Live data from Hacker News

Blue Apron becomes a penny stock, trading under $1 for the first time

markets.businessinsider.com

41–50 of 336 posts

Re: Blue Apron becomes a penny stock, trading under $1 for the first time

#41
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> my wife thought it would be helpful for me to start cooking, as she was getting stressed out with our 2 years old. This seems like a good opportunity to see if there is more labor (emotional or physical) that your wife is doing that she could use a hand with. > My wife doesn't have nag me about what I what I want for the week's dinner Meal planning is work. She is doing a job for the family. She is trying to includ…

HN: come for the engineering talk, stay for the relationship advice.

The point I was trying to articulate was broader than individual relationship advice. It's more about recognizing and respecting the work everyone does -- especially the work that's taken for granted.

Re: Blue Apron becomes a penny stock, trading under $1 for the first time

#42
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Investors aren't stupid and realize a company doing a reverse split just to maintain the minimum share price is doomed. See also: $HMNY.

then thats what the article should be about, not an arbitrary share price metric

It's not arbitrary at all (well, I suppose the listing requirements are arbitrary), as I've noted elsewhere:

> You'll get delisted from the NYSE if you fall below $1/share or below a certain market cap for more than 30 consecutive trading days.

It's actually a pretty big deal for Blue Apron.

Re: Blue Apron becomes a penny stock, trading under $1 for the first time

#43

After 10 years of marriage, my wife thought it would be helpful for me to start cooking, as she was getting stressed out with our 2 years old. We used Blue Apron as the starting point. I can't tell you how much time we save in planning meals and trips to the store. My wife doesn't have nag me about what I what I want for the week's dinner. The quality of the food and the time saved is well worth the price. I know the…

Dang, I had the opposite experience with Blue Apron. Never saved time. Expensive and the recipes took 2-3x longer than it says on the box. Delicious food, but there was no leftovers. We finished the food and were still hungry. Cannot fathom using them as a meal provider. The only thing I learned is that roasted beats and carrots are delicious. Don't need Blue Apron anymore.

It's really tough to time a recipe. Especially, because Blue Apron has so many whole foods that need peeling and cutting--it's not like you just put it in the oven and set a timer. I do think their estimations are a bit idealistic. I've seen the prep times vary 2-3x depending on who in the family makes it.

One thing I've noticed that can improve prep times is taking a basic knife skills class. You'll notice grandmothers who have been cooking for decades are often pretty clunky with a knife. There are still some things that you have limited control over that will slow you down: counter space, kitchen layout, sink size, or what bowls and pots you have.

Years ago I feel like they had more leftovers. Usually, it was the side dish where they gave you a whole head of cabbage instead of half to prep. It was usually mentioned in the recipe. I had been meaning to look back to see if they amended the recipes when they repeated them removing the leftovers--but I haven't used Blue Apron in probably a year now.

I'm glad you learned that roasting vegetables are dead simple and delicious. I feel like growing up with canned and boiled vegetables this was somehow a well kept secret until recently. But there are other meal-kits out there that vary widely on complexity and prep time.

Re: Blue Apron becomes a penny stock, trading under $1 for the first time

#44
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's definitely a use case for these services. It's just a fairly narrow one. - Willing and able to cook for, ideally, more than one person - Able to plan a week ahead for the most part - OK with paying a non-trivial premium to have a lot of menu planning and shopping be handled by someone else I tried Blue Apron and thought it was "OK" but I could never really make these meal kit services work out for me. t obvio…

Blue aprons should seek to have some subsidies from states or insurance where they can provide healthy meals to SnAP users, or elderly, or offer it to apartment complexes where they know how many units just want "blue apron sunday dinner" or something

The average SNAP benefit is $126 a month. According to Blue Apron, their price per serving is $10 plus shipping. At their lowest tier, Blue Apron costs $50 a week for 4 servings.

Neither Blue Apron nor SNAP recipients could survive off of one another.

Re: Blue Apron becomes a penny stock, trading under $1 for the first time

#45
post #15

After 10 years of marriage, my wife thought it would be helpful for me to start cooking, as she was getting stressed out with our 2 years old. We used Blue Apron as the starting point. I can't tell you how much time we save in planning meals and trips to the store. My wife doesn't have nag me about what I what I want for the week's dinner. The quality of the food and the time saved is well worth the price. I know the…

There's definitely a use case for these services. It's just a fairly narrow one. - Willing and able to cook for, ideally, more than one person - Able to plan a week ahead for the most part - OK with paying a non-trivial premium to have a lot of menu planning and shopping be handled by someone else I tried Blue Apron and thought it was "OK" but I could never really make these meal kit services work out for me. t obvio…

It's targeting a narrow intersection of people who are rich enough to pay $10 per serving for a meal, have the time to cook every night, and are okay with the lack of customizability in ingredients.[1]

We considered it but it made no sense for us. It would save us a little money versus eating out all the time, but it doesn't solve the time problem (my wife and I both get home around 7:30 or 8:00 and need to get the family fed immediately). It reduces grocery shopping time, but we do that on the weekend where we actually have a couple of hours to spare, unlike after work.

