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Blue Apron Files for IPO

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Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#101

Post by stickfigure »

Many of my friends have tried Blue Apron, and not many still use them. As a strictly amateur chef myself, find the business model pretty strange. At some point the customers are going to realize they can get all of these ingredients from the supermarket. And not long after that, they're going to realize that they already have most of these ingredients sitting in their fridge.

My wife and I cook. We look up a random recipe that sounds tasty, make a list of ingredients we don't already have, pick those up at the store, and follow the instructions. It's not much harder than paint-by-numbers, which is what I expect almost every Blue Apron customer to realize at some point.

I don't mean to say Blue Apron is a bad thing - it's training wheels for cooking, which is great! But when the training wheels come off, so does the subscription. At what point do they hit the saturation point and the customer base tops out?

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#102

Post by nullspace »

headcanon wrote: post #77
sushisource wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just do it once a month. I really wish they would have an option to do that, instead of forcing me to go on the website once a month and cancel everything except one week. I like it because it's a good way to cook things I might not decide to make otherwise. Complaint #2 makes no sense to me. You add all your own salt. If they want less salt, add less salt.

Hello Fresh has a once-a-month option. Cancelled because I'm buying a house and can shop myself for cheaper, but I didn't have any problems with them.

Hi headcanon! Do you have a link for this? I so desperately want this but none of the services have a once-a-month option.

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#103

Post by icelancer »

My wife uses it all the time and we both know how to cook very well. She gets "shopping fatigue" which Blue Apron solves very well. No need to go to the store, make decisions on what to cook, and what to buy.

There are use cases like this that are not the strawmen that I keep seeing on Hacker News like "it's cooking with training wheels on" and "not worth it" and blah blah blah.

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#104

Post by gigatexal »

stickfigure wrote: post #101

Many of my friends have tried Blue Apron, and not many still use them. As a strictly amateur chef myself, find the business model pretty strange. At some point the customers are going to realize they can get all of these ingredients from the supermarket. And not long after that, they're going to realize that they already have most of these ingredients sitting in their fridge . My wife and I cook. We look up a random…

Shopping is mind numbingly tedious. Getting the best quality food for the least cost can take a couple hours. Why do that when a company, for a nominal fee, can do that for you? My only reservation is portions. I tend to eat more than the average person. So I will continue to waste time in the market shopping.

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#105

Post by throwanem »

harryh wrote: post #97
throwanem wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also https://blueapron.com/wtw - 3 free meals on first order, no questions asked.

Oh nifty. I never actually knew about that. That's way easier than pinging me. Thanks!

Welcome! It's a good podcast, too - Within the Wires, excellent serial fiction and just well done in general. Gave me more strongly to think, and to feel, than much fiction in the last decade or more has done.

http://www.nightvalepresents.com/withinthewires/

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#106

Post by makmanalp »

stickfigure wrote: post #101

Many of my friends have tried Blue Apron, and not many still use them. As a strictly amateur chef myself, find the business model pretty strange. At some point the customers are going to realize they can get all of these ingredients from the supermarket. And not long after that, they're going to realize that they already have most of these ingredients sitting in their fridge . My wife and I cook. We look up a random…

> they already have most of these ingredients sitting in their fridge

That's exactly the issue - I don't have ingredients sitting in my fridge. I don't conveniently live near a large supermarket. I don't own a car. I cook mostly for myself, and very occasionally a few friends. When I come home from work late, the last thing I want to think about is spending almost an hour going to the store, browsing and buying stuff, coming back.

To do that, first I also have to decide what exactly to cook, which is a big enough ordeal. I don't want to cook something fancy, because that means I have to get many ingredients that I'll half-use and never touch again until they go bad. Usually the simple stuff is OK but gets repetitive after a while, and leftover ingredients are still a problem.

Meal delivery fixes all that - healthy, fresh and tasty meals by default, no thought or effort required.

