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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

#211

Post by s73ver »

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…

A lot of those Farm 2 Table and local recipes/kits would still need staples that can be more cheaply provided on a national scale. One could foresee a large, national company owning many of these local "branches", with their own branding and identity, but taking advantage of the national supply chain for some things.

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

#212

Post by r00fus »

rhizome wrote: post #205
eresing wrote: post #191

Here's what my family does: We hired an older woman (from thumbtack.com) to come to our house once a week for 4 hours and cook whatever is in the fridge. I make sure to have plenty of food in the fridge, spices, canned goods, etc. Then she cooks enough food for my 4 person family for about 5 - 6 days (excluding breakfast). She knows our preferences and takes requests. We pay her $25/hr ($100 week). I feel like everyo…

With a personal chef you don't get the 'zazz and dopamine hit from the process of shopping. Skinner boxes take many forms.

Wow I never would've thought someone could get a dopamine hit from shopping. Shopping either bores or irritates.

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

#213

Post by munin »

maxander wrote: post #204
eresing wrote: post #191

Here's what my family does: We hired an older woman (from thumbtack.com) to come to our house once a week for 4 hours and cook whatever is in the fridge. I make sure to have plenty of food in the fridge, spices, canned goods, etc. Then she cooks enough food for my 4 person family for about 5 - 6 days (excluding breakfast). She knows our preferences and takes requests. We pay her $25/hr ($100 week). I feel like everyo…

I guess I respect having the intestinal fortitude to do the responsible thing, but at least in the U.S., seeing any service position with obvious privilege connotations makes people uncomfortable. The meal-in-a-box industry is another clever way to work around this taboo, by hiding the lower-class service workers behind a clean user interface. Similarly, what's the value-add of Github? Primarily, it's not having to t…

> Similarly, what's the value-add of Grubhub?

The value of grubhub is that I can send written instructions to the restaurant instead of spoken ones, which will be understood more clearly, so my order is done the way I prefer it. It also helps with discoverability, instead of having to keep an assortment of paper menus in my kitchen up to date, I can just go to the website. It's not about avoiding poor people.

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

#214

Post by Baeocystin »

maxander wrote: post #204
eresing wrote: post #191

Here's what my family does: We hired an older woman (from thumbtack.com) to come to our house once a week for 4 hours and cook whatever is in the fridge. I make sure to have plenty of food in the fridge, spices, canned goods, etc. Then she cooks enough food for my 4 person family for about 5 - 6 days (excluding breakfast). She knows our preferences and takes requests. We pay her $25/hr ($100 week). I feel like everyo…

I guess I respect having the intestinal fortitude to do the responsible thing, but at least in the U.S., seeing any service position with obvious privilege connotations makes people uncomfortable. The meal-in-a-box industry is another clever way to work around this taboo, by hiding the lower-class service workers behind a clean user interface. Similarly, what's the value-add of Github? Primarily, it's not having to t…

> but at least in the U.S., seeing any service position with obvious privilege connotations makes people uncomfortable.

It really doesn't, except for a small subgroup of people who are worried about virtue signalling.

Most people understand that people need jobs, it takes a surprisingly small amount of money to hire real help (and pay appropriately- fair pay for fair work), and everyone wins. I hired a lady to help as a caretaker when my mother was descending through the stages of Alzheimer's, and after my mother passed, she still stops by occasionally to help me with my elderly father. She is a lifesaver, and worth every penny. Neither my father nor myself are rich. My car is old enough to vote and buy beer. But the $150/week or so that I spend on help is completely worth it. And absolutely nobody that I've ever spoken with face-to-face judges. Many folks have asked me how to find similar, because they are in the same boat as me.

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

#215

Post by btilly »

munchbunny wrote: post #128
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…

> 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 w…

Are we talking your time, or wall-clock time?

Melt butter, add lemon juice, salt and a dash of hot sauce to make a liquid. Rub liquid over chicken. Put chicken in oven at 400 until done. (How much you need and how long you take depends on whether you did this with a whole chicken or pieces of chicken. Let's call it an hour. Use an oven thermometer if you don't know how to tell.)

Put some water in the bottom of a pot, put one artichoke in the pot, cover, and put on low heat around 40 minutes before your meal.

Use a peeler to take the skin of a Daikon radish off. Peel the rest of it into a dish. Put sour cream + salt on, mix. Sprinkle chopped green onion on top.

Shortly before you're ready, melt butter, add salt. This is to dip the artichoke in.

