What happens when Grocery, Ghost Kitchens, and Delivery collide?!! 🏪😸🥡🚗

In March, Walmart announced a partnership with a company called Ghost Kitchen Brands, that would open up as many as 50 ghost kitchens in locations in both Canada and the U.S. by the end of the year. Kroger made a similar announcement last October that it was trialing a similar concept at an Indianapolis and Columbus location.

“Every player in the food industry is looking to expand their share of stomach,” said Jason Goldberg, chief commerce strategy officer at Publicis. During the pandemic, with restaurants mostly closed, grocers had the clear edge. Now, Goldberg explained, grocery stores are saying “we want to win some calories from the restaurant industry.”

For Walmart, the idea is to capitalize on new types of customer behavior. “There will still be people that eat in the stores, and there will still be people that eat food from a ghost kitchen in our stores, but there are also customers who want it brought to them and we want to be able to make sure that we can serve that customer as well,” said Darryl Spinks, Walmart’s head of retail services.

>> [ the lowdown on Kroger’s ghost kitchen team-up! ]

Kroger partners with Kitchen United for ghost kitchens in its grocery stores

- thanks amelia! https://twitter.com/Thxamelian

Kroger, the nation’s largest supermarket chain, and ghost kitchen start-up Kitchen United are teaming up to prepare takeout and delivery food inside some of its grocery stores.

The first kitchen center under the Kroger partnership is slated to open in a Los Angeles location of Ralphs this fall, with more sites planned for the rest of the year. Kroger’s vast portfolio includes Harris Teeter and King Soopers.

The kitchens will feature a mix of up to six local, regional and national restaurants. Customers will be able to order their food for pickup or delivery.

“Our work together provides participating restaurants access to millions of Kroger customers and the ability to better address off-premise demand in a convenient supermarket format — a frequent destination for most consumers,” Kitchen United CEO Michael Montagano said in a statement.

>> [ even DoorDash wants in on making your food! ]

DoorDash isn’t just delivering meals—it’s making them, too

- thanks michelle! https://twitter.com/mbcheng15

DoorDash, based in Palo Alto, California, says it will work with restaurant partners to learn how to cook their food, reproduce their recipes, recreate their supply chains, and secure the chefs, on top of providing the usual marketing and delivery.

Once it is up and running, restaurants could ask DoorDash to launch their take-out operations in any region and the food delivery company will make it happen for them, says Ruth Isenstadt, the director of DoorDash Kitchens.

So-called ghost kitchens—which are essentially restaurants without a storefront—are a burgeoning business. Pre-pandemic, they were expected to account for 10% to 15% of the $66 billion US restaurant industry by 2025.

>> [ the secret sauce to Ghost Kitchens! ]

Some ghost kitchens shed shadowy image

- thanks joe! https://twitter.com/joeguszkowski

Ghost Kitchen operates all of its locations via licensing deals with the brands. Each kitchen staffs about two or three employees who are cross-trained on the various concepts, which require only light cooking.

“We focused on brands that A, we can execute, and B, we focused on great brands that maybe don’t have the distribution that they would like right now,” Choy said.

“Why use real estate to offer one brand when you can use that 3,000 square feet, put a ghost kitchen in and offer 15 different brands?” he said of partnering with nontraditional locations.

Ghost Kitchen's goal is to have 800 U.S. units, or enough to reach every urban consumer within 30 minutes, Choy said.

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We’ll discuss on how to position ourselves as a new player in the Grocery + Ghost Kitchens + Delivery space — and get into the development of the Brand IP, securing a legit Domain Name, then making it Internet LIVE.

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What happens when Grocery, Ghost Kitchens, and Delivery collide?!! 🏪😸🥡🚗

Part One is all about What We Know in our two-part trend report.

WELCOME to $5.vc, your source of differentiated startup intel!

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ICYMI in the last 10 weeks we covered:

THIS WEEK’S DOPE NEW STARTUP IDEA COVERS:

* Grocery + Ghost Kitchens + Delivery 🔥

WHAT WE KNOW:

* The Market Indicators & Behavioral Consumer Trends we've identified.

>> [ Grocery wants in on Ghost Kitchens! ]

As shopping patterns continue to evolve, grocers are investing in ghost kitchens

- thanks cale! https://twitter.com/caleweissman