Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 97 posts

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

#41

Post by stametseater »

You know most grocery stores offered a delivery service years before SV decided to turn it into a business model. It was a mostly unadvertised service that grocery stores ran (and likely still do run) mostly for the benefit of 'shut ins', people with disabilities or ailments that prevented them from leaving their homes.

The way it worked was pretty simple; you'd call in your order, or sometimes use the store's website or email, and the store would have one of their baggers/etc collect the requested food from the shelves and drive it out to your home. It was a free service paid for by the store, although I believe there was an expectation to tip whichever employee was using their personal car to actually make the delivery. To reiterate, the service was intended for people who couldn't go to the store themselves, not for yuppies.

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

#42

Post by thrwy_918 »

Everyone I know (30something urbanites) uses meal kit services when they get an attractive sign up offer, and cancels shortly after the subsidized initial period has finished. Then after a few weeks or months they might sign up with a different meal kit service when a sign up offer becomes attractive enough. They cycle through the services in this way, because the same service seems happy to give the same customer a new sign-up offer if enough time has passed since they were a subscriber.

I don't know anyone who is a loyal customer to any meal kit service and is paying full price.

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

#43

Post by rvnx »

mauvehaus wrote: post #30
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…

Chopped onions change smell after they've been sitting exposed to air for a while, and not for the better. I'll happily prep my own onions, even if it brings tears to my eyes. Sweet potatoes turn brown exposed to air, sometimes even in the span of time from prepping the first to prepping the last before they go into the pot all together. I would venture that most things do not improve with exposure to air once cut up…

Vacuum-packed pre-cut potatoes are stable too (but it uses plastic then)

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

#44

Post by striking »

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…

https://www.factor75.com/ makes meals that you basically only have to reheat. They're pretty tasty and never frozen.

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

#45

Post by delecti »

randallsquared wrote: post #37
mauvehaus wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chopped onions change smell after they've been sitting exposed to air for a while, and not for the better. I'll happily prep my own onions, even if it brings tears to my eyes. Sweet potatoes turn brown exposed to air, sometimes even in the span of time from prepping the first to prepping the last before they go into the pot all together. I would venture that most things do not improve with exposure to air once cut up…

Tovala somehow avoids this with sweet potatoes in their meals, though they do require cutting of bell peppers and some other things.

I don't know if it's what they do, but a mild acid can prevent oxidation. As an example, the lime in guacamole is why it doesn't look utterly disgusting.

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

#46

Post by culturestate »

andrenotgiant wrote: post #33
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…

not trying to be snarky, genuinely curious: What benefit does that have over ordering delivery from a restaurant?

> What benefit does that have over ordering delivery from a restaurant?

For me, there were two keys:

1. I love cooking and find it to be a nice meditative experience, but back then I was working 16-18 hour days and I simply didn't have the energy to deal with all of the other stuff you gotta do before and after you cook. This was a good middle ground.

2. I could adjust the ingredients to my liking - don't put in the cilantro, for example, or add some extra chili to make the sauce spicier.

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

#47

Post by delecti »

andrenotgiant wrote: post #33
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…

not trying to be snarky, genuinely curious: What benefit does that have over ordering delivery from a restaurant?

IKEA effect. A meal that would otherwise be fairly good seems very good when you've done it yourself.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKEA_effect

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

#48

Post by algoatecorn »

robg wrote: post #9

Anyone know of a pantry and fridge management system that supports recipes and new ordering? Seems complicated until it’s done.

This is something I'm interested in doing. Computer vision analysis of at-home food stock -> personalized shopping and recipes -> partner with grocery chains to reduce shopping times and optimize inventories. There are many other stakeholder alignments as well

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

#49

Post by VBprogrammer »

thrwy_918 wrote: post #42

Everyone I know (30something urbanites) uses meal kit services when they get an attractive sign up offer, and cancels shortly after the subsidized initial period has finished. Then after a few weeks or months they might sign up with a different meal kit service when a sign up offer becomes attractive enough. They cycle through the services in this way, because the same service seems happy to give the same customer a…

Exactly, been bouncing between HelloFresh and Gusto for over a year. I honestly think the services are great, excellent way to have a variety of home cooked meals that I would never have considered. As long as I don't have to pay full price for it.

I'm sure I'm the reason every speaker at Microconf says don't do B2C.

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

#50

Post by xirdstl »

60secs wrote: post #18
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

Freshly did full meals, ready to microwave. That said, they shut down this year.
Post reply on HN