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A Slow-Motion Trainwreck Facing the Meal-Kit Industry

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Re: A Slow-Motion Trainwreck Facing the Meal-Kit Industry

#111
post #10

I feel like the real problem with meal-in-a-box delivery services is that they are trying to fill the empty shoes of a missing full-time wife and mom because there are more two career couples and both spouses now "need a wife" and it can't be found. The problem is that such a service has no real hope of taking the place of someone with actual cooking skill who knows you well and will tweak the recipe to your preferen…

Most restaurants are just microwaving frozen meals these days. I actually found a plastic wrapper in my homemade brownie sundae once. (Won't name the place)

Re: A Slow-Motion Trainwreck Facing the Meal-Kit Industry

#112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> together we consistently hit the low-end. But that's two people, so really you just hit double the low end?

Amdahl's law applies, what fraction of cooking these recipes is purely serial? What does the critical path look like? How much inter-kitchen communication is there to get tools and ingredients to/from your wife?

> Amdahl's law applies, what fraction of cooking these recipes is purely serial?

The prep is usually highly parallelize; the cooking is usually pretty serial if you follow the instructions, but often parallelize with only mild invention (they often specify reusing the same pan, without any real need other than reducing cleanup and equipment requirements.)

Re: A Slow-Motion Trainwreck Facing the Meal-Kit Industry

#113
post #79

generally people who do meal-kits just aren't good at shopping. it isn't cheaper, healthier or faster to cook than regular food. the only thing it might be better at is faster at preparation , an advantage that is negated if you buy a sufficiently large amount of food each time you purchase and pre-prepare (cutting chicken into slices and freezing them, etc.). tldr: only lazy people with more time than money would be…

variety is incredibly important to us, but I'm curious, do you have resources I could read about improving our efficiency when we do buy? I purchase many raw ingredients but struggle to use them effectively for a 2 person household.

Re: A Slow-Motion Trainwreck Facing the Meal-Kit Industry

#114
post #10

I feel like the real problem with meal-in-a-box delivery services is that they are trying to fill the empty shoes of a missing full-time wife and mom because there are more two career couples and both spouses now "need a wife" and it can't be found. The problem is that such a service has no real hope of taking the place of someone with actual cooking skill who knows you well and will tweak the recipe to your preferen…

Well, there are a few other reasons: - $20/meal for a couple or small family is still cheaper than eating out, especially for the kind of meal you're getting from BlueApron - People like knowing what goes into their food - Using your cool kitchen gadgets is fun, even if you don't have great recipe ideas - In some places, to make a specific dish may require a trip to two or three or more grocery stores Growing up in t…

On your subtext

What subtext are you imagining my comment as having? Because I strongly suspect you are inferring things that simply are not there.

Re: A Slow-Motion Trainwreck Facing the Meal-Kit Industry

#115
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was a student, the local Sainsbury's supermarket had a selection of recipe cards by the entrance. Here's the front of a newer version [1], the back is presumably something like this [2]. I wouldn't say they taught me to cook, I didn't learn any new techniques. But, I did get a lot of ideas from them, and it led us to eating a wider variety of food. I'm now curious -- what do typical American university student…

There's cooking and there's cooking . Most Americans, including students, cook standard American food such as hamburgers, hot dogs, eggs, spaghetti, roast chicken, ramen, steak etc., as well as a lot of canned soups, frozen vegetables, and boxed casserole mixes. But these kits are for people who want to eat something novel every meal, and certainly not mundane working class food. I mean, you don't need a recipe for a…

The time I tried Blue Apron, one of the dishes was a gourmet hamburger which took some ridiculous amount of time to prep and I didn't even think it was that good. And PeachDish has Grass-fed Beef hot dogs with ketchup and mustard on its menu--which sort of blew my mind.

So you'd be surprised. But, for the most part, these services justify their relatively high prices with recipes that may look a bit intimidating for many people to pull together on their own.

Re: A Slow-Motion Trainwreck Facing the Meal-Kit Industry

#116
post #10

I feel like the real problem with meal-in-a-box delivery services is that they are trying to fill the empty shoes of a missing full-time wife and mom because there are more two career couples and both spouses now "need a wife" and it can't be found. The problem is that such a service has no real hope of taking the place of someone with actual cooking skill who knows you well and will tweak the recipe to your preferen…

Well, there are a few other reasons: - $20/meal for a couple or small family is still cheaper than eating out, especially for the kind of meal you're getting from BlueApron - People like knowing what goes into their food - Using your cool kitchen gadgets is fun, even if you don't have great recipe ideas - In some places, to make a specific dish may require a trip to two or three or more grocery stores Growing up in t…

My wife and I fall under the "using your cool kitchen gadgets.." category. We used Platejoy for this but we stopped after a month or so. The reason wasn't Platejoy, it was us. The habit of cooking food on such a regular basis just didn't stick. Unless we made it regular, forever, we didn't see the benefit of being a member of this service.

I think this is a big challenge for all these companies. They aren't selling to existing frequent cooks. Those people don't mind going to the grocery store to pickup ingredients (at least most). They are selling to the aspirational people who want to make the habit of cooking at home every night stick, and thats really hard. There are lots of other options.

