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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

#291

Post by upvotinglurker »

motles wrote: post #269

The one difference between Groupon and meal kit services to me is that the meal kit services actually provide value over and over for something I actually need to do every day, 3 times a day: Eat. If I don't use the meal kits, that's fine, but I'm just going elsewhere - restaurants, delivery, take-out, grocery store. I don't need discount yoga classes or buy one get one froyo coupons every day. You don't need discoun…

Maybe sending the whole bulb is cheaper than the labor and packaging to send separate cloves?

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

#292

Post by maxander »

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? ;)

Oops... I plead autocorrect.

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

#293

Post by d0lph »

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…

I mean yes, but why stop there, how many privilege points does going to a super market give you? Ordering pizza? Going to a restaurant? I'm certain we can find more areas where less privileged workers provide services for you. Also let's ignore the fact that this provides jobs for people, really, shouldn't they be more concerned about enabling your privilege?

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

#294

Post by pbhjpbhj »

puranjay wrote: post #261
pchristensen wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Living Social was the most successful runner up to Groupon. The problem was that "email deal-based marketing for small businesses" was going to be worth something, but there would only be one valuable winner and no one knew how much that would be worth. So Groupon, Living Social, FB, Google, Yelp, and hundreds of clones all threw in tons of money, slogged it out, and now they're all gone and GRPN is worth $2B, 1/…

Werent a lot of these acquired by Groupon/LivingSocial? In theory, that would make them "successful" since they had good exits.

Not successful at fulfilling a role in society though.

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

#295

Post by btilly »

Chris2048 wrote: post #286
btilly wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

I think what we actually need is a recipe site that sticks to just a few curated recipes like this: - low downtime, meaning personal time prep/etc were you are unable to do anything else. - healthy, obv. (I note the above recipes seem to have quite a bit of salt and fat..) - easily obtained ingredients. special consideration for those that need to be fresh, or go off quickly (vs pantry), and those that are hard to ob…

Which diet is more healthy? Low carb and high fat? Or high carb and low fat?

And when you add salt yourself without sugar, you generally don't get to the salt content of most of what you see from packaged foods or a restaurant.

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

#296

Post by kspaans »

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'…

You won't learn how to cook improvisationaly, that's true. What you will learn are new cooking/prepping techniques (zesting, massage the kale so it tastes less bitter, julienning, fry lightly on the stove and move the pan to the oven to broil, etc), and be exposed to new ingredients and styles.

Disclaimer: I work for a BA competitor, Green Chef.

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

#297

Post by logicfiction »

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…

The trick all recipe writers use is the recipe time assumes you are mise-en-place, that all your ingredients are prepared for the recipe ahead of the recipe time. I'm fairly certain Blue Apron and such are no different.

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

#298

Post by jessaustin »

pjc50 wrote: post #285
jessaustin wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! I figure I'm ahead on the submission, I might as well burn some valuable internet points on entertaining those of discerning tastes such as yourself. Normally the only time I get downvoted that much is when I complain about WaPo's obvious-but-never-mentioned conflicts of interest.

:) I think they've started being explicit about the conflict of interest: https://www.washingtonian.com/2017/06/27/the-washington-post...

I don't see any mention of big (e.g. $60M/yr for 10 yrs) AWS customers...

b^)

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

#299

Post by Chris2048 »

btilly wrote: post #295
Chris2048 wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think what we actually need is a recipe site that sticks to just a few curated recipes like this: - low downtime, meaning personal time prep/etc were you are unable to do anything else. - healthy, obv. (I note the above recipes seem to have quite a bit of salt and fat..) - easily obtained ingredients. special consideration for those that need to be fresh, or go off quickly (vs pantry), and those that are hard to ob…

Which diet is more healthy? Low carb and high fat? Or high carb and low fat? And when you add salt yourself without sugar, you generally don't get to the salt content of most of what you see from packaged foods or a restaurant.

I'm actually on a keto diet now, as it happens.

I guess, if you're fat, low-carb is healthier? If you work out a lot, high-protein/high energy etc.

It depends on aim/requirements, but I mean matched to personal metabolic health.

There's another thing too: digestive health - requiring plenty fiber, not too much sugar, and not too much fat either..

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

#300

Post by mothers »

rplst8 wrote: post #250
mothers wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sure. however meal kits are inferior to just going to the grocery store in most ways.

I disagree entirely. I cannot get the ingredients for most of Plated meals for what they charge. I end up with lots of spoiled food, unless I make huge batches and eat the same thing all week.

do you not have a fridge with a freezer?
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