I don’t really have good restaurant options around where I live though. I’d prefer to cook at home a lot of the time. But I sometimes prefer it to be a minimum of planning and prep.
But this is the conundrum. If I can pick up a few ingredients, even if there’s some waste, and throw together a meal quickly the meal kits may not add much.
When I was a student, the local Sainsbury's supermarket in London had recipe cards by the entrance. It was easy enough to find everything in the shop. There were perhaps 30-40 cards to choose from.
This no longer exists, people probably look on their phones, but the restriction in choice was useful.
From what I've seen it doesn't help, the in store ones cost almost as a restaurant anyway, But at least a restaurant solves the time consuming part (cooking, cleaning), if your in the store then getting everything packaged together only saves a few minutes.
This is in Australia with a higher minimum wage, I imagine it would make an even smaller difference in the US.