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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

#121

Post by adolph »

thedangler wrote: post #91

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.

Most I visit already offer this service although not in a customer comprehensible way. I think this is because grocery stores are typically managed as little fiefdoms with produce, meat, bakery doing their own thing. Each will produce some kit-like packaged meals and sometimes cooperate with other units. I've yet to see a high level of coordination in the manner of the meal kit services.

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

#122

Post by dragonwriter »

mothers wrote: post #85
thenewwazoo wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're ignoring that the GP comment is working on multiple axes. For a given level of healthfulness, these services may well be cheaper and easier. Sometimes cost is not the primary constraint.

even for a given level of healthfullness preparing your own food is faster and cheaper. what's your point? the only thing meal kits have on making your own food is variety. that's ultimately what you're paying for.

Meal kits are making your own food. What you are paying for is, well, the "kit" part: not having to shop with potentially inconvenient sizes, and getting everything pre-measured for the meal.

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

#123

Post by fusiongyro »

Mz wrote: post #114
fusiongyro wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I thought you were suggesting that life was better when we had a sole breadwinner and a stay-at-home wife. I don't agree with that and read your comment uncharitably that way. On rereading it, I think you're saying there are two optimal points on this curve: having a live-in cook ("the wife") and going to a restaurant, and most of the stuff in the middle is pointless. I don't agree with that either but it's less of a charged topic.

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

#124

Post by bryanlarsen »

mr_tristan wrote: post #57

The long term trend for "meal kits" is very likely just going to have massive local and regional competition. I'm already seeing this in Portland with several meal delivery services that cater to different lifestyles: gluten free, whole 30, extra protein, etc. These are successful "complete meal delivery" businesses. I see no reason why there can't be "meal kit" variations in the future. The cost of starting up a loc…

Blue Apron may not have a "moat", but successful small businesses do. Those moats are personal service and personal connections. It doesn't scale up so you can't turn it into a unicorn IPO, but it could be a comfortable life.

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

#125

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

kbenson wrote: post #63
mr_tristan wrote: post #57

The long term trend for "meal kits" is very likely just going to have massive local and regional competition. I'm already seeing this in Portland with several meal delivery services that cater to different lifestyles: gluten free, whole 30, extra protein, etc. These are successful "complete meal delivery" businesses. I see no reason why there can't be "meal kit" variations in the future. The cost of starting up a loc…

Not to mention, if you're really local, you can beat out the competition in freshness and probably delivery costs as well (beyond a certain critical threshold of local customers at least). It's the resurgence of the milkman.

That's the best idea I've seen in this thread so far.

Taken one step further with the farm-to-table concept, I can see suburban delivery of local meal kits directly from nearby farms on a subscription basis. It becomes a value-add on the CSA concept.

In my area we have a pretty big concentration of high-income earners in relatively close proximity to small farms. It could probably be made to work in a situation like that.

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

#126

Post by pjc50 »

mrfusion wrote: post #111
Mz wrote: 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)

This is a good point, especially at the lower end - and even when they aren't, the amount of stuff that comes in a bigger "kit" pre-prepared off site may surprise you.

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

#127

Post by pjc50 »

jessaustin wrote: post #50
ghaff wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried Blue Apron just to see what the deal was. It was "OK" but not really a fit for me. I do know people who like it though. There's a category of (especially) couples with disposable income who really want to cook at home a few nights a week but appreciate some structure to make it happen.

Hmmm... what other activities would "couples with disposable income" like to have "at home a few nights a week", but which could improved with "some structure"?

Now there's a good bit of harmless innuendo getting downvoted because HN doesn't get jokes :(

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

#128

Post by munchbunny »

illumin8 wrote: post #20
pavel_lishin wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you can afford a meal-in-a-box service, why would you not just go to a restaurant where the wait staff will do a decent job as a substitute for your own live-in cook previously known as The Wife? I always say that these are for people with more money than time. The reason they don't go to a restaurant is because you like cooking - or at least, you like the idea of being someone who cooks. But the ad copy is righ…

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…

> 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 to cook a recipe, which is way too much labor for a meal that is already priced about the same as a restaurant meal.

I think this is one place where the focus in lifestyle magazines and meal startups on quick and easy meals has created unrealistic expectations. As you say, unless you have the skills of a professional chef, cooking pretty much anything in 15-30 minutes is unrealistic. More realistically, you would expect cooking from scratch to take 45-60 minutes.

To some extent I feel like people's frustration over the experience comes from under-appreciation of how much time cooking takes. Unless your ingredients come pre-chopped and pre-mixed, one hour from fresh ingredients is normal! Just like the adage "better, faster, cheaper, pick two," cooking has a corresponding dilemma: "quick, easy, delicious, pick two".

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

#129

Post by ghaff »

ghughes wrote: post #94
illumin8 wrote: post #20

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 might want to try Gobble. We tried Blue Apron followed by Sun Basket, and in both cases the prep time was too long for us. Gobble has consistently been much better in terms of both flavor and prep time.

Terra's Kitchen also claims to have pre-chopped etc. ingredients though I have no personal experience with them.

As I've said elsewhere, I'm not really the customer for these services. But I have to believe that, if I were to use them regularly, it would be because I wanted to put a meal on the table quickly on a weekday without a lot of effort or thought. Which implies eliminating as much prep time as possible.

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

#130

Post by RangerScience »

Mz wrote: 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…

I 100% disagree with you. If you just want food, you can go with the cooked meal delivery (freshly, I think?) - but those are basically just fancy microwave dinners.

I love to cook, and I hate both deciding what to cook, and then going and getting all the stuff to make whatever I (finally) decide to make.

Meal boxes are the best of both worlds. Someone else decides what I'll be eating, and does all the shopping, and I get to do the cooking. I can't imagine life without it anymore.

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