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Juicero Is Shutting Down

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361–370 of 413 posts

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I write down a shopping list because otherwise I forget things. It would be hard to make something more convenient than a pen and paper though. And in the store crossing things off the nigh indestructible scrap of worthless paper is better than fiddling with a device.

I use Simple Notepad[0] on my android phone. It has a checklist option that I go to the store with, which works much better than the list I write, which works much better than the list I keep in my head. [0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mightyfrog...

Been there and tried it - went back to paper.

A piece of paper is 'always on', it wraps around the push bar of the food cart so I don't have to make adjustments to hold the 'device' and steer at the same time, or keep fishing the phone out of my pocket and unlocking it, nor from the cart itself, while ensuring I don't drop any shopping on the screen or stray too far from the cart and give someone the opportunity to grab the phone.

The only way I'd go back to using a smartphone is if the cart had a lockable universal smartphone cradle. Bonus points would be given for a built-in charger - provided the stores maintained everything so you didn't need to 'test' the carts outside to find one with a working charger and cradle.

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#362
post #339

After watching their promo video at the top of the page, I'm left wondering two things: - If the machine takes away all my liberty (I cannot use it on my fruit and vegetables) and even their packs need to be refrigerated and stay good only for 8 days, can't I just buy the resulting juice and put it in my fridge? (If I left the bottle closed, that would last equally long). So what do I gain? - They're using QR codes t…

You gain the prestige of saying "you want a fresh-squeezed juice?" to your guests. Keurig grew HUGE in large part thanks to the appearance of higher class it brought to ordinary homes and offices. Instead of fooling with tools, you click a button on a sleek looking SV futuremachine, and presto. Humans are weird, and this is a very good marketing strategy.

I have a Nespresso machine and highly disagree with you. The worst part of preparing Coffee is cleaning and the time required when I just want the coffee and not to mess with tools.

With the Nespresso, I just put the capsule and I get my coffee. The cleaning is easy and I don't need to clean stuff for every coffee.

Sure, you might do a whole bottle of coffee and consume it during the day. But the machine gives you convenience and it is affordable.

I have no problem putting 200-300USD on a coffee machine.

For juice? Well, I like it fresh. I didn't try Juicero but I highly doubt that it compares to freshly squeezed oranges.

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#363
post #354
post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought nespresso had DRM to stop other coffee pods.

No DRM as far as I can tell. You can make your own pods with simple kits which are basically just an empty capsule and some foil you stick on the top.

Indeed. Lots of supermarkets and coffee brands in the UK sell their own Nespresso-compatible pods, often much cheaper than the "real" ones.

In Germany, Nestle tried and failed to ban sales of unlicensed pods:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandcon...

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#364
post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You gain the prestige of saying "you want a fresh-squeezed juice?" to your guests. Keurig grew HUGE in large part thanks to the appearance of higher class it brought to ordinary homes and offices. Instead of fooling with tools, you click a button on a sleek looking SV futuremachine, and presto. Humans are weird, and this is a very good marketing strategy.

I'm not familiar with Keurig, but I assume it is similar to Nespresso? Nespresso became extremely popular because: 1) The machines are very cheap (compared to other espresso makers) 2) They take a fraction of the time to prepare coffee (compared to other methods) 3) They are extremely easy to clean 4) Capsules have a long shelf life, you can get them in small quantities, so it doesn't matter if you drink 3 cups of co…

> 1) The machines are very cheap (compared to other espresso makers)

Simply not true, I have an 160eur Delonghi espresso machine which takes grounded coffee (doesn't grind it itself), and it's pretty awesome for what it cost me. Every 2 weeks, I go to a local coffee shop where I buy on high-quality freshly roasted coffee which I let the shop grind for me. It gives me way better coffee than what I get from a Nespresso.

Sure it's a bit more cleanup, but the results are a lot better, and it allows me to pretty easily make a killer cappuccino.

