A Slow-Motion Trainwreck Facing the Meal-Kit Industry • Hacker News Board

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

#231

Post by pbreit » Wed, Jun 28, 2017, 1:23 AM UTC

Mz wrote: post #47

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 always say that these are for people with more money than time. That generally fits my assumption that the target audience is two career couples, generally speaking. They just want to buy a pre-configured lego set, and build a spaceship they can eat. That's an awesome description. Thank you for that.

The opposite: kits are cheaper than restaurants, take out and much home-cooked meals. And kits take much longer than all but restaurants.

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

#232

Post by pavel_lishin » Wed, Jun 28, 2017, 1:27 AM UTC

blhack wrote: post #76

pavel_lishin wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What there is really a market for is a service that can deliver fresh or at least reasonably high quality food, which is customizable to individual preferences, for a reasonable cost (~$5 or so), on-demand, and in a timely manner. Does that also come with a free pony?

Is this really that infeasible? If we just started somewhere unhealthy, and said In N Out with drone delivery, then the $5/meal isn't that far off from what the current cost is. If we could eliminate the building, the employees (and all of the overhead that goes along with them), and the expensive location that the buildings are usually in, it seems like the cost of the burger could come down. That sounds pretty nuts…

Why not just air-drop a shipment of Soylent directly into my mouth? My smart-watch could vibrate when it's time to look directly upwards with my jaw agape.

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

#233

Post by prawn » Wed, Jun 28, 2017, 1:38 AM UTC

opportune wrote: post #45

pavel_lishin wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What there is really a market for is a service that can deliver fresh or at least reasonably high quality food, which is customizable to individual preferences, for a reasonable cost (~$5 or so), on-demand, and in a timely manner. Does that also come with a free pony?

Did you read what I wrote? Of course I acknowledge that this is not feasible yet. I'm saying that this is the product that the market is actually waiting for, and that the technology isn't there yet (automated drone delivery). So what we have in the meantime are awkward solutions that only meet a few of these requirements.

I think a service with a restricted, simple menu could hit the $6-8 pricepoint for regular pre-orders, and that would be enough to get many people over the line. If you further sold them a larger order giving enough for lunch the next day, you could get more value out of the delivery cost.

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

#234

Post by prawn » Wed, Jun 28, 2017, 1:40 AM UTC

Mz wrote: post #70

opportune wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You and I have different definitions of high quality then. I am thinking of the kind of food produced at the Googleplex or at a similar facility, except with slightly more choice. I would wager most would view this similarly, since most people (at least nobody I know) aren't gourmands with personal relationships at where they eat. I'm not talking about a premium restaurant experience, more like restaurant takeout a l…

I don't have the money for premium restaurants. I'm quite poor. But I am a gourmand and tend to have personal relationships with people where I eat regularly. Guilty as charged. So, um, yeah, it sounds like your idea of quality food and mine are not at all on the same page. I think there are ways to get quality food at a reasonable price (I think this because of the aforementioned not wealthy status and years of eati…

Are you talking about quality food or quality, personalised food? At a pricepoint, I think you could definitely manage the former. I think the latter is less common and is best left to premium services or home cooks more often than not.

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

#235

Post by mothers » Wed, Jun 28, 2017, 1:40 AM UTC

ericlewis wrote: post #113

mothers wrote: 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.

hard to give you one source, but /r/cooking, /r/mealprep led to some interesting discoveries.

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

#236

Post by prawn » Wed, Jun 28, 2017, 1:47 AM UTC

opportune wrote: post #132

eropple wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I'm not trying to pick on you, but have you ever stopped to think about how absolutely dystopic this future you're positing is? And the parts of the community--set aside "consumers" for a second, the point of being human is not to consume , is not to be an economic actor in your model--who could most use price improvements of economies of scale will be frozen out, because they're always frozen out. We don't need i…

Personally I don't mind it. I'm not invested whatsoever in involving human contact in getting my food; I don't mind talking to people to get my food or having to interact with a waiter or cashier, but I wouldn't care if I could order on a kiosk or do checkout-by-RFID. People probably decried the automation of textile manufacturing, that clothing was losing its personal touch. Now we don't seem to have a problem with…

I'm with you. Your concept need not be an every day thing too. Get your human experience on restaurant nights, or having friends around to eat.

I'm not necessarily an introvert, but I'd be happy to remove the human element from ordering takeaway, or get it from something other than the phone order and delivery components which I find pretty boring.

But at its logical conclusion, does it risk ending with megacorp/state-mandated food plans delivered to the majority of people?

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

#237

Post by Mz » Wed, Jun 28, 2017, 1:48 AM UTC

prawn wrote: post #234

Mz wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have the money for premium restaurants. I'm quite poor. But I am a gourmand and tend to have personal relationships with people where I eat regularly. Guilty as charged. So, um, yeah, it sounds like your idea of quality food and mine are not at all on the same page. I think there are ways to get quality food at a reasonable price (I think this because of the aforementioned not wealthy status and years of eati…

Are you talking about quality food or quality, personalised food ? At a pricepoint, I think you could definitely manage the former. I think the latter is less common and is best left to premium services or home cooks more often than not.

My comments in this section of this discussion are basically in response to this:

What there is really a market for is a service that can deliver fresh or at least reasonably high quality food, which is customizable to individual preferences, for a reasonable cost (~$5 or so), on-demand, and in a timely manner.

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

#238

Post by prawn » Wed, Jun 28, 2017, 1:49 AM UTC

Mz wrote: post #98

stcredzero wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. One of my girlfriends used to say, "I need a wife!" She used to specifically mean what you're talking about above. Then I used to raise my hand to volunteer, but she woul…

Yeah, "I need a wife" is a common refrain of working women, as previously discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14354026 I got my oldest son to take over the "women's work" when I had a corporate job. He was willing to meet the incredibly high standards of freshness and quality necessary to keep us healthy and out of the ER (due to our genetic disorder) but he was absolutely not willing to cook a tradi…

In my teenage years, I was heavily encouraged to cook for the family, especially when I was between school/uni and work years. It was a great opportunity to learn, and also relieve pressure on working parents. It should be more common than I bet it is.

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

#239

Post by Merad » Wed, Jun 28, 2017, 1:53 AM UTC

Symbiote wrote: post #34

luckydata wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The kits have a value beyond the food, they teach you how to be more confident about your cooking. Americans are terrible cooks on average, they don't learn good cooking skills at home because their parents are not very good cooks either (gross generalization but accurate if you compare the US with for example Italy). My wife now can cook a much wider variety of meals after a few months of meal kits. It also has redu…

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…

Universities usually have a dining hall that's open 7 days a week. Students that live on campus will eat there for the majority of their meals because dorms usually don't have much in the way of food storage or prep areas beyond a mini fridge and microwave. Off campus students have more options.

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

#240

Post by prawn » Wed, Jun 28, 2017, 1:54 AM UTC

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…

I've wondered about some sort of food/prep API that all these services could use. Pick your products, quality rating, pricepoints and essentially build a service where you handle the choices and instruction, but the more difficult stuff is white-labeled interfacing with growers and anyone going as far to peel/chop, etc.