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How much are people in the US willing to pay to not have to cook (i.e. for a meal subscription service), broken down by region.
Hi, thanks for asking about the cost people are willing to pay for a meal subscription service in the US. After a ton of digging, I found that US consumers are willing to spend an average of $10.95 per serving per person on meal subscription services. The average price per meal per person among the leading subscription service companies in the US is $8.75 to $12. The most useful sources I found to answer your question are Foodable Network, CivicScience, and Moz App. Below, you will find a more extensive account of my findings as well as an in-depth explanation of how I came to these conclusions.
METHODOLOGY
In order to locate the data you’re looking for, I’ve initially focused my research on recent surveys related to meal subscription services in the US. After a thorough digging, however, it appears that there are no published surveys that cover this particular topic. Although the average cost of meal subscription services is readily available online, information regarding consumers’ preferences is not available. As such, I’ve resorted to identifying the current cost people are paying for this type of service. One of the sources I found reports that price is the most important factor that consumers value when purchasing meal subscription services. This metric should then give us an idea of how much people are willing to pay to not to have to cook. A more detailed overview of my findings will be discussed in the subsequent sections.
AMOUNT PEOPLE ARE WILLING TO PAY FOR A MEAL SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE IN THE US
According to an article published by Salaam Gateway, the global meal subscription industry amounts to roughly $1 billion and is projected to grow into a $3 billion industry by the year 2025. They’ve added that this market is just a portion of a $9 billion industry of online food delivery. Approximately 40% of the meal subscription market corresponds to the US share. With this share and the projected growth rate, we can estimate the current market at $498,300 in annual revenue.
In this Salaam Gateway article, Blue Apron, Plated, and Hello Fresh were named as the key players within the meal subscription service market. This list was expanded by Forbes to also include PeachDish, Terra’s Kitchen, Chef’D, Purple Carrot, Home Chef, Green Chef, and Takeout Kit. Based on the recent information published by Packaged Facts, the number of brands that have introduced a meal subscription services has reached 150 in 2016.
As mentioned earlier, the lack of any pre-compiled data regarding the cost people on each US region is willing to pay for a meal subscription service has led me to perform an analysis using available figures. To do this, I took advantage of a tool created by Moz App which provides the location breakdown of a Twitter account. In our case, I’ve analyzed the consumer location of each major meal subscription in the US. I used this data and compared it with the average costs (per person per meal) for each meal subscription provider in the country. Please note that Moz App limits their free analysis to accounts with less than 25,000 followers. This prevented us from including Blue Apron in the subsequent analysis. To illustrate this process further, the formula that I’ve used is as follows:
Average cost people are willing to pay for each region in the US
= [PeachDish A x PeachDish B] + [HelloFresh A x HelloFresh B] + [Plated A x Plated B]…
Notes:
A: per person per meal cost of each brand
B: percent of people in each region who are subscribing to this brand
In a 2016 Foodable Network article, they’ve noted that “depending on the service, the price per meal per person can start anywhere from $8.75 to $12.” The analysis that I’ve done using the location of the leading meal subscription in the US gives us the following:
Average cost people are willing to pay for each region in the US:
The majority of the respondents of an AYTM survey agreed that price is the most important factor they consider in buying grocery items. Similarly, results of a comprehensive survey organized by Blue Apron reveal that “customers who produced the same dinners in the exact same portions—while doing their own shopping—spent 60 percent more than they would have if they’d just ordered through Blue Apron.” In addition to this, their study shows that only 75% of their ingredients can be purchased at an average grocery store. The value placed by consumers on pricing leads us to the assumption that the current per person per meal costs that subscribers are paying is the same amount they're willing to pay on meal subscription services in general.
Interestingly, results from a recent CivicScience survey has shown that out of the 64% who were familiar with meal subscription services, only 4% reported that they’ve tried using them. Moreover, their data also suggests that only 46% were interested in this type of service. In terms of income, their results show that Americans with more than $100,000 in annual household income are more inclined to avail of meal subscription services. Out of all the participants who are not fond of cooking, only 18% have either tried meal subscription services or are interested in trying them.
In summary, my research has found that US consumers are willing to spend an average of $10.95 per serving per person on meal subscription services. The average price per meal per person among the leading subscription service companies in the US is $8.75 to $12.
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