solution. Specifically targeted towards the working class, its competitive edge comes from its convenience and how it saves time.
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The dawn of the meal kit has impacted the food industry, in a couple of ways. Firstly, it caused other major players in the food industry to re-strategize. It is natural to see the meal kit as a threat especially in the current scenario, but considering the rate at which it is gaining popularity and patronage, it is a new window of opportunity now for Restaurants and Grocery Stores. Online food delivery services like GrubHub, UberEats and their partner restaurants, are looking into this potential to generate extra revenue, by adding meal kits as another vertical.
Another major impact on the food industry, is the sales of meal kits, by Quick Service Restaurants like Chick-Fil-A. What made them stand out with Meal Kits, was the convenience and simplicity with which they were offered. QSRs implement meal kits into their drive through food pickup system; emphasizing the element of convenience. Also, as more traditional food companies have begun to embrace the meal kit revolution, more partnerships between restaurants and online food delivery services are being formed. The meal kit business is now worth over $4 billion, and is still expanding. The ability of grocery stores and restaurants to adapt to and take up the meal kit trend is important; by creatively producing their own meal kits or partnering with existing makers, to produce modified meal kits aligned to their customer’s demands.
Another advantage, is the potential investment opportunities the meal kit creates. If the business continues to thrive, experts have projected that interests in buying online food delivery companies would peak in the future, with their values multiplying.
On Consumers
The meal kit appeals to the curious, and convenience-seeking sides of the consumers. As stated above, working class citizens are not looking at grocery shopping a lot over the past few weeks, but still want quality home-cooked food, with restaurant standards. The meal kit has affected the lives of consumers in a number of ways, as would be outlined.
Firstly, meal kits have always helped people conserve energy and time, that would have otherwise been spent grocery shopping. The working class are now seriously looking at Meal Kits and looking at cooking food in general. The importance of the meal kits is realised and has helped secure time, that can now be channeled to other important aspects of life; like family, recreation, and general self-building. This is further encouraged by the fact that meal kit suppliers are always trying to stand out, by offering ingredients for food that is not easily accessible. This has in turn created new opportunities, for people to find out new things they might like, through experimentation.
The meal kit since its creation, has impacted both the food industry, and the individual lives of consumers. It is now keeping restaurants and grocery stores on their toes to remain creative and look at multiple avenues of operating a business. With its increasing acceptance, the meal kit market has potential to further expand. It has served as a source of extra revenue for food companies through sales, partnerships and investment opportunities. It has helped better the quality of human life by saving energy and time, helping people get in touch with themselves, and other people in their lives. However, a criticism in a way for meal kits have been their prices (because it was primarily driven by Meal Kit Companies), which can be quite substantial. With Restaurants now taking a hard look at Meal Kits, the market will be forced to look into prices where every type of consumer can sustain through the purchase of meal kits. The market is staring at a huge change and we are looking at the dawn of a Meal Kit Revolution in the F&B market.
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