How well is papa Murphy’s doing? I found it really odd that I get the ingredients home and then cook again. Now Blue Apron is just making a generic company out of the papa Murphy model. I don’t find it attractive. When I saw that they are going public it just felt like a way to cash out of their short term popularity.
Blue Apron becomes a penny stock, trading under $1 for the first time
211–220 of 336 posts
Re: Blue Apron becomes a penny stock, trading under $1 for the first time
#212Always 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 work in this space, so I may have some insight. The short answer is sort of tautological or whatever the term is: Nobody is doing the recipe thing because nobody does the recipe thing.
Think about it this way: Amazon has how many billions of dollars? And they haven't done the recipe thing yet... why? The answer is probably simpler than you think: that's not how consumers choose what to buy [in sufficient quantities to make unit economics positive].
Your reasoning as to why Blue Apron's model is weird is spot on: it's weird because that's not how consumers actually shop and cook. If they did, it wouldn't be weird and Blue Apron would be doing much better.
Re: Blue Apron becomes a penny stock, trading under $1 for the first time
#213APRN's Q3 filings are ominous-- although margins are decent at 33%, they've never been profitable and their customer base decreased 25% Sept. 2017 to Sept. 2018.
Re: Blue Apron becomes a penny stock, trading under $1 for the first time
#214Always 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…
That and the people who cook at home either: 1. Love to cook. 2. Are quite price sensitive. The first group were never going to use blue apron. They have the skills and the interest to do it all themselves. The latter group is tricky to hold onto: margins must be relatively thin, and there’s a high probability that these users will learn how to assemble their own recipes to cut out even the razor thin margins that bl…
Your categories match my experience living in Silicon Valley, but outside of that bubble is not accurate at all. In the real world most people I know cook at home by default. Ordering take out or eating out is the exception, even if they're not foodies (or poor).
Re: Blue Apron becomes a penny stock, trading under $1 for the first time
#215Always 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…
I once had a cookbook named 'once a month cooking' https://www.amazon.com/Once-Month-Cooking-Revised-Delicious/...
Everything was laid out for you, what to buy, the order to prep and cook, and in one weekend you'd have everything ready for a month's worth of meals
Re: Blue Apron becomes a penny stock, trading under $1 for the first time
#216"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…
I thought the cutoff for penny stock was actually higher, like a few dollars.
Re: Blue Apron becomes a penny stock, trading under $1 for the first time
#217Blue Apron customer here, family of two, three meals a week for the past two years.
I like BA a lot, but I don't see anything about BA that is unique to them. There's probably 5 other options in my area. I stick with BA largely due to momentum.
For those curious:
Pros:
- No food waste. Grocery shopping inevitably resulted in large amounts of food getting tossed due to expiration (or even space concerns).
- "Forced" variety. I have had a _ton_ of meals and ingredients I would have never gotten if I wasn't doing BA. Things I've never heard of and wouldn't know to ask for. Now that I know of them, I bring them into some of my non-BA cooking too. Part of this is just just breaking habits. Before BA there were about 10 meals I was making a lot - I liked them I know how, etc., this meant I was only eating the ingredients in these meals which was probably not "complete nutrition."
- Learning a few "tricks." While the actual BA meals are cook by numbers, the specific steps often contain general purpose info. Random example: Before BA I never cooked with garlic, just never thought of it, but most BA meals use it. Now I use more garlic when I cook non-BA meals.
- Portion control. If I cook from a supermarket (and buy in super market portions) I inevitably make more than a meal, and inevitably _eat_ more than a meal. BA means I make and eat the suggested amount.
- No grocery shopping. I'm not a big fan of shopping and my wife hates grocery shopping, not having to do it is a plus.
- Less eating out. BA isn't cheap, but it's cheaper than most restaurants I'd go to. Having already paid for BA meals encourages eating them at home.
- Fast. The food isn't easier to prepare and certainly doesn't cook faster, but having exactly the right ingredients all together means I don't have to spend time assembling (or googling alternatives when I realize I forgot something).
- Fun. I look cooking, and I like BA cooking. Probably not for everyone, but there you have it.
Cons:
- Not cheap.
- Bummer when you don't like the meal. (Rare, but it happens.) Worse when you _know you're not going to like it_ but it was you're only option. Example: The texture of kale bugs me and sometimes you can't get a meal without it.
- Doesn't scale for guests.
Note: I don't buy the argument that BA packaging is bad. It's almost all recyclable. But I live in an area that makes recycling pretty easy so that might not be generalizable.
Re: Blue Apron becomes a penny stock, trading under $1 for the first time
#218Re: Blue Apron becomes a penny stock, trading under $1 for the first time
#219Earlier 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.
Sounds similar to munchery but without the delivery. Question is if the hubs are located in convienent locations or not. If you make me sit in rush hour traffic to pick up dinner not already on the way, that’s a no go.
Re: Blue Apron becomes a penny stock, trading under $1 for the first time
#220Earlier 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…
It's $5-$7 for a standard meal at McDonald's - $10 for a healthier and more interesting alternative seems like a small premium.
You can cook a healthy meal for the McDonald’s price.