Perhaps given the volume and variety of food delivery services out there, it was only a matter of time before the great consolidation got underway. Especially when the arena is one as randomly (and as given to somewhat strange pairings) as recipe-ready food delivery.
The New York Times recently managed to snag some headlines when it announced it was doing its own meal-kit delivery service, based on the recipes it features in its pages. Its webpages anyway. Kits on offer will be based off the recipes for the foodies who frequent the NYT’s Cooks site on the web. The Times, despite its putative expertise at delivering things (though we guess they might have fallen out of practice with the relative dearth of physical subscriptions in recent years), is not going it alone in this endeavor, and is in fact doing it as part of a pair-up with the good meal kit delivery professionals over at Chef’d.
And, in the spirit of cooperation, and cashing in on the content provided to an obviously interested group of potential consumers, the Food Network and Instacart have seemingly struck up a similar partnership.
According to Instacart, it will be with the TV channel’s web tools, including Recipe Box and Grocery List, making it easier for Instacart consumers to store and send their premade recipe lists.
Unlike its competitor meal kit services, Instacart is not pre-measuring the amounts and does not offer the preventing food waste benefit that services like Blue Apron advertise as a benefit. But by making it easier for customers to construct the list, Instacart is expanding its purview from just grocery delivery to individuated service that deals in smaller, more specific and more frequent orders.
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