Amazon launches readyto-cook meals in bid to expand grocery sales

NEW YORK — Amazon has begun selling readyto-cook meal packages for busy households in a bid to expand its groceries business.

Amazon-branded meal kits come with raw ingredients needed to prepare such meals as chicken tikka masala and falafel patties. They can help households save time; a kit for salmon with soba noodles can be prepared in just a halfhour, for instance. But at $16 to $20 for two servings, they can be more expensive than buying ingredients separately in larger quantities.

The development comes as Amazon is also buying the organic grocer Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, a deal that would give the company a foothold in both groceries and brick-andmortar retailing. Amazon could ultimately use Whole Foods’ more than 400 locations as distribution centers for all food services, including meal kits.

For now, Amazon’s meal kits are sold only in selected markets. The Associated Press was able to place an order in Seattle, Amazon’s headquarters. A similar search for meal kits in New York generated items only from third-party vendors such as Martha & Marley Spoon and Tyson Tastemakers. Amazon didn’t respond to requests for additional information.

Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, said meal kits fall between regular groceries and deliveries of fully cooked meals and represent Amazon’s bid to expand its food business.

“I’m not sure any of this will work, but that’s where they are headed,” Pachter said in an email.