Company Blog
What’s For Dinner
by Adam Zack — May 3, 2017
At the top is a pile of money
So tonight I was talking to my youngest daughter Alyssa, who lives in Los Angeles, and she asked, “What should I have for dinner?” I remember that this is a frequent topic in our conversations (A couple weeks ago my suggestion was crispy chicken tacos – a rotisserie chicken, tortillas, cheese, onion, lettuce tomato – so delicious). Tonight she asked, “What about those pork cutlets you used to make, with a squeeze of lemon?” (And a nice, simple arugula salad, I added). Do you use panko breadcrumbs? Is the order flour-egg-breadcrumbs? Being a lifelong grocer and food (and wine, let’s not forget that) aficionado, we cooked dinner pretty much every night. The older daughter Holly, despite an early love of McDonalds (DeeDonalds!! DeeDonalds!!!!) quickly became anti-fast food, which was comforting to me because I knew most high school boys would not know how to handle that. So we cooked and they learned and grew to be talented and instinctive in the kitchen. What triggered tonight’s conversation into a blog topic (Me: I’m going to write my blog about you. Alyssa: Noooooooo!!!!) was that millennial are mostly beyond fast food for dinner but still are searching for what to eat. And, more frequently, what to cook? A whole new food industry of ready to assemble and cook has been born, (Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, Home Chef are a few) and mostly it bypasses the grocery store. In fact, it doesn’t just bypass the grocery store; it takes money out of the grocers’ pocket by eliminating their need to shop for dinner. One grocer, Bianchini’s Market in the San Francisco bay area, has made a pre-emptive move to fill the need, partnering with the local meal solution startup 9Organics.com to offer their ready-to-cook meals in a designated section in-store. The need and opportunity are there for the taking, but it takes some forward thinking, a knowledgeable deli manager, innovative packaging and razor sharp branding to get your customers onboard. HMR (home meal replacement, restaurant quality food, and fool-proof (mostly, there will always be some damn fool who finds a way to screw it up) instructions are the mountain to climb. At the top is a pile of money that has your name on it.
Read More – Complacency
Filed Under: Company Blog
So well written Adam! Informative, funny and insightful…blog on!