"Meal Assembly" Stores Allow Customers to Have Gourmet Meals at Home

A couple of years ago I wrote a book with Scottie Pippen's nephew Patrick. You remember Scottie. He played for the Chicago Bulls basketball team in the 90's with Michael Jordan. Patrick lived with his uncle for a few years when he was playing for the Bulls. He told me a little about his lifestyle. Evidently when you are a big sports star a lot of companies want your endorsement. I'm not sure how much Hanes underwear Michael has today, but during his heyday Scottie had a couple of rooms filled with stuff that various companies, everything from sportswear to vitamins, would ship him without notice. He had so many boxes of Nike clothes, for example, that he would either throw them away or give them away after wearing them just one time. Scottie also had a personal chef who prepared all of his meals for him. The chef even accompanied him when he traveled or sailed on his yacht. The chef would prepare meals ahead of time so members of the household could just heat them up when ever they wanted something in a hurry.

Now, according to an article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, (www.stltoday.com) you don't have to be rich anymore to have meals prepared by your own personal gourmet chef. Well, you do have to share the meals with a lot of other people. A company called Super Shoppers in St. Peters allows customers to come in and plan meals two months in advance. The "meal assembly stores" started in Seattle in 1999, but the trend really didn't take off until about 2003. It's really a reflection of the fact that people want to eat real meals and not something out of a can or a frozen dinner, combined with the fact that many busy professionals just don't have the knowledge or the time to prepare the meals themselves.

And if you're thinking that the cost would be way to prohibitive, then think again. Since the stores can buy the food in bulk at a lower cost, (some buy a lot locally) it's really not that much more expensive than eating out at a restaurant or even preparing the meals yourself. Some companies allow you to save even more money by going in and cooking the meals yourself instead of having their chefs prepare them. Some stores are adding a cooking class feature, which will allow patrons to learn how to cook the recipes. One store even offers a "call ahead" service where you can call and order the food, pull up and the food is delivered to you right in your car. You can't get anymore convenient than that. Unless you have your own personal chef traveling with you wherever you go.