> 4) Capsules have a long shelf life, you can get them in small quantities...

Coffee, once roasted and grounded does not have a long shelf-life, taste and quality goes down remarkably. That's probably also what makes the most difference in quality comparing a Nespresso with my 'fresher' coffee. The capsules being packed in vacuum does improve this, but I wouldn't keep them for longer than a year.

I get my coffee in 250g bags, which is about 15 espresso's, that's not exactly 'large quantities'.

> 5) They have really fancy stores in top locations where they sell their capsules

I prefer local specialized shops that know what the hell they are talking about.

But yes I get the convenience and cleaning. Time to prep is a thing, with my machine, it takes about 1.5 to 2 minutes from start to finish, including 30 sec brew-time and quickly rinsing and wiping everything - which isn't that bad in my book - but yes, a Nespresso scores points here. I don't think I would go through the hassle at work every time I wanted a cup.

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even so, I don't think a large difference between the BOM and the price the consumer pays is necessarily a ripoff. Actually, in some jurisdictions, if that difference goes over 12.5% of the paid price, and the customer is not specifically informed about this (and about potential cheaper competitors), the contract is not valid.

I've not heard of that before. Where is this?

Germany used to have laws similar to this for centuries (also in terms of a limit of how high interest could be, and a general profit limit, see "Wucher"), but many parts of these rules have been removed over the decades and centuries.

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#366
post #14

AvE tore one of their machines down awhile back[0]. It's so over engineered, I was wondering how they'd ever make money back with their business model. [0] https://youtu.be/_Cp-BGQfpHQ

As I kept watching the video I thought the word "overengineered" was the completely wrong word, and AvE himself addresses it perfectly in the end: It's "underengineered", "underdesigned" but "overbuilt".

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#367
post #328
post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might want to double-think that filter thing. Water filters can build up bacteria (listeria is not a fun thing - there are others, too - some pretty bad); this can cause everything from a "funky smell" to "go to emergency room or die". That said, tap water in most municipalities is pretty damn clean, and you can run without a filter; but if you don't want to change the filter, then do just that - remove the filte…

This is my fridge air filter - https://youtu.be/ziaCjNIPSCU all the new fridges have them now. It's literally just for filtering the air in the fridge, the high tech version of a box of baking soda. My HVAC system is steam radiators, which, thankfully, don't require filters. I don't doubt that filters should be changed regularly but I don't trust LG to tell me when.

Excuse my ignorance, but I've never heard or fridges having filters. What are they used for?

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll say this -- and I'm in the "this is a stupid fucking product" camp -- but I think sending updates to your appliances to keep you from using bad food is actually the right way to go. I barely read half my mail, snail or electronic. The chances I'm going to see and read and act on a "your food is bad!!!" email (assuming it doesn't get eaten by some filter) before I eat the food in question is low, low low. Some de…

"Carl's Jr. believes no child should go hungry." Kidding aside, this is too simple of a problem to solve. Serious contamination isn't a part of 1st world daily life, because we have excellent news and regulations (so far). Rotten food is easy to detect, and even some of the stuff we consider rotten would probably not make us sick. It's all a shiny coat of wax on a non-problem, just like bottled water and gingivitis.

Food contamination is a low-probability problem, sure, but it is hardly a minor one. It kills people.

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#369
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consumers will (and do, all the time) spebd $700 or more for kitchen appliances, provided the use of the appliance is expected to provide adequate value to warrant that. The fact that it's a juicer, and that you are locked-in to Juicero packs, is what limits the market, not the fact that it is a “kitchen appliance”.

> The fact that it's a juicer The biggest problem is Juicero isn't a juicer . Juicero's market was limited because the average customer doesn't want to pay a premium for juice press theater. Shoving juice into packs that are hard for the consumer to access is simply a worse experience than the status quo containers of juice.

> juice press theater

Yes, this should be their epitaph.

It's actually hopeful in a way. Substance still has sway over style.

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