Wall-clock over an hour because food spends time cooking. My time spent is perhaps 20 minutes. Most of which is spent peeling the radish. And now you've got a main dish with 2 side dishes and enough food to feed a family.

Now a lot of things take longer than that. For example making pancakes means spending a lot of time actually cooking the pancakes. When I make a soup from scratch I probably spend a couple of hours.

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

#216

Post by sbarre »

kirrent wrote: post #199
vec wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started using these services (originally Blue Apron; more recently Hello Fresh) with the express goal of learning to cook. I originally planned to continue the service until I had a catalog of recipes I knew I liked and enough skill to do for myself. I met my initial goal six months ago, cancelled my subscription, then restarted it a couple of months after that. I found that when I had to choose a recipe to cook, I…

I'm interested by your experience because I've always wondered if using one of these services to learn how to cook doesn't really reflect how most people actually cook in their home which is not to really have strict recipes but improvise based on what you have in the kitchen. I'm always surprised by my partner who can't follow a recipe to save her life. Somehow it always all falls apart. On the other hand, when she'…

I've never used a meal-kit service, but I cook all the time and never use "what's in the kitchen"..

I cook for myself almost every day, but since I live in a large city, I am basically a "daily shopper" for groceries. I pass all kinds of markets on the way home from work so I stop and pick up what I need for dinner (with a meal already in mind but not necessarily a recipe in hand), and then cook when I get home.

Obviously I have a lot of staples (spices, oils, etc), and I typically do larger meat runs once a week or so and fill up the freezer, but fruits, veggies and specific ingredients I pick up as needed based on the overall category of meal I want to make.

Now that said, I've been cooking like this for 15 years so I have a rotating set of 15-20 recipes (with variations on each) that I can stop and get ingredients without looking at a list..

It was definitely that repetition and practice that got me to that point, and I'm grateful for it, so if you think meal-kits will get you there too, keep at it!

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

#217

Post by jessaustin »

threesixandnine wrote: post #141
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…

It's like when Jamie Oliver cooks lunch. Of course it takes 15 minutes cooking only with nicely laid out and prepared ingredients. But let's get straight. I can whip a steak from zero to hero in 15 minutes. Throw some Broccoli in and you have a nice tasty lunch in real 15 minutes ready to eat. We are two working full time although my wife is currently at home with a newborn. We always prepared a meal one day before a…

Like any other beef rancher, I completely support the steak-for-lunch habit. It may not be an option for everyone, however. b^)

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

#218

Post by rconti »

neuronexmachina wrote: post #207
maxander wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess I respect having the intestinal fortitude to do the responsible thing, but at least in the U.S., seeing any service position with obvious privilege connotations makes people uncomfortable. The meal-in-a-box industry is another clever way to work around this taboo, by hiding the lower-class service workers behind a clean user interface. Similarly, what's the value-add of Github? Primarily, it's not having to t…

I... assume you meant Grubhub instead of Github? ;)

that makes SO much more sense now, thanks.

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

#219

Post by rconti »

r00fus wrote: post #212
rhizome wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With a personal chef you don't get the 'zazz and dopamine hit from the process of shopping. Skinner boxes take many forms.

Wow I never would've thought someone could get a dopamine hit from shopping. Shopping either bores or irritates.

Or from NOT logging in and selecting "skip this week" 6 days or more in advance.

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

#220

Post by resf »

kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #196
pm90 wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wouldn't automatically grant that. While this deserves qualifications, most of the time restaurant food is simply not as hygienic as meals prepared at home. And its not some deliberate plan to make it so. Despite their best efforts, a somewhat large scale food establishment just allows a lot more opportunities for food contamination. And I say this as a person who eats out everyday (Lunch out, dinner and supper a…

I think your key concern with restaurant food should be nutrition, not hygiene. Hygiene in restaurants is typically good enough to not be much of a problem (and the human body is resilient enough to take a bit of occasional rough treatment). But you don't know how much sugar, fat, or just empty calories are being put in your food to make it just a little more presentable or appetizing. That is what you have better co…

There's nothing wrong with sugar when eaten as part of a meal, it's when people down Coca Cola on an empty stomach that there's a problem. And fat is actually essential to life.

At the risk of stating the obvious, when you eat a meal, all of it goes to the same place. So as long as the meal as a whole provides sufficient nutrition (and if you are eating a varied diet then it absolutely will do), no part of it can be described as "empty calories".

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