Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Blue Apron Files for IPO

sec.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 167 posts

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#141

Post by cpt1138 »

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)?

The recipes say season with salt and pepper, there is no salt/sodium you don't add yourself. Maybe your friends are too heavy with the salt shaker?

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#142

Post by stevewillows »

Retric wrote: post #140
stevewillows wrote: post #130

I think services like this are fantastic for teaching people how to cook and meal plan, ideally for young adults living on their own for the first time. Outside of the foundational argument, I don't really understand the benefit. To go a little off topic, what bothers me about groups like this, whole foods, and others, is the amount of needless packaging. For me, I buy all of my animal proteins at one of three butche…

Chicken can be $1 or 5+$ per pound depending on area and sales. So, your savings really depends.

Definitely. Even outside of the animal proteins, shopping at farm markets and such is remarkably cheaper.

One of the main hurdles for some friends has been purchasing less than picturesque veg. I challenge them to find the ugliest ones (without bruising, etc), which does help the conversion :)

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#144

Post by tdeck »

Kalium wrote: post #119
tdeck wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 spend…

Sure we can get into the details of it if you like, my point was just that it's not a trivial cost. It saves you the effort of shopping.

If you shop for groceries once a week, and make, say, 10 meals at home for an average of $4 each, then you're paying Blue Apron $60. It takes me about an hour to go shopping, but I live near the grocery store and enjoy being able to pick things out. Others might be in a different situation and be willing to pay a hefty fee to not bother.

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#145

Post by programmarchy »

radiorental wrote: post #137
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…

Do you have kids? The time and effort services like Blue Apron save in terms of not traveling to the super market, not having to think about what to cook, etc is the product. My father was an accomplished chef, my wife is a fantastic cook, our kids from 0-6 years sucked up so much time and energy however. Blue Apron was a godsend. Blue Apron is not cooking by numbers, it's convenience without the guilt/cost of eating…

Yep. When my wife was pregnant and then with an infant, Blue Apron was a huge help.

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#146

Post by torgoguys »

I've never tried BA, but I have heard the ads for them on lots of podcasts. You can triangulate the sections they want/require the podcast to use exact wording, and their argument for using the service doesn't appeal to me. Now, much of this is personal preference but here are comments about things I learned about the service from the ads:

1) recipes aren't repeated for at least a year. Boo! If I found something I like, I'd want to reorder it. (I'm not the kind of person who is always looking for something new).

2) 'regenerative farming practices' might be appealing to me, but the lack of specificity makes me think this is only done in a fad-ish sense.

3) $10 per person per meal...and I am doing the cooking? Sounds expensive.

4) 'less food waste' that's great but it sounds like it is at the expense of lots of packaging waste. And as you get experience, you find no need for much food waste anyway. Leftover ingredients can often be added to other dishes even if the recipe wouldn't necessarily call for it and you're not using super specialty flavors (see #6).

5) They used to refer to using 'local farms' in the ads. Local to them maybe, but not me likely. And I doubt packing the ingredients up and shipping them individually to me is more efficient than the standard food supply channels which are very efficient.

6) fancy sounding ingredients (always mentioned in the ads) don't impress me.

It's not all bad IMO though. The 'training wheels for cooks' argument is appealing to me in that it might get more folks used to cooking.

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#147

Post by tyrust »

cle wrote: post #135
tyrust wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

I'm talking about household food waste.

I see. Well moving the problem from individual homes to a larger organization probably does help, but it's important to be cognizant of the fact that waste is still happening somewhere.

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#148

Post by lawkwok »

stevewillows wrote: post #130

I think services like this are fantastic for teaching people how to cook and meal plan, ideally for young adults living on their own for the first time. Outside of the foundational argument, I don't really understand the benefit. To go a little off topic, what bothers me about groups like this, whole foods, and others, is the amount of needless packaging. For me, I buy all of my animal proteins at one of three butche…

I can see many people signing up for such a service to learn how to meal plan and get started cooking.

As someone who was never taught cooking and am always exhausted after work, I need as little friction as possible to consider cooking.

I wouldn't see myself using it long term though mainly because of the excessive packaging.

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#149

Post by eropple »

nilkn wrote: post #131
eropple wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I can only speak for myself, but I did recycle whatever I could from the leftover materials when I was subscribed. My apartment complex made it very easy to do so. Either way, needing to recycle is not unique to Blue Apron at all. You can easily go to the grocery store and come back with dozens of bags and packages and wrappings. Plenty of folks don't recycle in those circumstances either.

Fair enough--that wasn't a trap question, I was honestly curious. I usually go the butcher's-and-farmer's-market route and the amount of waste I end up with is very low, usually paper products and the like, so my view of that stuff is a little different. (If I hit a supermarket, I usually have my big ol' backpack.)

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#150

Post by stevewillows »

lawkwok wrote: post #148
stevewillows wrote: post #130

I think services like this are fantastic for teaching people how to cook and meal plan, ideally for young adults living on their own for the first time. Outside of the foundational argument, I don't really understand the benefit. To go a little off topic, what bothers me about groups like this, whole foods, and others, is the amount of needless packaging. For me, I buy all of my animal proteins at one of three butche…

I can see many people signing up for such a service to learn how to meal plan and get started cooking. As someone who was never taught cooking and am always exhausted after work, I need as little friction as possible to consider cooking. I wouldn't see myself using it long term though mainly because of the excessive packaging.

If you find some time, take a cooking class or two. With some basic skills and some planning, you can easily do most of your prep in advance (sort of like /r/MealPrepSunday, but for the next few days' recipes). For me, I prefer to shop daily since I find it extremely relaxing, but most veg will last quite a long time in the right conditions[1].

Growing up, my mother was a horrible cook (still is), so I was in the same boat as you. There are lots of ways to get into cooking, but, if you're interested, one really easy method is to cook your way through Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution [2]. Don't worry about buying the bigger kitchen tools like a food processor or anything, just make sure you have a good knife and some basic pans. I believe there's a list in the front of the book.

[1] http://www.thekitchn.com/the-kitchns-guide-to-storing-fruits...

[2] https://www.amazon.com/dp/1401310478

Post reply on HN