Williams-Sonoma Joins Meal-kit Business Competition

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Williams-Sonoma has partnered with San Francisco-based startup Sun Basket to offer organic, non-GMO meal kits. The meal kits will come bundled with Williams-Sonoma kitchen tools and will be at a slightly more expensive price point than the current market frontrunners Blue Apron and Hello Fresh. Sun Basket, which launched two years ago but only recently reached a national audience, is currently available in 86% of zip codes and hopes to reach 98% next year. The quickly growing meal-kit industry is expected to be worth $3 billion to $5 billion within the next 10 years. Whole Foods is also looking to capture market share in the meal-kit space; they are currently testing a meal-kit service called Purple Carrot at a store in Dedham, Massachusetts.

You can learn more about the growing meal-kit industry here.

Zagat Changes Scoring System in 2017 New York Guide

When Zagat’s New York Guidebook is published tomorrow, two things will be different: it will have a brighter cover, and the rating system will have changed. For more than 35 years, restaurants were graded on a scale from 1 to 30. However, starting tomorrow restaurants will be graded on a scale that runs from 1 to 5 and includes decimals. The spokeswoman for Zagat – now owned by Google – said that this change was made to make the system simpler to understand. What has not changed in the Zagat guide is the top rated restaurant; for the sixth year in a row, Le Bernadin will hold the top spot in the rankings with a 4.9 score.

You can read more about this change in the New York Times.