Walmart’s Jet.com will serve Blue Apron meal-kits starting Monday for New York City.
Jet.com will feature four Blue Apron meal kits. The e-commerce firm's angle in this deal seems to be expanding its footprints in the grocery space crowded by players like FreshDirect, Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Now service, Ahold Delhaize’s Peapod.
Blue Apron, on the other hand, apparently hopes the collaboration with Jet.com would give new fodder to its meal delivery business which is suffering from cratering sales. The number of orders for its signature boxes of food to make home-cooked meals plunged 24 percent in Q2 compared with the same period last year. Its existing subscription-based arrangement requires customers to order meals well in advance. But the tie-up with Jet.com would potentially allow Blue Apron’s products to reach customers at short-notice and without them having to subscribe to Blue Apron separately. According to the companies, the Blue Apron meal kits on Jet.com will each serve two people and can be prepared in about 30 minutes.