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

markets.businessinsider.com

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

#131

Post by bluGill »

maxxxxx wrote: post #66
fetus8 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They could, but flour is sold in sacks. With blue apron you get your 2/3rd cup of flour not the full sack. The labor to measure out is too high, and you need larger scale factors than a store would have to make automating that work out.

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

#132

Post by notyourday »

yourbandsucks wrote: post #91
heavyset_go wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Why can't they sell for cheaper than $50/4? Sounds like they have a lot of high-tech labor costs for a fundamentally low-tech, low-margin business. They were all over my LinkedIn a year or two ago.

Because it was started by people who are not subject matter experts and funded by people who are not subject matter experts.

It may have a place at $5 per person per meal, all inclusive and even that it is questionable for the majority of the market.

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

#134

Post by ghaff »

joshstrange wrote: post #95
ghaff wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> I know there are some disadvantages about Blue Apron such as waste, carbon food print etc... >How nice of you to throw in a one line disclaimer, I'm sorry but that's not enough and undersells the horrible underbelly of this industry. I suspect that a lot of the people who make the most noise about the packaging waste eat out a lot. And there's an enormous amount of food waste (and well as all sorts of other costs)…

> But, heh, out of sight out of mind. Literally the definition of Blue Apron.

People are complaining because they do see all the packaging waste whereas they don't see all the food thrown out at restaurants.

I'm not a particular fan of any of these services but it's hard for me to get upset about the packaging, much of which I have ended up reusing.

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

#135

Post by wgerard »

gammateam wrote: post #115
wgerard wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Then reverse split and magically have higher value shares wow we've come full circle from my parent comment

I'm not sure what your argument is here, it seems like you don't think reverse splits have any implications or consequences for the company. You can't casually do a reverse split just to avoid being delisted. You're telling investors "we have no idea how to change direction so we're just gonna kick the can down the road for a bit". It's a really big deal, and if Blue Apron survives into 2020 it's very unlikely it will look anything like it does today.

Passing below the $1/share marker is a forcing function (i.e. it's not arbitrary at all) for the company to make significant adjustments, as opposed to the plethora of companies that trade in the $1-$10 range who can continue plodding along. BI's audience is one that's mostly aware of this fact, so that's why the article is about that "arbitrary" price marker - it's a sign of major changes incoming rapidly.

So, I guess I'm not really sure what your point is. "Just do a reverse split" is like saying "just declare bankruptcy" or "just charge more money" in that it glosses over the consequences of those actions greatly.

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

#136

Post by conanbatt »

ummonk wrote: post #121
jerkstate wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$10 per serving is essentially fast food prices in the bay area - you can't really get a healthy meal with meat and vegetables. My family used Blue Apron for a while when we first had kids, and it was great for our lifestyle. We did move on to a service that optimizes grocery shopping so we can buy ingredients for a week's worth of meals in one shopping trip. Edit: for those who asked, I am using thefresh20 now. It's…

Eh what? I can eat out at a restaurant for like $15 with tax and tip, and the packed food usually lasts me an additional meal. I avoid pricey restaurants though.

What do you eat at a restaurant that costs that much?

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

#137

Post by travelton »

I recently subscribed to a different box service, which does all the food prep work for you (chopping/dicing/slicing, making sauces). It generally takes us 20-30 minutes less to prep, cook and clean over Blue Apron. IMO this is the main value prop Blue Apron is missing.

For me, Blue Apron is really only solving for time spent looking up a recipe. In most cases, I'm already going to the grocery store each week. So, where's the value in spending $80/week? If you can shave off the time I spend in the kitchen, that's what I want to pay for. I suspect most people subscribe, love the new recipes they would typically pass over from the internet. And then a month in realize "I'm not saving any time by doing this... I don't want to spend an hour or more in the kitchen tonight... Let's just get take out.".

Aside from that, Blue Apron's fulfillment execution is very wonky. Missing/Bad/Broken ingredients, late boxes (which spoil if not delivered timely), and excessive packing.

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

#138

Post by aakilfernandes »

travelton wrote: post #137

I recently subscribed to a different box service, which does all the food prep work for you (chopping/dicing/slicing, making sauces). It generally takes us 20-30 minutes less to prep, cook and clean over Blue Apron. IMO this is the main value prop Blue Apron is missing. For me, Blue Apron is really only solving for time spent looking up a recipe. In most cases, I'm already going to the grocery store each week. So, wh…

Name of service please?

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

#139

Post by xeromal »

wastedhours wrote: post #85
rayiner wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> I would rather see a high-end TV dinner service. Am exploring that market at the minute, the model would be order on your morning commute, pick up freshly prepped ready meals from your transport hub on the way home. Interested in talking to anyone who's looking for something in that space.

We have a few of those in LA. They're called My Fit Foods and other similar names. They prep the food that day and offer breakfast, lunch, and deener options. Each meal runs 8 - 12 bucks. They're pretty wholesome usually, but they have a decent selection.

My fit foods went bankrupt not too long ago, but most have been transformed to local versions of the same company.

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

#140

Post by goldcd »

Always seemed a strange business model. Appealing to people who "want to cook", but doing so by turning yourself into a production-line assembler. Like saying your want to learn carpentry, by buying some Ikea flat-pack.

What confused me (and makes me think I've overlooked something) is why nothing more interesting has come along from the supermarkets. In the UK at least, they're all online and deliver - but they all seem to stick to "buy your ingredients and we'll deliver them". I'd quite enjoy one that let you browse recipes and would stick all the ingredients in your basket - but then added some intelligence. e.g. You add the "roast chicken weekend meal" to your cart, and it asks "are you going to eat all that chicken?" For £5 extra would you like to add some bacon, creme-fraiche, tarragon, frozen-pastry & peas to enable you to make a lovely pie on Monday? Or asks "what's in your fridge" - here are some recipes and prices for things to use it up? Could even add some intelligence - I don't like mushrooms, so when recommending a chicken pie and providing a recipe, switches something else into my basket & recipe (leeks are lovely). Or would further adjust the recipe - you said you needed to feed 8 at the weekend, so I picked the larger lump of meat, and have adjusted the cooking time in the recipe. Or "Do you own a pressure cooker, a freezer and have 2 hours free this weekend to batch cook some chilli" Or... basically Blue Apron and the rest seem to be trying to solve a real problem, completely the wrong way.

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