Your next big thing: hotel delivery?

With Amazon and Walmart now selling groceries in Canada (albeit just the dry stuff), attention is turning to the opportunity for supermarkets to become etailers and deliver to consumers in their area.

But supermarket analyst Phil Lempert argues there is a delivery “vacuum” that many grocers could more easily service right now: hotels.

With room service expensive and many hotel rooms now coming with microwaves and kitchenettes, travellers would enjoy the prepared foods and assembled meal components offered by grocers.

Families on vacation, in particular, would benefit from the better, cheaper and healthier food offered by grocery stores.

Indeed, some hotels now want to out-source their food and beverage business and several are working with grocery stores. For instance, grocery delivery service is available at 600 Marriott Residence Inns across the U.S.

“The appeal isn’t just the food–it’s the convenience with which the food fits into the travellers’ time constraints and budgets.”

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