I would rather see a high-end TV dinner service.

[1] And also apparently don't have any kids--paying $10 for an adult is one thing, paying $10 for a full meal for a child is another.

Re: Blue Apron becomes a penny stock, trading under $1 for the first time

#46

"Securities traded on a national stock exchange, regardless of price, are exempt from regulatory designation as a penny stock"[1] Blue Apron is on the NYSE [1]"SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION 17 CFR Part 240" https://www.sec.gov/rules/final/34-51983.pdf

They will do a reverse split, perhaps 10:1 to get the stock back up in price.

Re: Blue Apron becomes a penny stock, trading under $1 for the first time

#47
post #15

After 10 years of marriage, my wife thought it would be helpful for me to start cooking, as she was getting stressed out with our 2 years old. We used Blue Apron as the starting point. I can't tell you how much time we save in planning meals and trips to the store. My wife doesn't have nag me about what I what I want for the week's dinner. The quality of the food and the time saved is well worth the price. I know the…

There's definitely a use case for these services. It's just a fairly narrow one. - Willing and able to cook for, ideally, more than one person - Able to plan a week ahead for the most part - OK with paying a non-trivial premium to have a lot of menu planning and shopping be handled by someone else I tried Blue Apron and thought it was "OK" but I could never really make these meal kit services work out for me. t obvio…

> OK with paying a non-trivial premium to have a lot of menu planning and shopping be handled by someone else

This is the one I've never been able to get past. For what these services cost, I can have someone else prepare my meal that will taste just as good or better. Why would I not do that?

I get if you're trying to learn to cook or something like that, but that only sounds like a temporary problem.

Re: Blue Apron becomes a penny stock, trading under $1 for the first time

#48

After 10 years of marriage, my wife thought it would be helpful for me to start cooking, as she was getting stressed out with our 2 years old. We used Blue Apron as the starting point. I can't tell you how much time we save in planning meals and trips to the store. My wife doesn't have nag me about what I what I want for the week's dinner. The quality of the food and the time saved is well worth the price. I know the…

Agree with everything you said and I don’t think mealkits are the problem, BlueApron isn’t sufficiently addressing the biggest pain point—time. We used BlueApron but moved to Gobble. The dishes tastes better and it takes 1/2 to 1/3 the time to cook compared to BlueApron. That’s less dishes as well so cleanup is fast. I suspect BlueApron is suffering because competitors are better addressing customer needs, not because mealkits are a bad idea.

Re: Blue Apron becomes a penny stock, trading under $1 for the first time

#49
post #45
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's definitely a use case for these services. It's just a fairly narrow one. - Willing and able to cook for, ideally, more than one person - Able to plan a week ahead for the most part - OK with paying a non-trivial premium to have a lot of menu planning and shopping be handled by someone else I tried Blue Apron and thought it was "OK" but I could never really make these meal kit services work out for me. t obvio…

It's targeting a narrow intersection of people who are rich enough to pay $10 per serving for a meal, have the time to cook every night, and are okay with the lack of customizability in ingredients.[1] We considered it but it made no sense for us. It would save us a little money versus eating out all the time, but it doesn't solve the time problem (my wife and I both get home around 7:30 or 8:00 and need to get the f…

And that is a very narrow intersection, hence the penny stock status. I knew Blue Apron was going to fail when my Mom kept trying to give me hers that were going to go rotten soon.

Re: Blue Apron becomes a penny stock, trading under $1 for the first time

#50

"Securities traded on a national stock exchange, regardless of price, are exempt from regulatory designation as a penny stock"[1] Blue Apron is on the NYSE [1]"SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION 17 CFR Part 240" https://www.sec.gov/rules/final/34-51983.pdf

Investopedia and most finance textbooks define any security trading as less than a dollar as a penny stock. Here is why: If a stock listed on the NASDAQ fails to meet a closing bid price of $1 for at least 30 consecutive days, it is delisted. If a stock listed NYSE trades for under $1 for 29 consecutive days, the company must, within 10 days, submit a plan to the NYSE to move the stock into the $1 territory within a short period of time or it is delisted. The Nasdaq has 3430 companies. The NYSE has 3136 companies. The Amex has 322 companies. Together, the 3 make up well over 95% percent of the publicly traded stock market. Thus the problem with penny stocks is that they can be delisted and then you become a bag holder.
Post reply on HN