Impossible Foods will debut its long-awaited Impossible Burger at retail tomorrow in Southern California. The company announced today that its plant-based meat will be available at all 27 Gelson’s locations across Los Angeles, San Diego, Ventura County and Santa Barbara.
We had known that Impossible was hosting a retail launch event at the Century City mall tomorrow that involved grandmas. Given that there’s a Gelson’s in the Century City mall, we also deduced that the grocer would play a part in the launch. Now we have confirmation, and honestly, the launch is wider than we had anticipated.
Additionally, we also know that Impossible will be selling a 12 oz. package for $8.99 at retail. For comparison, Beyond Meat sells its plant-based ground meat package in a 16 oz. package for roughly $10.
Impossible has enjoyed a series of home runs this year, from being the breakout star at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show to releasing its burger 2.0, to launching the wildly successful Impossible Whopper at Burger King. But this move into retail is a real test for the company. It has to play catch up with Beyond Meat, which has firmly entrenched itself at grocery stores for the past couple of years.
What we’ll have to look for now is how much the Impossible brand means to consumers. Will shoppers’ experience at restaurants like BK translate into sales in the grocery aisle? Almost as important, will there be enough product for everyone who wants it to buy it? Impossible experienced a huge production shortfall earlier this year and actually had to stop shipping its burgers to restaurants while it worked overtime to correct the situation.
Impossible has evidently learned their lesson, as Gelson’s is limiting people to 10 packs of Impossible Burger each.
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