Re: A Slow-Motion Trainwreck Facing the Meal-Kit Industry

#117
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've tried BlueApron and HelloFresh. I enjoy cooking, and the quality of the recipes is great, but damn, it takes too long to make their recipes. Often, they promise it only takes 15-30 minutes for an entire meal, but apparently I'm not a professional chef who can wash vegetables, dice them, prepare marinades, chop garlic, and do all of this in just a few minutes. I end up usually spending between 60-90 minutes just…

You'll get much faster with practice. I never take more than 45 minutes to prepare a BA meal now and generally do it in about 30. And I'm no professional cook or anything either. Just learned by doing (and watching an occasional YouTube video).

Doing large-scale prep work occasionally, combined with some smart tricks in the morning, really helps as well.

E.g. peel, cut and sautée 10 onions, let it cool, divide into 10 bags and freeze. 15 minutes time spent, 10x5 minutes saved on subsequent dinners. Peel, cut and freeze bags of carrot, celery, cabbage, chilies, etc. Another 5 minutes off.

Buy canned lentils, chickpeas and beans rather than dry, and you save 10-15 minutes cooking time on each meal. Always keep cans of peeled plum tomatoes at hand, never buy store-made pasta or pizza sauce - especially the latter, just blitz a can of tomatoes with salt and the herbs and spices of your choice, done!

Keep chicken, beef and fish stock in your pantry, preferrably the liquid stuff. Also keep soy sauce, fish sauce, sesame seed oil, all the vinegars you like (rice, balsamico, apple cider, sherry, etc.), some nice olive oil, green and red curry paste, coconut milk, teriyaki, hot sauce, all the flavors you like! Then you can improvise, which is the best part. Jars of tamarind paste keep well in the fridge, and can replace fresh lemon/lime in most Asian cuisine.

Buy big bags of proper basmati or jasmine rice at Asian stores, put in cold water to soak in the morning, boil for 10 minutes, perfect rice that mops the floor with Uncle Ben's.

Homemade pizza every Friday, just spend four minutes to make the dough before going to work, twenty minutes after we come home to shape and dress the pies while the oven heats up to 750 F (use Heston Blumenthal's cast-iron-plate-under-the-grill trick), perfect Neapolitan style pizzas for all the family that cook in 6-7 minutes.

Making your dinners from scratch in a family with small kids, both parents working full time, is far from impossible. We do it every day, plus bake all the bread we eat.

But no-one is going to sell you this as a solution in a box, it takes a little bit of effort and a little bit of passion for food. Just Say No to frozen pizza and ready-made lasagne, roll up your sleeves and start cooking.

Re: A Slow-Motion Trainwreck Facing the Meal-Kit Industry

#118

I feel like they should have Meal-Kits at grocery stores. They could make them with all the extra food they have. That way you can go pick up 3 of them and then grab more groceries if need be. It would be way better than all the frozen meals they have.

They kinda have this at some stores in the form of pre-chopped/sliced produce.

Re: A Slow-Motion Trainwreck Facing the Meal-Kit Industry

#119
post #96

I feel like they should have Meal-Kits at grocery stores. They could make them with all the extra food they have. That way you can go pick up 3 of them and then grab more groceries if need be. It would be way better than all the frozen meals they have.

It's not like grocery stores keep a bunch of extra food on hand that they don't expect to sell. But, to your main point, a number of chains and other stores have started doing this. I'm a little surprised it's not more common though, of course, there's a lot of pre-chopped vegetables etc. so once you're in the store, gathering up the ingredients for a quick meal is pretty straightforward.

Cooking involves 3 steps: (1) recipe selection, (2) ingredient acquisition, and (3) cooking.

Blue Apron takes care of the first two, which I don't enjoy, and let's me do (3), which I very much enjoy. A grocery store doesn't solve (1) and only partially solves (2) (often has item availability, too much quantity issues, and then I have to measure it, too).

Re: A Slow-Motion Trainwreck Facing the Meal-Kit Industry

#120
post #75
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can afford a meal-in-a-box service, why would you not just go to a restaurant Because I'd rather eat at home. Especially if I have kids. It's easier. Because it's a lot cheaper. Because it's better for me from a health perspective.

But the point has been made several times in this thread, it's not much cheaper. Unless you're referring to some Michelin-starred restaurant, it's quite possible to eat fast-casual for the same price of many of these kits (especially if you live in a suburb where restaurants tend to be much cheaper than in e.g. SF)

> But the point has been made several times in this thread, it's not much cheaper.

Yes, it is.

> Unless you're referring to some Michelin-starred restaurant, it's quite possible to eat fast-casual for the same price of many of these kits (especially if you live in a suburb where restaurants tend to be much cheaper than in e.g. SF)

Blue Apron is $8.74 (family plan) or $9.99 (couples plan) per plate for complete dinners. I live in the suburbs in the Central Valley (not the Bay Area) and it's well below fast-casual prices for comparable composition meals (also, better quality than most fast-casual places.)

Now, if you are talking about fast-food rather than fast-casual, that still is cheaper.

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