Amazon Sets the Table for Its Own Meal Kit Delivery Service The company is hoping to elbow out upstarts such as Blue Apron.
By Leena Rao
This story originally appeared on Fortune Magazine
Amazon may be the latest tech company to try to cash in on the meal kit frenzy. According to Business Insider, the ecommerce giant is partnering with Tyson Foods to create a meal kit service through Amazon Fresh, its grocery delivery arm.
Meal kits are the latest craze for technology and media companies. Blue Apron, Plated, Chef'd, Home Chef, Munchery, HelloFresh, and many others all offer the ability to order recipes and ingredients to your door weekly. Even The New York Times, in partnership with Chef'd, is launching its own branded meal kit service.
The apparent leader in the space, Blue Apron, now ships eight million meals a month through its subscription service.
According to Tyson Foods CEO Donald Smith, Amazon's meal kits will be called Tyson Taste Makers, and will be using Amazon Fresh to source ingredients and deliver these to consumers' doorsteps.
It would make sense for Amazon to start a meal delivery service, especially since it would be a natural extension of Amazon Fresh. Amazon's grocery delivery service costs $299 per year, and delivers thousands of grocery products from fruits and vegetables to food from local merchants within a day or less to customers in metropolitan areas within northern and southern Calif., as well as New York City and Seattle.
Amazon is also building a vast shipping network, which would allow it to to get perishable meal kits to consumer's doors quickly and efficiently.
Fortune reached out to Amazon for comment and will update this story accordingly.
