Whole Foods should be crushing delivery meal kits

In an effort to get healthy I find myself naturally spending time at Whole Foods. I have yet to use their “shop for you service” but I do notice more and more bags awaiting pickup from online made sales when I checkout.  I have also noticed expanded use of the Whole Foods app by in-store-patrons, probably after coupons or sales, a worthy endeavor when shopping at Whole Paycheck Food.

I looked into it a bit and learned that Whole Foods also offers a delivery food service, which got me thinking.  I didn’t know about this service, and I was left a little disappointed that they aren’t better utilizing the infrastructure they already have in place. Getting your inventory into an online ordering platform is probably the biggest hurdle here and it’s already done.

So why isn’t Whole Foods getting into the meal kit business?

Well technically they are as their parent company Amazon is testing meal kit delivery in the city of Seattle. I guess I’m just surprised that it has taken so long for Amazon or Whole Foods to get in the game. I’m mostly disappointed because my wife and I like doing meal kits but getting them from a local store we trust would be so much more convenient. It wouldn’t be hard for Whole Foods to get started either.  As I said the biggest hurdle is probably the online inventory.  The second biggest hurdle would probably be portions. As you can see below, Blue Apron’s kits come with the exact portions you need to complete the recipe.  This is probably a big undertaking to get right. 

A simple next step to get in the game

This mailer came to our house the other day.  It was actually a rather nice, and free, little mag with some cute articles and nice recipes. As you can see below the recipes are unique and fun and everything you need is sold in Whole Foods (obviously). So why aren’t there quick order links or even QR codes so you can have the food delivered to you in an hour. One thing that none of the meal kits can do is same-day-delivery.  They can’t even attempt to compete there. Whole Foods on the other hand already offers it, and in fact offers delivery with in an hour in some states. We are so close to having real-time gratification with nearly everything we buy.  I would love to live in a world where I can say “Okay Google, order me everything I need to make Whole Foods World’s Greatest French Toast” and have it delivered within an hour. While real-time-gratification may be a bit out of our grasp for a Whole Foods first step, there is no reason that they can’t take the products that listed specifically on these recipe pages and make me a shopping list, or even have the items waiting for me when I arrive. Looking forward to this idea becoming a reality.