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

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61–70 of 336 posts

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

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Delicious food, but there was no leftovers. I don't understand why do you want leftover food?

So you can eat it for lunch the next day.

If you want two meals why not get two meals instead of expecting one meal to provide two - doesn’t seem like a reasonable expectation to me.

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

#62
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They recently added meals that take 20-30min rather than 30-55min and it has made a world of difference, not to mention they expanded the menu. I also find some of the meals tastier because they're simpler rather than using too many ingredients. I still get the occasional bland one, but they have improved. As a company I wouldn't invest in them. The amount they spend on advertising (e.g. really pricey podcast adverti…

I only used them once and one of the meals was the most complicated hamburger recipe I'd ever made and I didn't think it was really all that good. I half suspect there are motivations behind making the recipes for these services complex and a little exotic. If they had four ingredient recipes that took 10 minutes of prep, I daresay a lot of people would think "I'm paying 2x to 3x what I would pay in the grocery store…

There's definitely a novelty factor--sometimes it pays off and other times it doesn't. I think "the standards" for American cuisine have the least payoff. I like that they would rarely repeat the grain/rice. It's likely a lot cheaper for them to acquire something popular in Italy in bulk, interesting to try in a controlled setting, and if I want to make the recipe again I can swap it out for white rice.

> The only reason I'd use something like this is if they did a lot of the pre-prep so it really is a quick meal

That sounds like a different market than Blue Apron is going for. From what I've seen they seem to be focusing on people who like getting whole fruits and vegetables and you cut and peel them yourself. People who are interested in cooking, but don't necessarily have formal training. Other meal kits will probably be a better fit for a quick, weeknight meal with little to no prep.

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

#63
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It's a symbolic milestone, that's it. If a company's stock keeps plunging eventually you have to decide that it's time to talk about it, having it cross the $1 threshold seems like a decent time. It gives an excuse to make an article and recap the events that lead to this situation. As someone who didn't follow this story closely it's useful to have this bit of context.

> It's a symbolic milestone

It's actually not symbolic at all, it's a very real (negative) milestone that has ramifications for the company.

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

#64

I feel like grocery stores could easily compete with blue apron for much lower costs. Just ration the food they already have in stock in little packages. Charge a little more than you would otherwise for the employees time picking recipes and combining them into the packages. I would happily use this service at local grocery stores. But compared to grocery stores and cooking from scratch blue apron is too expensive f…

Like this: https://myedmondsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/MVIMG_2...

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

#65
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They recently added meals that take 20-30min rather than 30-55min and it has made a world of difference, not to mention they expanded the menu. I also find some of the meals tastier because they're simpler rather than using too many ingredients. I still get the occasional bland one, but they have improved. As a company I wouldn't invest in them. The amount they spend on advertising (e.g. really pricey podcast adverti…

I only used them once and one of the meals was the most complicated hamburger recipe I'd ever made and I didn't think it was really all that good. I half suspect there are motivations behind making the recipes for these services complex and a little exotic. If they had four ingredient recipes that took 10 minutes of prep, I daresay a lot of people would think "I'm paying 2x to 3x what I would pay in the grocery store…

What's really weird to me is that you can go to the store and get food that's basically ready to serve after you warm it up.

You could eat steaks, fish sticks, brats, chicken, pork, chicken nuggets, fries, a huge variety of vegetables ready to be steamed from the frozen section. You could eat that every day and pay a quarter of what it costs for this stuff to be hand picked for you.

You don't even need to season any of it and it's delicious fried up in olive oil and butter and a little salt.

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

#66
post #22
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never used Blue Apron and I'm curious - how much actual cooking do you do with a typical Blue Apron meal? Are you preparing, mixing, cutting, etc. or are you primarily mixing together already prepared ingredients and timing them as they cook? Could someone who has never cooked use Blue Apron as a starting point to learn basic cooking skills?

You are preparing, mixing, cutting and cooking everything yourself. You're given the raw ingredients just like you'd buy yourself at the grocery store and given an easy to follow recipe to do everything yourself. If you've never cooked before, you are definitely in their target demographic. The recipes are generally simple enough and explained well enough that it would teach you the basic cooking skills you lack.

It sounds like grocery stores could provide that service pretty easily now that they have online shopping. Send them a recipe and they put the ingredients into a shopping bag ready to go.

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

#67

I feel like grocery stores could easily compete with blue apron for much lower costs. Just ration the food they already have in stock in little packages. Charge a little more than you would otherwise for the employees time picking recipes and combining them into the packages. I would happily use this service at local grocery stores. But compared to grocery stores and cooking from scratch blue apron is too expensive f…

Some already do this [0] and it's 10000x better than Blue Apron/Plated/Hello Fresh. Also they don't have the same perverse incentives that BA/P/HF have. Kroger might make a profit off their meal kits but they aren't 100% reliant on that revenue, in fact I'd bet they don't really care that much if you but the meal kit or all the parts of the meal kit because you are still buying it in their stores. [0] https://www.kro…

That's really good to hear. I don't have Kroger near me now unfortunately. I might contact some local grocers and suggest this as I really think this model of cooking could improve my quality of life significantly.

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

#68
post #40

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…

I thought the Blue Apron recipes were too complicated, used too many pans to wash, and wasted too much packaging material. I found no time savings when was all said and done. I have an easy enough time following recipes from books like America's Test Kitchen cooking for two [1], etc, and spending 10 or 15 minutes planning meals each week. Plus, I probably spend quite a bit less, and if I meal plan correctly, I'll do…

My experience has been that most of the recipes I’ve received are single pot/pan recipes

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

#69
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never used Blue Apron and I'm curious - how much actual cooking do you do with a typical Blue Apron meal? Are you preparing, mixing, cutting, etc. or are you primarily mixing together already prepared ingredients and timing them as they cook? Could someone who has never cooked use Blue Apron as a starting point to learn basic cooking skills?

My experience from trying it out a few years ago is that you do all the work. Nothing comes prepared, so basically a box of ingredients + the recipe. I would think it would be a good way to learn how to cook. I hated this, and would rather have all the prep work done for me (e.g. diced onions instead of a whole raw onion). Also I didn't like all the packaging/ice packs/bubble wrap. It all seemed really wasteful compa…

Recently they’ve been moving towards preprepped or semi prepped ingredients such as presliced beef and chicken, prechopped kale. Not sure if that’s a pro or a con, but it does make the recipes faster to prepare

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

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you can eat it for lunch the next day.

If you want two meals why not get two meals instead of expecting one meal to provide two - doesn’t seem like a reasonable expectation to me.

Because when you're paying $10 for one meal you kind of hope it goes a little further.

To put this in perspective, if I go to the store and buy a 10 dollar meal, I'll be eating: porter house, slathered in butter and olive oil, asparagus fried in the juices, with a baked potato. I'll have also a side of chilean grapes and a slice of cheese cake for desert.

10 dollars is a crazy amount for a dinner. (Ok that might cost more like $15)

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