How to find a Meal Delivery Service

When’s the last time you packed a lunch and took it to work?

If you’re on WSO reading this and working in finance, I’m guessing the answer is ‘never’.

A 60–100+ hour week doesn’t leave much time for grocery shopping, prepping, cooking, and bringing a healthy lunch (make that breakfast, lunch, and dinner) to work. You’re forced to eat takeout three times a day and helplessly watch your fat levels go up and your energy levels go down.

A Better Alternative: Meal Delivery Services

Recently, I've been testing a better alternative on some of my clients at Work. Life. Fitness.: meal delivery services.

In recent years, the meal delivery market has expanded to cover a variety of tailored services for busy professionals, including ready-to-eat meals, weekly groceries, daily smoothie ingredients, and even healthy snacks, all delivered to your office or home.

Meal delivery services sell healthy pre-cooked, individually packaged meals in bulk. Most services offer a weekly delivery of fully cooked meals in individual containers. No grocery shopping, no cooking – just heat, open and enjoy.

3 reasons to try a meal delivery service

1) Stay focused and get more done. When you’re getting crushed on a deal, you barely have time to eat, let alone walk down to the food court. A stack of fresh and healthy prepared meals in the office fridge solves this problem. Just microwave for 2–3 minutes and get back to work.

2) Stay healthy during hell weeks. In general, meal delivery services are healthier than restaurants and food courts. While it is possible to find healthy takeout options, it’s not easy when the typical American diet is loaded with “taste-bud pleasing” salt, sugar, and fat. Meal delivery services cater to specific dietary needs like Paleo, Vegan, and lactose-free, which are often a nightmare to fulfill in your typical food court.

3) Save money. A typical ready-to-eat meal delivered by Freshly can cost as low as $8.99 per meal. In comparison, a steak burrito with guacamole from Chipotle in NYC will cost $11.49. While these savings may sound small, $2.50 a meal adds up to $1,250 a year if you eat out lunch and dinner five days a week for 50 weeks a year. If you add a $30 dinner at a restaurant instead, then these savings jump to over $5,000 a year.

10 recommended meal delivery services

There are hundreds of meal delivery services covering most cities in North America. A simple way to get started is to do a google search of “meal delivery [insert city name here]”.

To make this even easier for you, I’ve consolidated a list of a few good meal delivery options.

Ready-to-eat meals make the most sense if you're extremely busy, but you could also try a meal kit service if you enjoy doing a bit of cooking.

Ready-to-eat meal delivery

Grocery delivery

Meal kit delivery

Smoothie ingredient delivery

Healthy snack delivery

#

If you want more ideas on staying healthy at work, check another post I wrote for WSO: How to find fast and healthy food court meals (even if you’re crazy busy).

Does anyone else here use a meal delivery service? Let's hear about it in the comments (especially if you can recommend a good option).

 
  • Home Chef (similar to Blue Apron)

meals don't take a lot of time to prepare, are usually healthy, and saves you the hassle of shopping. I don't live in a building with a doorman so my stuff comes to my door directly, so I don't know logistically how it'd work in NYC, but these things have been game changers in my life. much much cheaper way to eat healthy because you're not throwing away produce all the time.

 
Best Response

I'm a big fan of these just to improve productivity...

Ones I've tried along with Pros & Cons...

Munchery

Pros: good selection, tastes pretty good, good pricing, easy ordering process Cons: new membership pricing makes you feel a bit "locked in" (but smart decision by them), most not organic, usually at least one pretty heavy starch with every meal which is annoying. where are the BEANS/legumes? stop making me gain weight!

Sprig

Pros: Great taste, usually organic/healthier, ok pricing, easy ordering process, good for last minute decision (no planning needed) Cons: STOPPED delivering in peninsula which sucks :-( ...and limited selection, but I didn't mind this since there was usually a few good options...although they would occasionally/frequently sell out.

Freshly

Pros: good taste, convenient Cons: too much of a commitment to lock in to weekly meal plans and have to remember to turn off or end up with 9 meals when you're traveling (true story), most not organic, not that healthy

All the others like Blue Apron, etc is kind of pointless to me...yes, they make cooking easier, but it still takes 20-30min to prep and another 20-30min to cook, so you are still out over an hour EVERY DAY if you choose this...in other words, it can taste good, but it's not efficient IMO.

If you're going to cook, just order the ingredients off of Instacart on the same day and go to town with any online recipe...

My 2 cents, Patrick

 

In Dallas we have a place called snap kitchen, premade meals that last a few days and can just be heated up. They usually are under 600 calories for a full meal and can be ordered via uber eats or you can pick them up from the store.

 

There are a bunch of Snaps in Philly too. Life saver when i'm in CFA grindmode and need to save time on cooking/cleaning/shopping. Not always the cheapest option, but worth the convenience. Also has a really good selection of meals

Array
 

you dont eat at all until 8pm or you don't eat dinner until 8pm? If you dont eat at all that's insane.

