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Juicero Is Shutting Down

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Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#401

Post by CaptainZapp »

zby wrote: post #335
overcast wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thing is, nothing about the Juicero is fresh squeezed. It's mostly masticated fruit pulp, that is squeezed out of a bag. That juice company you mentioned, is actually freshly squeezing juice. Juicero was complete nonsense from start to finish.

I believe originally they thought they might make a fresh squeeze. This story is similar to Theranos - the founders/executives just did not want to accept the reality. Juicero founders eventually gave up - and devised some crazy compromise that let them pretend that it is a fresh juice - but it was quite deceiving and it did not work well. https://medium.com/@zby/the-juicero-story-2f4f762f7e60

  This story is similar to Theranos
Except that Theanos recklessly endangered the health of many, many people who relied on their faulty test.

It's one thing to provide a massively overpriced juice press combined with a ridiculous subscription model than actually endangering peoples health by willful lying.

I cannot see any other reason for Theranos' conduct and if this world would be only halfway fair their executives would look at it from behind bars.

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#402

Post by CaptainZapp »

adrianN wrote: post #332
allenz wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While each little piece isn't very impressive, taken together I think it makes life significantly more convenient, anticipating your every need. The promise of IoT is that everything "just works", like magic. It's like having a personal butler.

Currently IoT delivers the experience of having a grumpy butler that regularly tells you to go fuck yourself and sells your personal information to the highest bidder.

And potentially refuses to open your main door since the union, to which the butler belongs, disbanded on two weeks notice and the butler refuses to work, unless he's unionized.

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#403

Post by CaptainZapp »

jjeaff wrote: post #396
allenz wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While each little piece isn't very impressive, taken together I think it makes life significantly more convenient, anticipating your every need. The promise of IoT is that everything "just works", like magic. It's like having a personal butler.

I agree with this sentiment. I made the decision a few years ago to try and automate away the little things. And I am surprised how often I actually use little things like adjusting the lighting, finding my phone or keys, or even raising and lowering blinds. Just yelling, "Alexa, turn off all the lights" as I walk out the door, or "Alexa, set the house temperature to 72" as I lay down for bed has really cut out a lot…

To me the prize, which comes in a complete invasion of privacy, is much too high to make such a gizmo worthwhile. Ever!

To each his own, I guess.

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#404

Post by thanksgiving »

infinite8s wrote: post #385
thanksgiving wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a feature (only) if they send you a replacement for free (with free shipping and everything) if you sent them a picture of the expired packet.

Why even need to send a picture? Each package is barcoded and the machine is internet connected. As soon as it was rejected it should schedule delivery of a replacement packet.

Sorry because I forgot that the juicer is connected to the Internet. Don't get me wrong I love technology but my first thought is we need failsafe backups (:

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#405

Post by chrischen »

ericd wrote: post #344
ra1n85 wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For Odwalla/Naked juice: Do you pay 8 dollars per bottle, need to wait for it to arrive in the mail, pay $400 for the juice press to make it, and get locked into a single product for all of your "fruit juice needs"? The last 3 words make this all the more stupid.

You don't need to convince me that juicero was stupid and unnecessary, just saying there's an analogue to gp's example in that there are already fairly expensive ($4/bottle) juices out there showing that there's a market for juice. There are also much more ridiculously priced juices, including, yes, $8 juices. I'm not the target market for those, but they exist at cafes and some other grab and go type places and have…

I'm not sure it's analogous though. It'd be analogous if juicero were selling just another juice bottle ready to drink but maybe mailed to you instead of sold in stores.

What juicero did was sell you an expensive machine to essentially squeeze odwalla bottles for you into a cup... something ludicrous like that.

There may be a market for juice bottles, but juicero wasn't selling juice bottles.

