Home Chef Uses Streaming to Win Over Consumers

11/5/2020

The Home Chef-Peacock partnership comes at a time when cold temperatures and rising COVID rates are driving much of the country back inside.

As the meal-kit industry continues to make pandemic gains, new promotional efforts could help companies in that space win new customers. The latest example of that comes from Home Chef, owned by The Kroger Co. — an effort that involves streaming.

Home Chef and NBC's new Peacock streaming service have teamed up to offer $60 off Home Chef membership plus one month of Peacock Premium to households that sign up for Home Chef before Nov. 30. The partnership comes at a time when cold temperatures and rising COVID rates are driving much of the country back inside and around dinner tables. Families across the country are also thinking about the upcoming holidays and how to celebrate safely, and that could make this new offer appealing to consumers, according to Home Chef.

The promotion follows another partnership involving Chicago-based Home Chef.

In late August, the company said it would team with Wyndham Rewards to enable members of the hospitality loyalty program in the United States to earn 2,500 Wyndham Rewards points when they order their first box of meals, plus 500 Wyndham Rewards points on every box thereafter. Such partnerships represent the latest potential growth vehicle for the pandemic-led resurrection of the meal-kit industry.

That’s not all that the meal kit industry is doing to gain and hold onto customers during this extraordinary year. Celebrity chefs are increasingly becoming part of the meal-kit offering, with a recent example of that trend coming from Blue Apron.

The New York-based company is partnering with Seattle Chef Edouardo Jordan, the winner of two James Beard Awards and chef-owner of acclaimed restaurants JuneBaby, Salare and Lucinda Grain Bar, to create an exclusive meal-kit offering for its customers. Jordan's recipes will be available beginning Nov. 23, starting with a Thanksgiving menu and followed by additional recipes for three consecutive weeks.

Cincinnati-based Kroger employs nearly half a million associates who serve 9 million-plus customers daily through a seamless digital shopping experience and in 2,757 retail food stores under a variety of banner names. The company is No. 3 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2020 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.