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Blue Apron Files for IPO

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Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#151

Post by randycupertino »

bcassedy wrote: post #96
jonaf wrote: post #23

I'm shocked to see an IPO for one of these delivery companies. Not because there doesn't seem to be a value proposition, but because I don't understand what sets them apart from the competition. They seem to be in a flooded market: Plated, HelloFresh, I think I've seen commercials for a few more, and they seem to barely add value on top of another flooded market, grocery delivery: instacart, uber has a service like t…

I'd argue that they add a ton of value over grocery delivery. They're handling meal planning and portioning. That's a lot less wasted food and a lot less stress for anyone that isn't content to recycle the same few recipes week in week out. I do agree that differentiating between competitors is tough though. On the surface all of these companies look about the same. They try to cater to different segments - health co…

Exactly the same- we use Munchery and love it. I don't get why people want to fake-cook Blue Apron when you can just heat it up with Munchery... same quality!

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#152

Post by be_erik »

stevewillows wrote: post #142
Retric wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 :)

I want to head to your farmer's market then. I live in a high density city and proteins at my farmer's market are at least 2x supermarket prices.

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#153

Post by [deleted] »

kafkaesq wrote: post #113
bkanber wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

[deleted]

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#154

Post by artursapek »

Karunamon wrote: post #126
artursapek wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trash is generally a byproduct of convenience, so I'm not surprised to hear this product generates a lot of trash. One can say the same thing about Keurigs, that hilarious Juicero thing, and many other services. I instinctively avoid this kind of thing now, not just because of the quality compromise but also this trash efficiency compromise. It's really short-sighted and lazy to consume in this fashion. Go to a damn…

Your accusatory comment assumes that the reader: * Lives in an area with a farmer's market in accessible range (i.e. they don't live in a food desert[1] like ~24 million Americans - and that's just any kinda real market) * Spends as much or less at the market as on a service like this, factoring in all externalities such as food waste, travel time and expense, and so on * Has the time to spend getting to the market a…

Somehow those people in "food deserts" managed to get by for hundreds of years before this era of wasteful ultra-convenience startups.

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#155

Post by stevewillows »

be_erik wrote: post #152
stevewillows wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 :)

I want to head to your farmer's market then. I live in a high density city and proteins at my farmer's market are at least 2x supermarket prices.

oh yeah! Not a farmers market. Those are $$$. Find a farm market where a lot of immigrants shop. They're typically smaller buildings with lots of stuff crammed in. Often the produce is stored on homemade wooden racks.

The one I go to is called Persian Market, but there are a few other Italian ones that are almost as good. Dig around Yelp for farm markets under a single dollar sign.

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#156

Post by nostrademons »

jonaf wrote: post #94
nostrademons wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Capital. The more money you raise, the longer you last at gambler's ruin. Hence why they're IPOing.

That's interesting, but it sounds too simple. Surely any of the competitors could also IPO, and at that point, Blue Apron still needs to justify why the market is better off investing in their company. By contrast, prior to its acquisition by Google in October 2006, Youtube was one among many social video sites, and neither it nor any of its competitors IPO'd, ever (source: I searched for news relating to "video shar…

YouTube was bought really quickly, well before they had a revenue model. Post dot-com boom, you generally need at least revenue to have a decent chance of success on the public markets, even if you don't have profits.

A better analogy might be Groupon (IPO'd 2011) or GrubHub (IPO'd 2014). Both of those were in similarly indefensible industries - GrubHub even in food delivery - and they both IPO'd basically because having capital gave them a competitive advantage over competitors that didn't, because it let them not-die and continue attracting customers with subsidized prices. Neither was kind to public market investors, but it was absolutely the right choice for founders & early investors who got out (or in some cases, were forced out).

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#157

Post by kspaans »

eropple wrote: post #149
nilkn wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.)

It's not as simple as a straight comparison of what you bring back from from the grocery store and what's left over from your meal kit box. Grocery stores also have waste from the packaging that food comes in.

Disclaimer: I work for one of Blue Apron's competitors, Green Chef.

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#159

Post by kennydude »

Karunamon wrote: post #122
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.

How much is your time spent shopping (including round trip travel time, gas or taxi/bus fare) worth? What's the quality on their ingredients like? It's not a simple comparison between the receipt price of the raw ingredients.

I must be lucky, but for me walking 10 minutes to Aldi each way. Ingredients are probably £3-5 ($4-6) for two people. Makes these delivery things really expensive

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#160

Post by eropple »

kspaans wrote: post #157
eropple wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.)

It's not as simple as a straight comparison of what you bring back from from the grocery store and what's left over from your meal kit box. Grocery stores also have waste from the packaging that food comes in. Disclaimer: I work for one of Blue Apron's competitors, Green Chef.

> Grocery stores also have waste from the packaging that food comes in.

Err...so do you, yes?

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