Honest Burger & Shake Shack Create DIY Hamburger Kits


With their doors remaining closed for the foreseeable future, many fast-food outlets are finding inventive, altruistic ways to fit into consumers’ lockdown lives (see Covid-19: The Dining Industry Pivots). One way is by providing ‘do-it-yourself’ kits for budding home cooks to recreate signature dishes in their own kitchens.
UK fast-casual chain Honest Burger has launched Honest At Home kits, comprising all the required ingredients to make the brand’s classic Honest burgers. This includes chuck steak and rib cap patties, cheddar cheese slices, homemade red onion relish, pickles, smoked bacon rashers and burger buns, as well as recipe instructions (also available online).
Rather than applying a set price (the kits are worth £35/$43), the brand is asking consumers to donate to an online ‘honesty box’ instead. All proceeds are going to UK food charities The Trussell Trust, the Landworkers’ Alliance and Hospitality Action, with hopes that consumers will dig deep and pay over the odds for this unique meal.
This is a great example of how food brands are putting people over profit and supporting causes that matter – an approach that will win fans and followers long after the pandemic has ended. For more on brands demonstrating high levels of social care as well as agile business thinking, read Resetting the Food System: The Covid-19 Virtual Strategy Summit.
Meanwhile, US burger restaurant chain Shake Shack has partnered with NYC online artisanal food marketplace Goldbelly to create the $49 ShackBurger Kit. This offers enough ingredients to produce eight burgers, including beef patties, potato rolls, slices of American cheese and 4oz of classic Shake Shack sauce (toppings such as lettuce, tomato or pickles aren’t included).
For further reading on family-sized meal kits, see Family-Friendly ‘Lockdown’ Takeaways. For more on how the novel coronavirus is forcing food and beverage companies to innovate under pressure, read FMCG + Covid-19: Lessons in Resilience; or try Game-Changing Fast-Food Concepts for a broader look at innovations in this sector.