Local meal delivery service Feast & Fettle opens physical store
A pure-play meal delivery platform is entering the brick-and-mortar space.
Feast & Fettle, a direct-to-consumer retailer delivering fully-prepared meals across Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, is opening its first physical store, known as “Neighborhood Fridge,” after six years of online operation.
Located in Rhode Island, the brick-and-mortar store will feature fully-prepared dinners, salads, lunch/breakfast items, local products, and wine. Shelves will be refreshed weekly to ensure inventory reflects current customer demand All of the food will be made in Feast & Fettle's local commissary kitchen.
Feast & Fettle intends the Neighborhood Fridge store to provide an alternative option for those who prefer the convenience of a physical location. The first Neighborhood Fridge will be located in the Blackstone Place Plaza shopping center in Pawtucket, R.I. The store will host its grand opening on Friday, April 7,, 2023.
"We're always looking for new and improved concepts that allow the community to experience Feast & Fettle," said, Becca Brady, Feast & Fettle director of new concepts, who has led the expansion into retail. "Our Neighborhood Fridge is perfect for those who need a last-minute meal or prefer to stop in and pick up a quick item on-the-go."
Founded in 2016, Feast & Fettle is a premium, vertically-integrated meal service. Meals are prepared at local kitchens and distributed by the company’s in-house delivery team. Feast & Fettle contributes $1 of every order to the non-profit Edesia Nutrition, dedicated to reducing malnourishment in children worldwide.
Digitally native brands step up their march into brick-and-mortar
According to a new whitepaper from the digital traffic-tracker Placer.ai, shoppers spend up to 10 times longer in retailers’ physical store locations than they do on their e-commerce sites.
The whitepaper, entitled “Digitally Native and Direct-to-Consumer Brands Take to the Streets,” holds that retail locations offer an immersive experience that is nearly impossible to replicate online and can speed customer acquisition, fulfillment, and reverse logistics.
For example, the eco-friendly footwear and apparel company Allbirds has maintained a steady level of traffic on its website while seeing traffic throng to its 40-plus stores in the United States. Physical foot traffic quadrupled at Allbirds’ locations from the first week of January through the second week of December in 2022.
Placer.ai reported that Allbirds’ environmentally conscious consumers go to its stores to shop and try on several of the brand’s natural fabric products before going home to deliberate and make their purchases online.