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

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

#151

Post by taude »

dragonwriter wrote: post #72
taude wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> I thought the Blue Apron recipes were too complicated, used too many pans to wash, and wasted too much packaging material. I've rarely seen a BA recipe use more than one pot and one pan, most, IME, use a single pan (often with a wipe-and-reuse step to do that.) If anything, BA goes out of their way to minimize the required cooking vessels compared to most recipe sources (even America’s Test Kitchen, which is actual…

I wonder if their recipes have evolved over the years. Like I mentioned, I haven't used them in four years.

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

#152

Post by reaperducer »

goldcd wrote: post #140

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…

There are a number of apps and web sites that do what you ask. My favorite one (from the old iPhone days, now discontinued) would let you input the ingredients you have on hand, and it would suggest what you can make with them.

They seem to come and go. I think the problem for a supermarket to adopt something like this is that you can use it to make a list using one market's superior app, then do your actual shopping at another market.

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

#153

Post by taude »

goldcd wrote: post #140

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…

I've seen meal kits in stores here in the Boston area, Wegman's I think.

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

#154

Post by jonathanjaeger »

behringer wrote: post #65
ghaff wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I buy the family size of Blue Apron for myself (12 meals at $8.99 per serving). There is no food in NYC of any considerable size/quality/taste that is a quarter of that price for that amount of calories. Ramen noodles and tuna maybe..

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

#155

Post by wgerard »

gammateam wrote: post #146
wgerard wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 wil…

> You can't casually do a reverse split just to avoid being delisted. Narrator: You can. The point that it is a valid option and your point is that it has consequences. Not mutually exclusive. Being punted to the Bulletin Boards or Pink Sheets has worse consequences for some of the investors who literally can't hold it anymore, thats a greater consequence than their opinion on a reverse split.

It seems like you're more interested in being correct than having a discussion, so I'll leave you to it.

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

#156

Post by SlowRobotAhead »

joshstrange wrote: post #54

Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, Plated, and all the other food prep deliver services are a hack. A disgusting, wasteful hack. Calling someone using Blue Apron a cook is like calling someone doing a "paint by numbers" a painter. I'm not trying to be a cooking snob but I get really sick of people praising BA/Plated/etc as some amazing concept or a huge time saver. It's neither, it's for people who want food delivery (as in Ub…

There are definitely people a service like this makes sense for. The issue isn’t that someone following a recipe doesn’t match your expectation of a Parisian chef carefully selecting items at a hole-in-the-wall fromagerie on Rue Mouffetard.... it’s that Blue Apron’s model is simply too easy to copy.

My local Albertsons has meals in box ready to roll. Amazon is launching their service. There are the Blue Apron clones you listed.

BA’s stock price isn’t because they are “hacks” or because the idea is bad.

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

#157

Post by marrone12 »

ghaff wrote: post #142

Somewhat OT but do any of these services let you opt into deliveries rather than opt out? As someone who might consider trying out a few meals now and then on a week when I'm not traveling/busy, the menus look appealing, etc. I'd be potentially interested. But I don't want to have to be constantly opting out and/or canceling my subscription (which I'm sure would get messed up sooner or later). It really is a dark pat…

I haven't used Blue Apron in a couple years but it used to be an opt-out dark pattern which was supremely frustrating.

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

#158

Post by padobson »

goldcd wrote: post #140

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…

Still too much work!

How about you give me a list of meals, I pick 50 or 100 of them, and then you give me a shopping list for the month including where to get it at the best price, taking advantage of bulk purchasing and overlapping ingredients. Then email/text/notify me every day with the recipe for dinner that night. I'll keep the left overs and use them for lunches.

This should minimize time for planning and cost of meals, two things Blue Apron largely fails to do.

It'd also be nice if I could get a further notification asking me how long it took me to prepare, so the service can get an idea for how long it takes me to cook and help me plan dinners accordingly - maybe giving me faster alternative alongside the normal dinner plan.

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

#159

Post by jghn »

ghaff wrote: post #150
jghn wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They seem to frequently include one atypical or exotic ingredient, I’ve always figured it was a way to get people to think it’s something they can’t get at the store and thus more likely to purchase. To be honest it does work on me. I get a BA shipment here or there and it’s always because they’re using something I wouldn’t normally work with or see at the at the store. I personally don’t mind most of the other commo…

The first meal I got from BA was some sort of poached Cod with ramps. Ramps I had never heard of although I understand now that some people get very excited by them during their short season. (I think I've seen them once in a grocery store--Whole Foods naturally.) However, I'm pretty sure that if you substituted scallions, the world would not come to an end.

I think you're spot on with that last assessment. Generally those ingredients I mentioned I'm sure don't make a big difference over some other reasonable substitution.

For me, it makes for a nice change of pace anyways and as I've mentioned in another comment the BA meals tend to be quicker/easier to prepare than my normal cooking so that's also a nice change of pace. I tend to order one shipment ever 2 months or so on average I'd guess.

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

#160

Post by crysin »

behringer wrote: post #70
chrisseaton wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

A porterhouse alone is typically 8 to 10 dollars, so no you're meal you listed there is more like 20. Sure Blue Apron is expensive but don't go making it sound like you can have a big nice steak, a baked potato, an expensive dessert, some butter and vegetables for near the same cost.
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