Food Subscription Services is a niche industry that has seen tremendous growth in the last few years. More people are realizing the benefits of having high-quality fresh food delivered right to their door. Ordered right from their smartphone, they can skip grocery shopping and receive ready-to-cook pre-portioned meals. The convenience factor is unparalleled; people are eating it up, and as a result, more competitors have stepped up to the plate. This is a race, and whoever has the best ratings wins. Customer Satisfaction is the name of the game, and negative reviews of spoiled food will break the quarterly sales projection.
A real life scenario
Put it this way, you see an ad on Youtube showing you a delicious-looking chicken cobb salad. You think to yourself, Gee I have been hitting the carbs a little heavy lately and I’m feeling a little shameful everytime I step out of the shower – maybe I should eat a little healthier. Being sold on the convenience of healthy food delivered to your door, you click the ad and make an order for the following week. Several days later you got a little side tracked and forgot your parcel was coming. You didn’t notice the courier drop it off and it ended up sitting on your front porch for a number of hours. Finally you caught wind of it, anxiously grab it to unpack only to find that the chicken has been sitting at room temperature for an unknown amount of time. It’s wasted, and you’re disappointed. What do you do next?
Most people feeling embarrassed are quick to forget and don’t say anything. They also don’t make another purchase. Some people call and complain, demanding a refund or leave an irate comment on social media and google reviews. In the competitive world of ecommerce, ratings are everything to future customers. To the food subscription service, this is bad news. Everything they did on their end was correct. It was a customer error, and there’s nothing they could have done differently, right? Wrong.
How to keep food fresh longer
This is where dry ice comes in. For those of you who may not know, dry ice is safely insulated within the packaging, beneath the food. It’s used because of its advantages over regular ice – it doesn’t melt (causing a wet mess) and can stay cold longer. It’s the latter factor that will make or break a satisfied customer. For example, did you know that you can have 2 pieces of dry ice that are virtually identical in shape and size, but one sublimate faster than the other? Not all dry ice is the same, and it depends on how it’s produced. Hint: if you sell food, this is super important, so keep reading.
The traditional method of producing dry ice, which is widely practiced especially by larger producers is intended for volume. Liquid Carbon Dioxide enters a pressure chamber and the substance turns into solid blocks of dry ice. These blocks are typically formed in large slabs, then cut into slices. Pre Food Subscription era purchasers weren’t as picky with dry ice quality and if they needed more, they would buy more or get larger slices. Now, more than ever precision is required.
The modern method of production adds another step to the process. Liquid Carbon Dioxide is added to a pressure chamber – and instead of a block – rice pellets are formed. Then an 80-ton press compresses the rice into the desired form that suits your requirements. The result is a far denser piece of dry ice. The benefits of this product are twofold. First, as you can imagine, it’s going to last 20 – 30% longer than the traditional method. Second, what you were previously capable of doing with 10lbs of traditional dry ice, you can now accomplish with 8lbs. Note: Carmad Industrial has a proprietary process that does exactly this.
The competitive advantage
Long story short, denser dry ice lasts longer. Using denser dry ice will ensure that food deliveries remain fresh for longer periods of time. This means the customers receive fresher food and are happy to do business with you. These customers are likely to reorder again and leave a positive review. They’re less likely to complain or ask for a refund. In the ultra-competitive space of Food Subscription services, every slight edge is an advantage.
If you are purchasing dry ice, you should seriously consider getting the best quality. Call us today for a free estimate! You’ll be glad you did. Thank you for reading, and we’ll chat soon again.