As the company hinted at last week, Impossible Foods officially launched its first direct-to-consumer online store today. This means anyone in the lower 48 states can order packages of the plant-based burger for direct home delivery.
According to the press announcement, Impossible’s D2C site will sell the following packages:
- Impossible Convenience Pack includes four 12-oz. packages for $49.99
- Impossible Combo Pack includes two 12-oz. packages and ten quarter-pound patties for $59.99
- Impossible Family Pack includes a single, 5-lb bulk package for $64.99
- Impossible Grilling Pack includes 20 quarter-pound patties for $69.99
Shipping is free with a two-day delivery window. Impossible also says that its packaging is compostable and recyclable, though the company didn’t provide many specifics. Lots of food delivery companies make similar claims nowadays, though the extent to which their packaging is truly compostable and/or recyclable depends on the types of waste facilities available to each consumer.
The addition of a D2C channel is welcome news to flexitarians like myself, and would seem to mark an entirely new chapter for Impossible. When we first started writing about the company, its products were only available in select restaurants. Last year it started its methodical rollout at grocery retailers, and Impossible meat is now sold in more than 3,000 stores nationwide.
However, it’s still not available in stores up near my neck of woods outside Seattle, so this flexitarian is happy to be able to buy in bulk directly from Impossible. (I’ll just add it to the ways in which my life is migrating to mail order.)
Impossible’s D2C play also ups the ante in its rivalry with Beyond Meat, the other leading plant-based burger company. Beyond enjoyed a healthy lead with its retail footprint, but Impossible’s news today suggests it can now leapfrog the store altogether (and get all kinds of consumer data in the process).
As weird as it is to say, Impossible is launching this direct channel at quite possibly the perfect time. The COVID-19 pandemic drove people into buying food online (and kept them doing so for months). Plant-based meat sales have skyrocketed during the pandemic. And the pandemic has shone a bright light on the logistical and ethical issues surrounding the consumption of animal meat.
Will all this interest in online grocery shopping and plant-based meat outlast COVID-19? That remains to be seen, but at least now we can see how much of the country (at least the lower 48) shops directly from Impossible, now that it’s possible.
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