Concept: Meal prep service for working adult lunches
2. Hypothesis:
Families in the United States are busier than ever before and often fall into the trap of eat out for many meals. Although restaurants are making strides toward healthier options, they are significantly more expensive than unhealthy options and are often not feasible. We have meal services for dinners (ie. Blue Apron, Hello Fresh) but nothing for lunches.
The who: Families in the United States
The what: They are eating out for lunch daily, out of convenience, not desire
The why: They do not have time to prepare the food themselves
3. Hypothesis Boundaries:
Busy families, namely those with two working parents, do not have the time to prepare healthy lunches for themselves and their families daily and resort to eating fast food. There are probably adults who would use this service even if they were not working, as it would save time and still allow them to cook a bit. Adults without children (or without children at home) may also benefit for the convenience of this. Meal prep kits can often be used to encourage people who follow a stricter diet as well to stay on track.
I believe lunches are the only area that has not been addressed by other meal prep services. Many have already accomplished dinner. Lunches, however, are a different need as they may be able to be done in batches to separate meals for people who are apart during the day and then return home for dinner.
Some may avoid packing lunches because they dislike cooking or are intimidated by cooking. Those who live alone may struggle to find the ingredients to make healthy food for themselves without the fresh ingredients going to waste.
4. Potential Clients:
Susan Bach has no children and works full-time as a paralegal. She says she often packs her lunch for work to avoid having to leave her desk and during her lunch break. Although this is her intention, she often does not pack enough food to keep her satisfied and ultimately leaves to go grab something from the cafeteria in her office building. She believes she packs relatively healthy foods to eat every day but often just grabs the leftovers from dinner the night before. In general, she will cook as a means to an end but does not particularly like it and ideally would prefer to spend less than 30 minutes cooking each meal.
Glen Barnes has adult children and works full time as a business owner. He drives all day for work and never packs any food for lunch, instead he makes a stop somewhere along his drive. He is not a picky eater and often makes his meal choice based on convenience. He does not like cooking very much but values eating good food and often spends more money than he would like to by eating out all the time. He also would like to make an effort towards healthier meals than he currently eats. He currently does use meal kit services for dinner and has been very satisfied. These kits have allowed his family to cook at home without the stress of meal planning or picking out all the ingredients necessary. He also enjoys that it does not waste as much fresh food as they did when they would purchase groceries on their own. He was unconcerned about the price of these kits— they have been “well worth it” to his family.
Caitlyn Parente is a full time college student with no children. She is busy on campus all day, everyday and often struggles to eat midday, as that would require stopping her day to find food. She frequently misses this meal out of the hassle that it is to make a decision about what and where to eat lunch. She is neutral about cooking, often finding it an overwhelming project to begin. Her family has used a meal prep service occasionally to learn new recipes after getting themselves in a self-proclaimed “food rut”. She does not adopt these practices for herself as it does not fit in her budget to purchase these kits. She also cooks for one person typically and finds that ingredients often get wasted, which bothers her both ethically and financially.
Angie Stevenson is a mother of two and works full-time. She feels easily stressed by cooking but credits that to the time of day that she usually is in the kitchen— in the morning before work as she packs lunches for her children and in the evenings after work rushing to get dinner on the table. She does occasionally spend some time on Sunday to prepare various dishes for the week and finds that this can help her stay on track with eating healthier meals, if she has the time to do it. She normally eats lunch at her desk in her office and will either pack something or grab food from a quick-serve restaurant near the office. She knows a few Registered Dietitians personally and their recipes and tips are helpful to her. She does not use the meal service kits often, just fulfilled her trial and canceled. Although she enjoyed the simplicity, the cost per person for her family of four did not seem very worth it to her.
Megan Lonergan is a mother of a young child and works full time as a surgical technician. She enjoys cooking and trying new recipes but does not have the time for it that she used to. She works long shifts at the hospital, usually 12 hours, and on those days packs all three of her meals. Although this is only a few days per week, the planning for that is cumbersome and she often is disappointed with what she has brought with her once meal times rolls around. Her breaks are very structured and does not allow her to time to leave and grab something else to eat, except for the hospital cafeteria that she does not have interest in eating at. Her husband also works nontraditional hours at a logistics manager for a manufacturing company, and leaves the house well before her. She does not know what he does for his midday meal but believes he likely eats out and brings some snack style foods. She does have dietary restrictions that have encouraged her to get better about cooking at home as eating out can be difficult.
5. Opportunity Reflection:
This opportunity is more widespread than I had originally thought, as I find many people are interested in the concept and people are all very familiar with meal prep kits as is. In hearing how these potential customers have interacted with the existing services, it seems that people often use their membership trial and then cancel after the promotional offer has been used. I am not very surprised many people are moderately interested in cooking but more often are frustrated by the process. I also had not thought that people may just skip the meal altogether to avoid finding something worthwhile to eat or to avoid having to leave their office on busy days. My assumption was that the “worst case scenario” was picking up inexpensive but unhealthy food.
