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Home food delivery’s questionable value, for consumers and investors

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Re: Home food delivery’s questionable value, for consumers and investors

#11

Post by core-utility »

sksksk wrote: post #6

There is an app in the UK called Lollipop, which works like Hello Fresh and the likes, except instead of delivering the ingredients to your house, it just adds the ingredients to the basket of your supermarket shop (and takes a commission). To me, that seems like the logical evolution of meal kit services; zero marginal costs by outsourcing the logistics to companies that already do it at scale. https://www.lollipopa…

My local Publix (South-Eastern US based chain) has their own brand of meal kits [1] that they sell in store. Seems like a win-win in terms of logistics since they've already got all that down. The only thing I could see is that you might spend a small premium for the convenience of having it pre-packaged and right sized for an individual consumer (when compared to buying a 4-pack of chicken breasts for example).

[1]: https://www.publix.com/recipes-planning/aprons-meal-kits

Re: Home food delivery’s questionable value, for consumers and investors

#12

Post by gruez »

sksksk wrote: post #6

There is an app in the UK called Lollipop, which works like Hello Fresh and the likes, except instead of delivering the ingredients to your house, it just adds the ingredients to the basket of your supermarket shop (and takes a commission). To me, that seems like the logical evolution of meal kit services; zero marginal costs by outsourcing the logistics to companies that already do it at scale. https://www.lollipopa…

That sounds like a great service, but terrible business model because you're reliant on supermarkets that can eat your lunch at any moment by launching a competitor. Since they also have a entire grocery supply chain, they'll be able to outcompete you on price as well.

Re: Home food delivery’s questionable value, for consumers and investors

#13

Post by theossuary »

sksksk wrote: post #6

There is an app in the UK called Lollipop, which works like Hello Fresh and the likes, except instead of delivering the ingredients to your house, it just adds the ingredients to the basket of your supermarket shop (and takes a commission). To me, that seems like the logical evolution of meal kit services; zero marginal costs by outsourcing the logistics to companies that already do it at scale. https://www.lollipopa…

There's a few of these in the US too, like mealime. But they only integrate with some grocery pickup/delivery services, some of which are regional, and the rest are a race to the bottom in terms of quality and cost like Walmart. The integrations are also not very good, getting quantities wrong or constantly trying to add pantry staples to your cart like salt.

I feel like more curation is the answer, hand pick the ingredients in each recipe using each grocery pickup/delivery API. But honestly I see supermarkets adding this as a differentiator that's good enough to keep anyone from buying a 3rd party service for it.

Maybe there's space to sell similar functionality to small regional chains to white label?

Re: Home food delivery’s questionable value, for consumers and investors

#14

Post by sksksk »

gruez wrote: post #12
sksksk wrote: post #6

There is an app in the UK called Lollipop, which works like Hello Fresh and the likes, except instead of delivering the ingredients to your house, it just adds the ingredients to the basket of your supermarket shop (and takes a commission). To me, that seems like the logical evolution of meal kit services; zero marginal costs by outsourcing the logistics to companies that already do it at scale. https://www.lollipopa…

That sounds like a great service, but terrible business model because you're reliant on supermarkets that can eat your lunch at any moment by launching a competitor. Since they also have a entire grocery supply chain, they'll be able to outcompete you on price as well.

Unless your business model is to get acquired by one of the supermarkets

Re: Home food delivery’s questionable value, for consumers and investors

#15

Post by [deleted] »

Gunax wrote: post #2

Meal kits ad delivery are actually two innovations that are only joined, it seems, because they make a technology startup (rather than just a business) Meal kits can be sold in stores. And groceries can be delivered. I get the impression that just doing one of those might be a viable business, but it wouldn't be treated as a startup.

[deleted]

Re: Home food delivery’s questionable value, for consumers and investors

#16

Post by culturestate »

My biggest gripe with HelloFresh, et al is that I still need to do the prep, so they don't actually save me much time. It's nothing more than curated grocery delivery.

Years ago, there was a service in Hong Kong (I wish I could remember the name) that did daily delivery of already prepped meal kits - onions pre-chopped, avocados cubed, oil portioned for each step, etc. It was basically cooking by numbers, and extraordinarily convenient in the cramped kitchen that I had at the time.

That's the only kind of meal kit service that I'd ever consider using again. I think larger supermarkets are well-positioned here because a lot of them already sell this kind of stuff to begin with.

Re: Home food delivery’s questionable value, for consumers and investors

#17

Post by Spivak »

robg wrote: post #7
birdyrooster wrote: post #4

I love blue apron and I will miss it when their company fails. It sucks so bad to love a product you can’t save as a consumer.

Would you pay more? Or support the natural evolution of recipe into grocery shopping cart as one click?

It's not like this product is impossible.

1. There are meal planning apps that present a Blue Apron / Hello Fresh type experience but make a grocery list rather than shipping it to you.

2. Instacart has proven that you can with some amount of reliability that you can abstract over different grocery stores so users can pick the ones they prefer or is closest.

3. I can get groceries delivered from my local Kroger by app for less than $5.

Now make them all kiss and you get a sustainable Hello Fresh.

Re: Home food delivery’s questionable value, for consumers and investors

#18

Post by 60secs »

culturestate wrote: post #16

My biggest gripe with HelloFresh, et al is that I still need to do the prep, so they don't actually save me much time. It's nothing more than curated grocery delivery. Years ago, there was a service in Hong Kong (I wish I could remember the name) that did daily delivery of already prepped meal kits - onions pre-chopped, avocados cubed, oil portioned for each step, etc. It was basically cooking by numbers, and extraor…

Freshly does that

Re: Home food delivery’s questionable value, for consumers and investors

#20

Post by gcheong »

sksksk wrote: post #6

There is an app in the UK called Lollipop, which works like Hello Fresh and the likes, except instead of delivering the ingredients to your house, it just adds the ingredients to the basket of your supermarket shop (and takes a commission). To me, that seems like the logical evolution of meal kit services; zero marginal costs by outsourcing the logistics to companies that already do it at scale. https://www.lollipopa…

Are the quantities you get grocery store quantities or are they portioned out like the meal kit services? One thing I liked about the meal kit services was not having a bunch of leftover stuff that I wouldn’t end up using before it went bad.
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