Welcome to the Meal Assembly Watch
The Meal Assembly Watch is a site dedicated to providing truthful news and articles relating to the meal assembly/meal prep industry. Present and former owners are encouraged to offer comments and share their experiences of running a store or how stores in their area have faired. Additionally there is a discussion forum where you can start conversations on topics and ideas that interest you. Everyone is welcome to participate and through this shared knowledge we can all benefit.
Most talked about blog articles:Dream Dinners hit with $30 million lawsuit
Top 15 franchise failures
Dream Dinners creates Dinners for Life
Is Super Suppers for Stupid Suckers
Store closings and meal prep failures
Recent discussion forum topics of interest:
If You Are Still Considering Purchasing A Dream Dinners Store or Meal Assembly
Can anybody share the process of closing a store?
Dream Dinners Lawsuit
What’s in that fast food you’re eating?
March 9th, 2010 | 
Author: This should scare the socks off you!
What’s really in your food? – Learn the truth about these four fast-food favorites
The “meat” also contains something called “autolyzed yeast extract.” Then add another 20 ingredients that make up the breading, and you have the industrial chemical—we mean, fast-food meal—called the McNugget. Still, McDonald’s is practically all-natural compared to Wendy’s Chicken Nuggets, with 30 ingredients, and Burger King Chicken Fries, with a whopping 35 ingredients.
Behold the McDeath Nugget!
Posted in 
Last time I looked it was February
February was a fast month wasn’t it? Not too much happening in the world of meal assembly, but I have seen quite a few articles about dream Dinners and their recipe contest winners. One the one hand that seems like a neat idea, but on the other, considering the bad shape Dream Dinners is in, it seems like a cheap way to get new recipe ideas. It’s old news that DD doesn’t really have a recipe development department any more, but there’s something about this that I always find irksome.
Another topic I have seen come up is Independent stores that are starting to gain a small amount of ground with customers since the big chain stores have fallen off. Have other Independent stores found a few more customers now that Dream Dinners and Super Suppers have left your area? I still can’t say there’s money to be made anymore, but it might give the opportunity to shut down things on your own terms. Hopefully no one is actually considering starting one of these businesses up now that the competition has abated. That would just be silly.
And where is Super Suppers these days? From the dwindling numbers and complete lack of news from HQ I can only assume those in charge have abandoned ship and have left the store owners to fend for themselves? Are there any Super Suppers own out there who want to fill us in on how you’re making it month to month? Are you still getting new recipes? Is there still a corporate office? Normally no news is good news, but this kind of silence is getting a little scary.
Dream Dinners – Less stores than what you thought
According to this PR Note, Dream Dinners is actually closer to 115 stores, not the 130 we keep seeing. So yes, they are coming to the end of the line as well.
Dream Dinners®, the leading meal assembly chain with more than 115 locations in the U.S., has retained Duo PR as its agency-of-record, effective immediately. In this role, the agency will focus on supporting Dream Dinners’ major consumer marketing initiatives and new product offerings via traditional media relations and grassroots campaigns, as well as provide all corporate communications counsel.
EATS – Where are they now?
Let’s not forget about EATS, the other sale systems used by several (now defunct) Independent meal assembly stores and even one large franchise. Considering they had a large franchise contract they should be doing quite well these days, right?
Looks like EATS may be a victim of the same ills as What’s Cooking. Several of their clients are no longer in business and their site hasn’t been updated with any new clients since July 2008. It’s rather ironic that their last posts references their work with Super Suppers and getting those 140 stores moved over to the EATS system. Funny, at least 100 of those stores no longer exist.
Doesn’t look like too much is being powered by EATS these days.
What’s Cooking Software – Where are they now?
You remember What’s Cooking Software, right? They hit the scene with software to help the independent meal prep owner compete in the hot and exciting world of the meal assembly industry. They were even behind an ill fated and never quite able to get off the ground coalition idea to help independent owners work together and succeed. I guess they couldn’t work together to make their site succeed.
So where are they now?
Not only are they misleading people by listing the same company more than once (makes you look bigger than you are I guess), if you click their clients, half of them are no longer in business. (At the very least they link to dead sites). A fine example of what their software can do for you.
http://www.whatscookingsoftware.com/clients.html
And let’s not forget Jim had this to say about the meal prep industry:
"The hot concept of "meal assembly" may be over, but innovations for the next market phase are well under way. The trick is to be capitalized enough or "fending off your debtors" long enough to make it there when the pendulum swings. And, it will swing." – June 16, 2008
Indeed, Jim, swing like the gallows. And Jim promptly closed his own meal prep store shortly after making this bold assumption.
http://www.mealassemblywatch.com/Forum/index.php?topic=274.0
It doesn’t look like the What’s Cooking Software site has been updated with new clients since June, 2008, right after Jim predicted the pendulum to swing. Go figure.
