About a month ago I wrote about Amazon’s intention of acquiring Whole Foods and its intent to make grocery shopping more convenient by allowing customers to order their groceries online and picking them up drive-through style fifteen minutes later. While the deal with Whole Foods is still pending, Amazon is going full steam ahead with its plans to cash in on the food industry. Well, full-steam on what seems to be a trial run, at least.
Described as “We do the prep. You be the chef.”, Amazon Meal Kits will provide customers with recipes and all the ingredients needed to prepare a meal at home. Seattle resident and Amazon Prime member Josh Chadd is one of the few Amazon Prime customers to be able to take advantage of this early Amazon Meal Kits release. He told GeekWire that the meals started showing up in his AmazonFresh search results a few weeks ago. A customer of similar services such as Blue Apron and HelloFresh, Chadd decided to give the Amazon Meal Kits a try. He wasn’t disappointed.
He ordered the Steak Au Poivre and prepared it hoping for an enjoyable dinner with his wife. Chadd gave the ingredients a big thumbs up, noting that they were very fresh (more so than what he had come to expect from other services) and that the meat was a nice cut and at least USDA choice quality. This particular kit retails for $18.99, and Chadd rated it at “…a 9 out of 10 for any meal I’ve made at home even with my own ingredients.”
There are currently 17 different meals available, including Roast Chicken with Tarragon Mushroom Sauce, Tacos Al Pastor with Pork, vegetarian meals and others. It’s clear that Amazon is seriously trying to impress with these new offering, and reviews seem to indicate that so far, it has. This could be bad news for the current leading box-to-table company Blue Apron, whose shares have taken a serious dive in the past week.
It isn’t yet clear if or when Amazon will be making the Meal Kits available to more or all Amazon Prime members, but it currently does offer meal kits from third parties, including Tyson Tastemakers and Martha & Marley Spoon. Amazon Prime Fresh members can view and order those meal kits here.