It looks like Impossible Foods, which makes the self-titled popular plant-based burger, is making a move to sell directly to consumers. This morning the company tweeted out the following.
I’m no code breaker, but a burger in a box with an arrow to a door seems like a pretty clear indication that consumers will soon be able to get Impossible’s products without having to hit up a restaurant or go to a grocery store.
If true (we reached out to Impossible for confirmation), this move makes a lot of sense and is something that the company has been inching towards for awhile.
When it first debuted a few years back, you could only get Impossible burgers at restaurants. Then last year Impossible started selling its ground “meat” at retailers in Los Angeles. In April, the company allowed restaurants to sell Impossible directly to consumers (though that seemed aimed more at helping out restaurants struggling to stay open during the COVID-19 pandemic). Later that same month, Impossible expanded its retail footprint to nearly 1,000 restaurants in different states. And finally, earlier this month, Impossible announced that it would be in an additional 1,700 Kroger locations, bringing the total number of retailers selling Impossible to more than 2,700.
The move also makes sense because during this pandemic, sales of plant-based meats have skyrocketed, with sales up 264 percent at US grocery stores. So consumers are obviously, pardon the pun, hungry for faux meat like Impossible’s.
But if that weren’t enough reason, Impossible’s D2C move is also part of a larger trend of big companies selling directly to consumers. PepsiCo launched two direct to consumer sites to sell snacks and sodas. The coronavirus spurred meal bar company Slow UP to move from B2B to D2C sales. And in January, Thirstie launched its service to help alcohol companies sell directly to consumers.
Selling direct to consumer would require some different logistics from Impossible, but the company just raised $500 million in March, so ordering those delicious plant-based burgers for delivery to my door soon seems entirely possible.
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