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Blue Apron Files for IPO

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Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#111

Post by bpicolo »

sp332 wrote: post #14
bpicolo wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For various small bits they send a single brown paper bag (per meal).

Hm, it might actually be worse since they send a small package for each portion of spices etc. instead of me just buying one glass jar and using it for ages. I mean they once sent me a single egg in a big cardboard structure. https://goo.gl/photos/9xDYYQGtba6LPM1Y7 Very biodegradable in this case but still an interesting question.

You can imagine them eventually having an option for "i'll supply eggs, milk, flour" or whatnot, but I can definitely imagine that you'd have an awkward product experience when you figure out you actually don't have any

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#112

Post by bayofpigs »

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…

Blue Apron publishes all their recipes for free online so there's nothing stopping you from buying everything yourself for less.

The question is did you buy the ingredients and prepare the meals last week? If yes, then Blue Apron isn't for you. If not you would probably benefit. Simple as that.

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#113

Post by kafkaesq »

bkanber wrote: post #108
kafkaesq wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Something tells me a proper analysis of the net impact of their propose recycling scheme would be a bit more involved than the two numbers you came up with (and leaving aside such questions of how many customers will actually participate; and the fact that having all those gel packs that have been handled by N customers in the past be send in with my food shipments sounds, well, kind of gross).

That is, at the end of the day, it still sounds -- suspect.

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#114

Post by dmode »

I gave up Blue Apron after trying for a week for the huge amount of waste it generated to cook one meal. Multiple dry ice packs, plastic packaging for each and every ingredient, a large cardboard box. So much environmental negligence for what ? Cook a meal ?

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#115

Post by siliconc0w »

Anyone can follow instructions - the real 'cooking' skillset is planning your own meals, economizing on ingredients, and improving/iterating on dishes. It's like a 'hunting' app that delivers a deer and a rifle to your door.

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#116

Post by jerkstate »

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)?

My wife and I have been using Blue Apron for about a year now, and we still absolutely love it, we don't see ever cancelling unless something major changes.

We have a small child so restaurants can be challenging, but to us it feels like the time and effort spent preparing and cleaning up are comparable to the whole restaurant ordeal, and only a little bit more intensive than the take-away process. It's more "work" but the shared meal preparation ritual is a time honored tradition that really does feel like it promotes bonding in a positive way.

The main advantage over shopping for ingredients is that we get reasonable variation and good portion sizes without spending any time planning or shopping. We've also learned a number of new techniques for rounding out meals and balancing flavors from the Blue Apron patterns that help when cooking "freestyle."

I would probably even pay a little more (but probably not much) for a more localized version that produced less trash and minimized how far my food traveled to my plate, but it would have to be just as convenient and "everything included" as Blue Apron is.

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#117

Post by tyrust »

cle wrote: post #70
dragonwriter wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? The trash is a lot more than grocery shopping, because everything (except certain produce items) is still packages individually, and in much smaller containers for "pantry basics" that are used in small amounts in each recipe (vinegars, etc.), Plus there's the insulation and cold packs. > And I'm sure the shipping is less polluting than having all the customers drive around too. Grocery delivery is a thing, thou…

Almost everything is recyclable. And there's a different kind of waste that is reduced by BA. Every week my wife and I would have to throw out unused produce that didn't divide evenly into our meals, and it is pretty significant unless you're an expert at meal planning. There is zero food waste with BA...

>it is pretty significant unless you're an expert at meal planning

If you're wasting food that often then perhaps adjustments are necessary.

>There is zero food waste with BA

Is there a citation for that very strong claim? Zero waste would require perfectly timed and sized resource allocation through their entire pipeline.

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#118

Post by choxi »

Are S1 filings required to look awful? More seriously, are there certain formatting rules/requirements? They always look like some intern slapped together copy and corporate stock images into a Word doc and then shipped it.

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#119

Post by Kalium »

tdeck wrote: post #107
gigatexal wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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 excellent logic! However, it's possible that it only really works ideally if you consider shopping to not be a cost or do it for zero time. When shopping is both a time and complexity sink, some people choose to consider the option of spending money instead of time and effort.

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#120

Post by eropple »

nilkn wrote: post #57
koolba wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't the meats shipped with dry ice / styrofoam?

I don't remember receiving any dry ice or styrofoam. The ice pack is recyclable. You just have to let it melt and empty out the water. There's a foil liner which is also recyclable. If there's no recycling option near you, you can even send the recyclable materials back to Blue Apron and they'll recycle it.

Do you think that people who are so theoretically time-strapped as to be using Blue Apron are likely to invest the time to recycle?
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