Meal Assembly Watch

Like so many meal assembly concepts, Thyme Out has altered its original model to reach consumers not interested or organized enough to plan dinner ahead of time.

What started out as a meal-assembly business has evolved into a dinner market with a heavy focus on retail and delivery. While Thyme Out still has a following of devoted meal assemblers, the retail and delivery side of the business generates the strongest sales. Company founder Missy Carr believes those areas will drive future growth.

“Assembling is an option, but we’re much more than that,” says Carr, a trained chef, former caterer, and founder of the company, which has two stores in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. “There were a lot of barriers to the original model,” Carr says. “Meal assembly in its original form was a solution but not a long-term solution. It’s like joining a gym in January. Life gets in the way and you drop the habit.

I think a lot can be said for this comment and how people perceive the concept:

“People were turned off by the meal-prep industry because they had four or five steps to do at home,” Carr says. “We don’t leave a lot of work for customers to do.”

I think this been a big downfall for many franchises, but it unfortunately lead to the “kitchen sink” mentality where franchises were trying everything under the sun to coax customers and in the process overwhelmed and confused them.

Thyme Out Meal Assembly and Dinner Market

Other Articles of Interest:

• John Matthews Named President & CEO of Dinner by Design
• More stores than you can shake a stick at!
• Dinner by Design Announces Expansion Into Iowa
• Mr. Food no-fuss Meals
• Changing customers habits about meal assembly
• Dinner by Design, Midwest’s Largest Meal Assembly Company, to Expand In Michigan
• KC area’s meal-assembly shops face the recession
• Meal Assembly – The Next Big Thing in Food Franchises
• Assembling meals outside your kitchen
• Should “iSold It” be a warning to us all?