• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Bars, bowling alleys, and movie theaters cost too much to run and visit. Americans have run out of places to hang out and we're paying with our health

2

Sam Altman says a 'cool use case' for ChatGPT is a daily AI podcast about your kids. The replies were brutal

3

Electric air taxis are finally ready for takeoff

1

Bars, bowling alleys, and movie theaters cost too much to run and visit. Americans have run out of places to hang out and we're paying with our health

2

Sam Altman says a 'cool use case' for ChatGPT is a daily AI podcast about your kids. The replies were brutal

3

Electric air taxis are finally ready for takeoff
TechA Boom With A View

Meal Kits Are the New Daily Deals

By
Erin Griffith
Erin Griffith
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Erin Griffith
Erin Griffith
Down Arrow Button Icon
May 5, 2016, 5:05 PM ET
Courtesy of Munchery
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Remember 2011, when Hearst, Meredith, The New York Times and dozens of major newspapers all launched their own Groupon-style daily deals services?

“Should Groupon be worried?” Ad Age asked.

The services didn’t last long. TimesSelect, the Times’ option, is no longer available. I could only find one survivor: the San Diego Union Tribune. (Singles Hawaiian Luau Party anyone?)

Now it’s happening again, but with meal kits. Startups selling ingredients in a box have surged in popularity in recent years. Blue Apron now ships eight million meals a month through its subscription service. (At $10 each, that’s $960 million in annual revenue.) The company is valued at $2 billion, which is higher than Groupon’s (GRPN) current market value.

The category is crowded, with Plated, Chef’d, Home Chef, Munchery, HelloFresh, and many others all offering comparable services. Meal kits are so hot that the Times even lost its famous food columnist, Mark Bittman, to a meal kit startup called Purple Carrot.

Today the New York Times (NYT) announced it has partnered with startup Chef’d to sell meal kits to readers based on recipes from its NYT Cooking section. Alice Ting, vice president of brand development, licensing and syndication told Bloomberg the Times expects the meal kit service to be at least as big as the Times’ travel unit, where the paper’s foreign correspondents act as tour guides in places like Iran and Cuba.

Subscribe to Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily email about the technology industry.

The Times’ foray into meal kits follows Men’s Health, which partnered with Chef’d for a similar deal last year, and Real Simple and Cooking Light, which partnered with Plated in 2014. The Plated deal has already ended. (Real Simple and Cooking Light are owned by Fortune parent company Time Inc.)

You can’t knock the print media companies for experimenting. The most valuable thing they have going for them is their brands. Revenue from digital subscriptions and ads has yet to offset declining print revenue, so it only makes sense that media companies want to turn their brands into new sources of income. In addition to tourism, meal kits, and daily deals, the Times has launched conferences, a wine club and an online shop.

Meanwhile, glossy magazines have tried for years to integrate e-commerce into their content online. They’re already telling readers what to buy and where – why not just sell it directly? But it’s never that simple, and most forays into e-commerce have failed. The most notable one is the merger of Lucky magazine with Beachmint, a subscription apparel startup. The merger failed spectacularly and the company shut down.

Related: Here’s the Problem With Trendy E-Commerce Businesses

Meal kit mania may fade in a few years, and when it does, the newspapers and magazines will quietly tiptoe away from the business, just like they did with daily deals. The question will be whether the well-funded meal kit startups can figure out a way to keep thriving.

Update: This article has been updated to include the latest number of meals Blue Apron sells per month.

About the Author
By Erin Griffith
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • TikTok icon
  • YouTube icon

Latest in Tech

The AI race isn’t about models, it’s about infrastructure—and the U.S. is still far ahead
CommentarySemiconductors
The AI race isn’t about models, it’s about infrastructure—and the U.S. is still far ahead
By Alex CapriAugust 4, 2026
2 hours ago
Alex Karp, wearing a hat, gives a peace sign
AIpalantir
Palantir CEO Alex Karp celebrates 93% revenue growth as stock soars after blockbuster earnings: ‘For the first time people believe us’
By Preston ForeAugust 3, 2026
7 hours ago
Palantir CEO Alex Karp
AIpalantir
Palantir shares jump 13% as U.S. AI demand sends revenue soaring past targets
By Preston ForeAugust 3, 2026
10 hours ago
Exclusive: Former OpenAI exec Fidji Simo discusses her battle with POTS and her startup’s plans to cure it with AI and 3,500 vials of blood (so far)
HealthOpenAI
Exclusive: Former OpenAI exec Fidji Simo discusses her battle with POTS and her startup’s plans to cure it with AI and 3,500 vials of blood (so far)
By Emily ForliniAugust 3, 2026
11 hours ago
A physical Bitcoin coin held between an index finger and a thumb.
CryptoBitcoin
Bitcoin owners rocked by $116 million hack: What we know about the Coldcard exploit
By Camila Grigera NaónAugust 3, 2026
14 hours ago
broker
InvestingMarkets
Wall Street bulls are starting to admit the earnings bubble is real—and the 60/40 portfolio may be the first casualty
By Nick LichtenbergAugust 3, 2026
15 hours ago

Most Popular

Bars, bowling alleys, and movie theaters cost too much to run and visit. Americans have run out of places to hang out and we're paying with our health
North America
Bars, bowling alleys, and movie theaters cost too much to run and visit. Americans have run out of places to hang out and we're paying with our health
By Catherina GioinoAugust 2, 2026
2 days ago
Sam Altman says a 'cool use case' for ChatGPT is a daily AI podcast about your kids. The replies were brutal
AI
Sam Altman says a 'cool use case' for ChatGPT is a daily AI podcast about your kids. The replies were brutal
By Holly Van Leuven and Morning BrewAugust 3, 2026
19 hours ago
Electric air taxis are finally ready for takeoff
Magazine
Electric air taxis are finally ready for takeoff
By Alexei OreskovicAugust 3, 2026
24 hours ago
The labor market could become so backward that the economy will have to shed jobs to keep unemployment steady
Economy
The labor market could become so backward that the economy will have to shed jobs to keep unemployment steady
By Jason MaAugust 1, 2026
2 days ago
Current price of oil as of August 3, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of August 3, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerAugust 3, 2026
20 hours ago
Wall Street bulls are starting to admit the earnings bubble is real—and the 60/40 portfolio may be the first casualty
Investing
Wall Street bulls are starting to admit the earnings bubble is real—and the 60/40 portfolio may be the first casualty
By Nick LichtenbergAugust 3, 2026
15 hours ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.