With dining out a diminishing option for many consumers for the past year, at-home meal preparation has dramatically surged. And while many home cooks relished the opportunity to dust off and improve upon their culinary skills, kitchen weariness also set in. Not too long after the start of the pandemic and the virtual lockdown that followed for many last year, consumers began looking to their trusted retailers for easy and relatively healthy alternatives to home-cooked meals.
“People are sick of cooking. They’re looking for solutions,” remarked Heather Campbell, vice president, foodservice, at S. Abraham & Sons, a full-line product distributor to Midwest convenience stores. Indeed, according to a study conducted by Datassential late last year, 65% of the consumers questioned said they are “tired of cooking at home.” Kelley Fechner, a director at the food and beverage research firm, said the same study also found that 79% of the respondents were “craving something new.”
Take-home meals from restaurants and groceries have certainly benefited from home-cooking burnout, but so too has the meal-kit business, including direct-to-consumer delivery and kits prepared by restaurants, groceries and even convenience stores. Campbell noted that while meal kits have been available in some groceries for several years, “the pandemic has spurred on sales. Meal solutions in general are on the rise.”
The increased demand has bolstered the bottom lines of the likes of Hello Fresh, the international meal-kit delivery provider, which reported a year-over-year 131% increase in U.S. orders late last year. Kroger’s Home Chef line—available both DTC and in store—meanwhile, is reportedly experiencing near triple-digit year-over-year growth. And The Fresh Market, a specialty grocer, has ramped up its meal-kit packages in the past year, with offerings ranging from “Little Big Meals—ready-to-cook meals to feed a family of four that include an entrée and sides for up to $25—to “Ultimate Steakhouse Dinner Meals” for six—featuring six steaks, two sides, an appetizer platter and dessert, all for $150.
According to Fechner, “we saw an 8% increase in meal options for the direct-to-consumer meal kits in 2020, compared to 2019,” likely a result of the pandemic born-at-home cooking surge. Mike Fogarty, founder and CEO of Choice Market, an upscale c-store chain in Denver, said that while meal kits were the rage a few years ago, demand had softened heading into the pandemic, but “the pandemic has improved the outlook for meal kits.” Choice—which, at press time, was preparing to open its fourth location—had previously prepared meal kits but suspended the offerings because of food waste concerns. Plans are for the new store to offer family meal kits, Fogarty reported, such as street taco kits.
C-Store Opportunity
The opportunity meal kits provide hasn’t been lost on some convenience retailers. Alltown Fresh now offers a variety of pre-assembled meal prep kits for four, priced from $30 for tomato soup and grilled cheese to $150 for a steakhouse dinner, all of which can be prepared and on the table in 30 minutes or so. Available every day at select locations, the offerings were created by Joshua Smith, director of culinary innovation at the Northeastern c-store chain, which focuses on freshly prepared dishes.
In addition to the meal kits, Alltown also offers other pandemic-inspired solutions for busy customers, including its “Fresh Crates” program—crates stocked with fresh produce, meat or pantry staples from local purveyors, and delivered directly to patrons’ cars, priced from $30-$65. And for Thanksgiving last year, the chain offered a “Take Home Holiday Feast,” including a slow-roasted turkey, wild mushroom stuffing, baked sweet potatoes, other sides and gravy, picked up in-store in advance and warmed at home. Prices ranged from $140 for up to six servings to $260 for up to 10 servings.
While c-store meal kits certainly simplify meal preparation for consumers, ready-to-bake and heat-and-eat options make the task even easier. Last May, 7-Eleven began offering its most popular hot food items ready to bake at home. Among the options included are cheese or pepperoni pizza, chicken tenders, buffalo and spicy bone-in wings, breaded boneless wings and Monterrey Jack chicken taquitos. The company recommends a baking time for each of the items of less than 30 minutes.