I have tried a few of these services, I find them to be ok. As much as it may be frowned upon, there are some decent tasting and healthy microwave meals available now too.

twitter: @CorpFin_Guy
 

Alternative to all of these is to go shopping on Sunday and make a crockpot meal that you can have during the week for a few meals (I like it for lunch). Ends up being very cheap and tasty; you can find A TON of healthy recipes for it online.

 

the coffee product is just like a mocha. the powder starts off a bit unpleasant but you get adjusted to it within a week. its a worthwhile sacrifice considering i cut my meal cost more than half, and never take more than a 30 minute lunch

One huge negative however is some QA issues with the product (a few recalls also). i never experienced anything personally as a user throughout these recalls, but this has caused me to consider switching to a competitor, but there are many competing in this space like

www.joylent.eu http://www.spacenutrientsstation.com/buy

 

Blue Apron is awesome and Fresh Direct has proved amazing, their produce is fresher than most super markets, pretty much everything but Whole Foods and Fairway.

But can I suggest something time saving which I'm sure no young analyst will do. Crock Pot. There I said it, you prep 1 time for 3-4 meals lunch or dinner. You can prepare cheap, easy and portioned meals which cook by themselves. Set it...and forget it!. You just put in the ingredients and when you get back from work, boom you have a warm dinner waiting for you...for the next several nights if you want.

 

By far far the best option is to use Instacart and stock up on Amy's Light and Lean microwavable ready-made dishes. They are organic, uber-healthy, in fact significantly more than any restaurant delivery, and taste remarkably good, not to mention amazing value. When value doesn't matter, Caviar delivery bar none.

 

Anybody find the portion sizes of all of these options leave something to be desired?

I'm lean and try to stay in shape / go to the gym 3-4 times a week, so I'm not a fatass, but I' need to eat through a 2 ppl portion for blue apron/plated, and munchery I also need 2 dishes to be full. Defeats the purpose when it costs >$25 per actual "meal" to be full.

 

These services are still absurdly expensive and often unhealthy compared to just making your own. As others have suggested, just cook for a week on a Sunday evening. Won't take more than 30-40 minutes of actual 'active' time. This probably isn't ideal for those who claim to 'get bored' of eating the same thing every day, to whom all I can say is man up.

Some suggestions: - Throw some diced beef, frozen vegetables, stock and hot water into a slow cooker on Sunday morning and leave to cook for 6-8 hours. .

  • Cut up 5-10 chicken breasts and bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes, combine with some frozen vegetables.

  • Roast a chicken and put it in the fridge. Every night put some lettuce / other salad items into a Tuppaware along with some chicken. Danger here is it might not last a full week.

If you are in Chicago area I highly recommend Eat Purely the delivery cost is $3. Their meals are all organic and mostly healthy (under 650 calories per meal). And most importantly their food is delicious and fresh upon delivery. You also get you first meal free by a $20 credit applied to your account. The delivery is exceptionally fast too with the average time taking 20-25 mins.

 

Exercitationem deleniti nesciunt distinctio voluptas qui sed incidunt sequi. Nemo quas delectus sit quisquam necessitatibus. Asperiores voluptatum eveniet perspiciatis. Nemo eos vitae dolor delectus quidem officia architecto vitae.

Sit ut corrupti quis molestiae. Quam libero consequatur rerum enim commodi. Et amet quisquam iste enim dolores. A pariatur illo nemo eum beatae rerum aliquam excepturi. Vitae quidem dolores vero deserunt odit cumque alias. Modi molestiae labore sed. Quis debitis ut veritatis et autem voluptatum dolore.

 

Repudiandae vero ipsa eligendi. Inventore deleniti dolorum necessitatibus nihil. Quaerat placeat libero adipisci impedit doloribus velit.

Sapiente debitis repellat nulla et. Quia dolor vitae est ducimus qui. Quidem cum dolorem cupiditate eum id quo fugit.

Eos consequuntur beatae totam error atque vel quia. Omnis facere aut exercitationem assumenda. Veniam officiis voluptates impedit maiores. Excepturi reprehenderit consequatur neque quo consequatur ad exercitationem sunt. Impedit in magnam unde voluptatem ut officiis.

Quae harum et placeat porro delectus ea. Eum sunt totam pariatur velit est. Dolorem nobis et molestiae dolores.

Career Advancement Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Jefferies & Company 02 99.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 19 98.8%
  • Harris Williams & Co. (++) 98.3%
  • Lazard Freres 02 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 03 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Harris Williams & Co. 18 99.4%
  • JPMorgan Chase 10 98.8%
  • Lazard Freres 05 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.7%
  • William Blair 03 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Lazard Freres 01 99.4%
  • Jefferies & Company 02 98.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 17 98.3%
  • Moelis & Company 07 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 05 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Director/MD (5) $648
  • Vice President (19) $385
  • Associates (86) $261
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (13) $181
  • Intern/Summer Associate (33) $170
  • 2nd Year Analyst (66) $168
  • 1st Year Analyst (202) $159
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (144) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
99.0
3
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
6
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
9
kanon's picture
kanon
98.9
10
Jamoldo's picture
Jamoldo
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”