Blue Apron has begun selling meal kits through Walmart’s Jet.com, marking the first e-tailer to offer its meal solutions.
Blue Apron Holdings Inc. said Monday that millions of households across New York City and in Hoboken and Jersey City, N.J., can now order from a selection of four Blue Apron meal kits on Jet and receive them via same-day or next-day delivery through Jet’s City Grocery service.
The companies said Blue Apron will be a priority partner in Jet’s City Grocery offering. That will give the New York-based meal kit provider a dedicated branded experience on the e-commerce site, including a rotating selection of recipes catering specifically to Jet customers.
Each meal kit serves two people, and the meals take 20 to 30 minutes to prepare. Blue Apron’s first recipes sold through Jet include seared steak and peperonata with fregola sarda pasta and grana padano cheese (28 oz.) for $22.99, dukkah-spiced beef and couscous with tahini-dressed broccoli (41 oz.) for $20.99; togarashi popcorn chicken with sweet chili slaw and jasmine rice (32 oz.) for $18.99; and Italian farro bowl with roasted vegetables and mozzarella (32 oz.) for $16.99.
“Teaming up with Jet enables us to dynamically serve the lifestyle of metropolitan consumers, who will now be able to conveniently fill up their online shopping carts with high-quality Blue Apron meals that can be cooked in 30 minutes or less while shopping for other everyday needs,” Blue Apron CEO Brad Dickerson said in a statement. “This exciting launch is another step forward in our channel expansion strategy and reflects the strength of the capabilities we are developing to readily support a variety of opportunities to broaden our access to consumers.”
Blue Apron made its retail store debut this past spring at 15 Costco Wholesale stores in the Pacific Northwest and the San Francisco Bay area. The pilot included an exclusive selection of four-serving meal kits priced at $24.99, with recipes rotated every three to four weeks. At the time, Dickerson said Blue Apron would pursue more partnerships and experiment with different offerings and price points to broaden its market base, adding that the company had “only scratched the surface of how the Blue Apron Meal experience can engage with consumers.”
In May, Blue Apron kicked off a series of pop-up events in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, Dallas and Minneapolis. And earlier this month, the company began offering an array of two- and four-serving meal kits for on-demand delivery in New York City through pilots with the Grubhub and Seamless online and mobile platforms.
For Hoboken-based Jet, the addition of Blue Apron meals brings another high-profile offering to its City Grocery service launched in September.
“We are thrilled to be the first e-commerce retailer to offer the Blue Apron on-demand kits as part of the newly launched Jet City Grocery experience,” Jet President Simon Belsham said Monday. “The Blue Apron on-demand kits give our urban customers a convenient and enjoyable way to prepare home-cooked meals for their family. A crucial part of Jet’s strategy is to provide valuable services that seamlessly integrate into people’s daily lives, and Blue Apron is a great example of this.”
Tailored to New York City residents, City Grocery enables customers to order groceries, daily staples and other merchandise via Jet.com and receive them the same or next day in scheduled three-hour delivery windows. The product mix also caters to New Yorkers with brands such as Bedford Cheese Shop, Pat LaFrieda meats, Orwashers Bakery, Big Gay Ice Cream and Just Bagels. Next on tap for the service are craft, ultra-craft, domestic and premium imported beer, Jet said when announcing the program.
In July, Jet confirmed plans to open an e-commerce fulfillment center in the borough of the Bronx this fall. The e-tailer said the facility will process orders for the City Grocery service.