According to Robin Murphy, senior director of fresh foods at 7-Eleven, the pandemic has disrupted the “on-the-go” behavior of consumers, yet they still want quick and affordable meal options that the whole family will enjoy. “People are home and eating together as families,” she said. “We can give them the convenience of picking up a couple of pizzas and wings to prepare when they are ready to enjoy them.”
The nation’s largest c-store chain isn’t the only one promoting ready-to-heat meals. In a recent NACS Research survey, 24% of convenience retailers surveyed said they’re now putting more focus on ready-to-heat, take-home meals. Kwik Trip launched its “Kitchen Cravings” take-home meals last fall in its near-700 stores in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. “We were working on this way before COVID,” remarked Paul Servais, retail foodservice director. “We had been talking about doing this project for a number of years, and we had been testing in a group of stores for about 18 months,” he noted, but last year the timing appeared right to roll it out chainwide.
Kitchen Cravings offerings are generally packaged as single serves and priced between $4.99-$7.99, Servais said. The meals can be warmed in ovens or microwaves, with complete cooking instructions on the packaging. Among the dishes to emerge as most popular so far are fettuccine alfredo with chicken, meat loaf with mashed potatoes, chicken bacon macaroni and cheese, and spicy chicken penne. Menu creation has been collaborative, Servais noted, with input from corporate chefs, the greater Kwik Trip team, focus groups and customers via social media. “My favorite part is getting together on Fridays at lunchtime in the test kitchen and trying the latest creations,” he remarked. New meals will be introduced throughout 2021.
Kitchen Cravings is a big focus for Kwik Trip, Servais added, with advertising support including billboards, radio, television and social media. “This has all our resources right now,” he said. “Our goal is not to be just a breakfast and lunch destination but a dinner destination as well.”
‘On-Demand’ Meal Kits
In addition to its anticipated family meal kits, Choice Market, meanwhile, now offers on-demand meal kits as a function of its mobile app, launched last summer. The app’s recipes function allows users to peruse recipes contributed by local influencers and at-home cooks and simply click on the needed ingredients, add them to their carts and checkout. Orders can be picked up in store or delivered via Choice’s native delivery service. “The idea was to help showcase some of our local vendors and offer customers some easy meal solutions and grocery items,” Fogarty explained. “We wanted to help time-strapped folks, including those who may not have the culinary skills to produce a delicious and healthy meal.” Compared with pre-made meal kits, the on-demand offerings cut down on food waste, the retailer said.
According to Fechner, “Millennials are above-average consumers of meal kits,” a data point of special interest to c-store operators. She said that while millennial consumers would likely be attracted to meal kits found in c-stores, it’s unclear whether meal-kit offerings would help to drive members of the consumer group to c-stores. In addition to consumer opportunity, meal kits and take-and-bake options may also provide c-store operators with daypart opportunity, as Servais pointed out. Fechner agreed, although she noted that dinnertime c-store shoppers are more likely to lean toward “heat-and-eat options over raw-to-cook,” because of the time needed to prepare.
Like most emerging opportunities, meal kits also present challenges for c-stores. For one thing, many consumers aren’t familiar with meal kits. According to Fechner, 67% of consumers have never subscribed to a meal-kit delivery service, and for those who have, some feel that the packages don’t provide good value, or they contain too many unfamiliar ingredients. Campbell pointed to the limited refrigerator space c-stores confront and suggested that frozen “one-pot” meals may be a better offering for some operators than meal kits.
For c-stores venturing into the meal-kit space, Fechner advises operators to make offerings affordable, use mostly familiar ingredients in the kits and showcase both raw and heat-and-eat meal types. Campbell added that any offerings billed as meal solutions need to be properly merchandised. “Make sure customers can see them,” she said.
With nearly half of all consumers having purchased a meal kit from a grocery store, according to Fechner, “c-stores now seem like a good option,” she said. Indeed, Choice Market’s Fogarty said the food packages are not unlike the common c-store practice of foodservice bundling, such as salty snacks with a sandwich. “But with meal kits, you’re bundling ingredients like protein and produce,” he said.