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Blue Apron Plummets After Amazon Files for Meal-Kit Trademark

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Re: Blue Apron Plummets After Amazon Files for Meal-Kit Trademark

#121

Post by pera »

leokennis wrote: post #108
chaostheory wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon needs to do this with their regular shipments as well. They contain a lot of plastic insulation (air bags). Instead of throwing mine away, I've been saving it until it fills up a closet then I give it to a local UPS store to reuse. My closet fills up in about a month. It would be nice if Amazon had a formal program for this since you can't recycle them with your garbage company.

The problem is, if you want to cheaply ship cheap stuff quickly, you need to reduce costs. So no time to have your packers pick from 20 sizes of boxes; just toss everything in a huge box. No time to handle returns of broken shipments; just stuff those huge boxes with tons of air bags. No time to actually check what's in the boxes (towels or a vase) because you need to pack 200 boxes an hour to break even. If "we" wan…

Maybe the boxes could be foldable, or easily and space-efficiently stackable.

Re: Blue Apron Plummets After Amazon Files for Meal-Kit Trademark

#122

Post by rtkwe »

viewtransform wrote: post #98
rtkwe wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beyond normal shelf spoilage from super markets there's a lot of ingredients that can only really be bought fresh in amounts much larger than can really be used. For example cilantro or parsley generally comes in either in cheap large bunches or much more expensive individually (plastic) packaged smaller servings but the large bunches is way more than most people could reasonably use before it begins to wilt and rot…

Put the cilantro/parsley stems immersed in a glass of water. Cover the leaves with a plastic bag and it will keep in the refrigerator for at least a week without wilting

Might try that. Space is a little tight in our fridge though so it might not work.

Re: Blue Apron Plummets After Amazon Files for Meal-Kit Trademark

#123

Post by rtkwe »

pera wrote: post #78
rtkwe wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That aphorism is true in general but reuse might still fall short here and it's most true when you're dealing with the recipient reusing the item themselves not shipping it back to be reused. To get the it back to Amazon or whatever meal service sent the boxes will require a second trip by your house to pick up the used items, the entire trip back to the warehouse where the food boxes are packed (which is probably no…

In one single trip you can take an old container and deliver a new one with food. Also, Amazon owns Whole Foods, so I don't see why the warehouse couldn't be local. Finally, recycling plastic and glass usually requires washing the material.

Washing for recycling doesn't have to be nearly as thorough or sanitary as washing for reuse though. And yeah that might work for Amazon but no one else has the infrastructure to do local delivery like that. Even with whole foods local they'll still probably need to expand staff or food prep areas to make it work.

Re: Blue Apron Plummets After Amazon Files for Meal-Kit Trademark

#124

Post by josh_carterPDX »

w00bl3ywook wrote: post #115
josh_carterPDX wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with this. We struggle with how to dispose of the tremendous amount of waste created by our weekly delivery as we don't have a very large trash bin at our house. Blue Apron and Hello Fresh need to figure out how to make their services more sticky. At some point we've collected enough meals that we like where we can just go to the local grocery store to pick up the ingredients and make it ourselves. Both of th…

"we've collected enough meals that we like where we can just go to the local grocery store to pick up the ingredients and make it ourselves" heh. welcome to a chef's world.

Haha. We partially signed up to broaden our culinary literacy. My Wife doesn't cook and when I cool it's typically something very simple. Blue Apron has helped give both my Wife and I more confidence to try new things.

Re: Blue Apron Plummets After Amazon Files for Meal-Kit Trademark

#125

Post by DoubleCribble »

madengr wrote: post #69

Aren't meal-kits just plain expensive, compared to shopping at a local grocery store?

People initially subscribe for lots of reasons but long term subscribers may see the value proposition as this: More expensive in cash cost, less expensive in opportunity cost.

Re: Blue Apron Plummets After Amazon Files for Meal-Kit Trademark

#126

Post by abandonliberty »

r00fus wrote: post #116
leokennis wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is, if you want to cheaply ship cheap stuff quickly, you need to reduce costs. So no time to have your packers pick from 20 sizes of boxes; just toss everything in a huge box. No time to handle returns of broken shipments; just stuff those huge boxes with tons of air bags. No time to actually check what's in the boxes (towels or a vase) because you need to pack 200 boxes an hour to break even. If "we" wan…

> If "we" want to stop trashing the world, first we need to show we are willing to pay for that. This is the typical supply-side dodge. Consumers have little to no power here. I can't dictate to Amazon or major shipping companies (I do buy AMZN's frustration-free when I can). What option is there? Do you propose I compete with the packaging with my own offering?

Wouldn't this paraphrase as "I have no power, so I will continue financially supporting them." ?

Consumers blame suppliers, suppliers blame consumers. No one has to do anything. Long live the status quo! :)

Re: Blue Apron Plummets After Amazon Files for Meal-Kit Trademark

#127

Post by blackguardx »

bpodgursky wrote: post #117
blackguardx wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every petroleum product was a waste product at some point until they discovered a use for it. If no one used oil for anything but gasoline, I expect drillers would pump the distillation remains back down into old wells.

Petroleum cracking happens very long distances from the actual oil wells. I have never heard of this happening.

Because there is no waste...

Re: Blue Apron Plummets After Amazon Files for Meal-Kit Trademark

#128

Post by tim333 »

127001brewer wrote: post #39

An article called "The Slow-Motion Trainwreck Facing the Meal-Kit Industry" relates how the meal-kit industry faces the same problem(s) as Groupon: "The problem Groupon faced was that their initial success validated a model that anyone could copy, and everyone who copied it increased both Groupon’s cost of customer acquisition and its churn rate." https://medium.com/@byrnehobart/the-slow-motion-trainwreck-f...

Indeed https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14646679 315 comments

Re: Blue Apron Plummets After Amazon Files for Meal-Kit Trademark

#129

Post by AjithAntony »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #29
calafrax wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The packaging waste with some meal kits is a negative but they also eliminate a lot of food waste which is a positive. The traditional food distribution system is massively wasteful but all of that waste is hidden so it is easier to ignore.

> The packaging waste with some meal kits is a negative but they also eliminate a lot of food waste which is a positive. That's really hard to estimate; did Blue Apron (etc) users previously buy a lot of groceries, cook some of them, then throw the rest of the food away as it rotted? Or did they simply cook less, and rely more on delivery, restaurants, or putting more work into planning their meals?

Food waste happens at every level of the food distribution system. Produce discarded in a field becuase it didn't meet some ripeness or quality standard(likely unchanged), produce that rots or is damaged during transport to local distribution channels(could be reduced by meal prep), food that rots or is unsold at the retail level (obviated by meal prep), food purchased by consumers that goes unused(obviated), and food waste that gets landfilled(instead of getting composted at meal prep place).

Re: Blue Apron Plummets After Amazon Files for Meal-Kit Trademark

#130

Post by chaostheory »

jonknee wrote: post #105
chaostheory wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

givebackbox is cool. Took a look at sealedair's 'program'. I could be wrong, but it looks like it's just links to other organizations' directories of local recycling programs; most of which are retail stores. Here's why I don't trust retail stores (Best Buy, Home Depot, Lowes, Safeway, etc...): while they do a great job of marketing their 'recycling programs' most of what we put into their recycle bins just end up in…

No, it says to send it back to them: > The deflated cells can be sent to any of a number of Sealed Air locations where they will be recycled back into LDPE If you're in the US, send them here: Ameri-Pak, Inc. Sealed Air Recycle Center 477 South Woods Dr. Fountain Inn, South Carolina 29644

That's not a good program... but it's better than nothing.
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