Impossible Burgers in Grocery Stores Mean They’re Totally Normie Now

The final frontier for the Impossible Burger

Three years after the Impossible Burger first appeared on consumers’ radar, Impossible Foods is taking its final step toward mainstream relevance: the grocery store aisle. Starting this Friday, the plant-based, faux-meat, “bleeding” burger will make its supermarket debut in 27 Gelson’s Markets stores in Southern California, before eventually rolling out to East Coast stores later this month. By mid-2020, Impossible Foods says, it plans to reach every region of the U.S.

Impossible Foods’ playbook of market penetration has shrewdly followed the lead of other cult-y food companies like Blue Bottle, Soylent, and alternative-meat rival Beyond Meat, as Eater’s Monica Burton wrote in June. First, appear on the menus of high-end, trendy restaurants like David Chang’s Nishi; then expand to smaller fast-food brands like Bareburger, before going big in national fast-food chains like White Castle and Burger King. Now, the last hurdle to widespread ubiquity and normalization — direct-to-consumer — is being cleared. Congrats, Impossible, you’re officially normie.

And in other news…

• Elsewhere in fake meat world, Tim Hortons is pulling Beyond Meat products from most locations in Canada due to a lack of demand. [CBC News]
• Burger King kids’ meals will no longer come with plastic toys in the U.K. (and, eventually, other markets). [CNN]
• In its Birmingham, Alabama, locations, Taco Bell is testing a new Nachos Party Pack, a.k.a. a big ol’ cardboard tray of nachos presumably meant to feed more than one person. [Thrillist]
• Michael Jordan joins the celebrity liquor club with Cincoro, a new tequila that’s also backed by the president and controlling owner of the LA Lakers, the co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, and the lead owners of the Boston Celtics. [Esquire]
• Nobody:
• Jacobin: The Great British Bake Off is a socialist dream. [Jacobin]
• Instagram users under the age of 18 will soon be blocked from seeing posts that promote dieting products, among other kinds of sponcon. [BuzzFeed News]
• Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda is in love with Shake Shack delivery:

• All AM Intel Coverage [E]