Loblaw ends PC Chef meal-kit delivery service introduced in Toronto area last year

Didn’t realize they were doing these PC Chef Meals … for Home Delivery in the GTA … either as raw ingredients or cooked meals ready to eat

As per the article …

I was aware of their new line of PC Chef Meals though that are found in the Meals To Go section of their Grocery Stores
(Usually located near where you also find fresh pastas & sauces … like Oliveri, PC Black Label, etc )

These Chef Meals & Kits seemingly expanding on the original line of what was only found in the Meat Dept with preseasoned ready to cook roasts, chops, chickens, etc

I believe the expansion beyond the items in the Meat Dept occurred during the Pandemic last year (sometime over the Summer I stumbled upon them when I was back to Instore shopping )

I can certainly see the attraction from Loblaws Group POV as they were looking for new ways to hold onto Customers who were trying out the various Meal Kits from other sources (like MissFresh which was owned by Metro until fairly recently). As well as during the Pandemic … a heck of a lot of people were opting for take out besides just the grocery store.

So kind of makes sense if Loblaws looked at how to combine all 3 into one product line

And voila … the vaccines come along, the market goes more back to normal times … and Loblaws pulls the plug on home delivery

Guess that makes sense … although I think it a tad too soon.

Cuz it seems to me that two things here come into play

1- Covid ain’t over … til it’s over
2- Unless Loblaws was just doing test market research in anticipation of a much bigger / broader program yet to come … their competitors sure aren’t as heck going away anytime soon. If anything … Sobey’s is now aggressively chasing the Ontario Grocery Market between their roll out of Voila … their online shopping service in the GTA (and plans to expand into other cities soon) … as well as FarmBoys sprouting up all over Ontario … with more openings SINCE COVID than in the years previous to it

not surprised. their kits were in flashfood all the time. I mean who would pay 10 bucks to make pasta with marinera..??

Tried them a couple of time (bought the kits in-store, not delivered). They were decent enough. I liked the pulled pork the best. A little pricey for what you get but that’s the cost of having everything done for you.

Too expensive and in an already saturated market.

Awful news, I ordered them a lot during lockdown and I found their kits, while expensive, to be of good quality and great at introducing some variety to our somewhat repetitive meals. Not having to uphold a subscription was always a plus.

May be people are returning to work & buying grocery from stores. no more need to buy prepared food.

Not surprising, Metro had previously gotten into the meal kit market with Ms Fresh but bailed after two years since it makes no money. Plus every Loblaw store I went to with PC Chef would have a bunch of kits just sitting around, no one was buying them.

I hope that Loblaws learns from this and offers better ready made and take home meals at their stores because currently they're trash, plain and simple. Frozen pizza from the states that you just defrosted at $10 and one type of sandwich?! No thanks.

also

Loblaw spokeswoman Catherine Thomas says the company launched the delivery service only to better understand customer demand in the meal kit delivery space.

LOL backpedal, backpedal. Sounds like something a kid would say when their school project didn't work.

Good, it was too expensive and if memory serves me right, hard to order a single meal once in a while.

They tried to provide something at a lower cost and quality than other meal delivery places (like Goodfood), and I guess that wasn't what people wanted. I feel the same way, I tried it but it didn't hit the spot. They tried to compete with food delivery, but the meals (unlike some of the incumbents) weren't restaurant quality. The quality of the actual ingredients was fine, but the recipes and overall outcome didn't blow me away, whereas when I tried Goodfood, I was often surprised that I was able to make something that good. Goodfood is of course significantly more expensive but I feel like there's not much of a middle ground here; all this added over regular groceries was the convenience of not needing to pick out items and some basic prep. The outcome was no better than the most basic online recipe.