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#406

Post by Noumenon72 »

kenneth wrote: post #192
aoenht2nte8 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The concept of food that's uniquely tagged and tracked from origin to consumption is pretty attractive - makes contamination a breeze to trace back, keeps you from cooking with rotten food since the machine knows to reject it, and it could automatically track what you've got in your kitchen to suggest recipes / restock for you. What makes you think people want those things? I certainly don't, and I've never heard a…

People are way too paranoid over things "going bad" -- typically if something is unhealthy to eat, you'll see it or smell it. The expiration date is meaningless… I eat eggs or dairy past its expiration all the time. Meat and fish that's gone bad gets real smelly, there's very little chance you accidentally won't notice.

The expiration date is a good guide for those of us who are anosmic and wouldn't otherwise notice.

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#407

Post by mgkimsal »

Grustaf wrote: post #392
mgkimsal wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the right price point, probably. On demand juice for $2-$3/serving? Nope. We use kcups at the coworking space here, and at 30-35c, they're worth the convenience. 60c? $1? Nope - we'll just brew a big pot. But... we can get kcups from dozens of vendors with various flavors and price points. If a juicer machine had low price points (original machine and packs) that were available from multiple vendors... yeah, I'd g…

If you like keurig enough to drink it, why wouldn't you pay a dollar a cup? It's still a fraction of coffee house prices, even for takeaway.

if you drink 2-3 cups per day, you're now at... $3/day. Why pay more when you don't have to?

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#408

Post by taejo »

unclebucknasty wrote: post #399
grogenaut wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ggggp's whole point was it was going to compete with fresh squeezed. this whole discussion is how this isn't "fresh" in anyway. Unless FOJC is also fresh.

FOJC. Blech. I remember first trying Tropicana Pure Premium probably 2+ decades ago now. It was awesome. Tasted like pure juice from an orange. I don't drink OJ much anymore, but a couple of years ago I had some Pure Premium and noticed that it really tasted a lot more like concentrate than I'd remembered--it had that kind of acidic/slightly artificial taste. So, I did a little digging and found that it is now run th…

AIUI it is 100% orange juice in the sense that all of the ingredients are extracted from orange juice. Yes, "flavour packets" are added, but these flavourants are also 100% orange juice, just processed in a different way.

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#409

Post by alexanderstears »

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #149
alexanderstears wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>As for the "reducing food waste" concept - no store actually wants to achieve this. Think about it - actively trying to get people to buy less of what you sell is pretty bad for business. Which is why it's ripe for disruption. The consumer could be better off, a company that isn't in the space already could be better off, they're the people who need to make it happen.

There's the other half of the chain as well - the suppliers. If they know selling to NewFancyStoreWithLessFoodWaste leads to an end-game where there is less demand for their products, why should they bother?

Because the disruptor might succeed with or without them and the disruptor might treat them more favorably (at first) than the status quo.

My neighbor grows soybeans, and he hates the guy who buys his soybeans. If someone came in and treated him better and paid him more, I think he'd leap at the chance to sell his crop to them even if it imperiled the future.

Besides, suppliers aren't monolithic. Many suppliers are scrapping for new business or ways to differentiate themselves. Better farmers could be more successful in a paradigm where they could earn extra money for healthy plants than say selling to walmart who simply pays a fixed price if the plants meet minimum standards.

Re: Juicero Is Shutting Down

#410

Post by unclebucknasty »

taejo wrote: post #408
unclebucknasty wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FOJC. Blech. I remember first trying Tropicana Pure Premium probably 2+ decades ago now. It was awesome. Tasted like pure juice from an orange. I don't drink OJ much anymore, but a couple of years ago I had some Pure Premium and noticed that it really tasted a lot more like concentrate than I'd remembered--it had that kind of acidic/slightly artificial taste. So, I did a little digging and found that it is now run th…

AIUI it is 100% orange juice in the sense that all of the ingredients are extracted from orange juice. Yes, "flavour packets" are added, but these flavourants are also 100% orange juice, just processed in a different way.

Yeah, I believe the flavoring is typically derived from the oils found in the peel. I don't know if there are additional additives but, in any case, I think it's safe to say that peel oils are not what most people think of as orange juice. And, it certainly doesn't taste like it.
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