Meal subscription services were a surprise stand-out in 2015, representing a $1 billion industry in 2015, according to Technomic (via
Restaurant Business Online). Services such as Blue Apron, Plated, and Home Chef are aiming to capture consumers attention by providing healthy meal plans, composed of high quality ingredients, delivered direct to consumers. With the meal subscription industry set to grow even more in 2016, is now the time for restaurants to move beyond take-out and get in the game?
The appeal of meal subscription services is easy to see, they take the planning and guesswork out of meals, but because you actually cook the food at home, they also give you a level of ingredient control and transparency that restaurants can't match. Whereas it takes a good deal of effort to come up with a whole meals worth of tasty recipes, it's much easier to walk into a restaurant and have someone else do the creative and prep work. Meal subscriptions aim to hit restaurant levels of creativity, while providing the tools and ingredients for people to make the meals at home.
Restaurant Business Online reports that some restaurants, such as fast casual outlet Freshii, are debuting their own meal subscription services. Restaurants have the benefit of already having kitchens and supply chains in place, especially chain units with broad reach. Freshii's offerings are premade, you don't have to do any prep work or cooking. I'm having trouble seeing how this is different from regular take-out, other than the fact that you pre-pay (and perhaps get a discounted rate for doing so), and at least in the case of Freshi, they provide 3 meals a day plus some snacks with their subscription model.
Restaurants already have access to the ingredients necessary to make great meals, and already have the recipes on hand. Turning that into a meal subscription would be a matter of getting the recipes and ingredients into the hands of customers, and letting them take over as chef (or with Freshii's model, packaging pre-made meals so they stay fresh). For programs that provide ready made, pre-cooked meals, the real challenge will be competing with your own take-out menu. Is it a meal subscription, or a bulk discount for eating every meal from the same restaurant? Restaurant operators are going to have to get creative to get in on this game.
What do you think? Is your restaurant considering a meal subscription type program, or do you think it's a trend that will pass? Let us know what you think via Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
Source:
Restaurant Business Online
Tablebases.com