I guess if there was an app that decided on a meal schedule and pre-filled an instacart order, I'd do that, but again it's hard to optimize leftover ingredients and costs per meal.

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#107

Post by tdeck »

gigatexal wrote: post #104
stickfigure wrote: post #101

Many of my friends have tried Blue Apron, and not many still use them. As a strictly amateur chef myself, find the business model pretty strange. At some point the customers are going to realize they can get all of these ingredients from the supermarket. And not long after that, they're going to realize that they already have most of these ingredients sitting in their fridge . My wife and I cook. We look up a random…

Shopping is mind numbingly tedious. Getting the best quality food for the least cost can take a couple hours. Why do that when a company, for a nominal fee, can do that for you? My only reservation is portions. I tend to eat more than the average person. So I will continue to waste time in the market shopping.

What would you consider a nominal fee? Blue Apron costs about $10 per person per meal for modest portions, I can easily buy ingredients for half, if not a third of that.

This is based on their podcast ads I'm always hearing; I didn't research it.

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#108

Post by bkanber »

kafkaesq wrote: post #90
bkanber wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that obvious and not so much a loophole. Shipping is more efficient than you give credit for (eg shipping recyclables from UK to China is still net-beneficial as opposed to landfilling [0]), and most likely recycling back to them is advantageous. The gel packs are reusable, you ship them 10 at a time, and "Reuse" is better than "Recycle" in "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle". [0] https://www.theguardian.com/environmen…

shipping recyclables from UK to China is still net-beneficial as opposed to landfilling That's shipping it from the local recycling plant , ton for ton. But the "net benefit" of shipping millions of box of crumbled aluminum and plastic wrappers back to Blue Apron (then unpacking and sorting them)? As if anyone has time for that, anyway (when most of us have time to do the dishes and put out the trash)? That's where t…

> Yeah, like all those soaps and mini-shampoo bottles we steal from hotels and intend to "use" someday, too.

No -- you ship the gel packs back to Blue Apron and they reuse them. Reuse >> recycling, BTW.

I just did a back of the envelope calc for the carbon footprint of shipping your gel packs back to them (assuming shipping by truck 2,000km). It's about 300 grams of CO2.

A gallon of gasoline puts about 10kg of CO2 in the air. If you were to drive to the supermarket a mile away, just your trip in the car puts 800g of CO2 in the air (assuming 25 mpg).

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#109

Post by frenchie4111 »

gigatexal wrote: post #104
stickfigure wrote: post #101

Many of my friends have tried Blue Apron, and not many still use them. As a strictly amateur chef myself, find the business model pretty strange. At some point the customers are going to realize they can get all of these ingredients from the supermarket. And not long after that, they're going to realize that they already have most of these ingredients sitting in their fridge . My wife and I cook. We look up a random…

Shopping is mind numbingly tedious. Getting the best quality food for the least cost can take a couple hours. Why do that when a company, for a nominal fee, can do that for you? My only reservation is portions. I tend to eat more than the average person. So I will continue to waste time in the market shopping.

Why not use instacart to solve this? Some recipe sites are even starting add a "purchase this recipe on instacart" button.

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#110

Post by bayofpigs »

sushisource wrote: post #38
glup wrote: post #32

I hear a lot of my friends trying Blue Apron, but then canceling because of the 1) excessive packaging 2) excessive salt/sodium content 3) sudden inspiration to just go to a grocery store and learn more about cooking in general. For those of you on HN who have done BA for more than a year, what are your experiences? How do you balance it with other food sources (groceries, delivery food, going out, other services)?

I just do it once a month. I really wish they would have an option to do that, instead of forcing me to go on the website once a month and cancel everything except one week. I like it because it's a good way to cook things I might not decide to make otherwise. Complaint #2 makes no sense to me. You add all your own salt. If they want less salt, add less salt.

This is a good idea (for customers) since you could rotate in other providers for different weeks.
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