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Home food delivery’s questionable value, for consumers and investors

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Re: Home food delivery’s questionable value, for consumers and investors

#31

Post by rootusrootus »

60secs wrote: post #18
culturestate wrote: post #16

My biggest gripe with HelloFresh, et al is that I still need to do the prep, so they don't actually save me much time. It's nothing more than curated grocery delivery. Years ago, there was a service in Hong Kong (I wish I could remember the name) that did daily delivery of already prepped meal kits - onions pre-chopped, avocados cubed, oil portioned for each step, etc. It was basically cooking by numbers, and extraor…

Freshly does that

Freshly is prepared meals, not prepped ingredients. And IMO Freshly is kinda gross. If you want prepped meals you can just heat-and-eat, CookUnity is a good bit better. Although some of the meals CU sells are pushing 20 bucks. That's quite a lot for what amounts to a microwave meal.

Re: Home food delivery’s questionable value, for consumers and investors

#32

Post by [deleted] »

60secs wrote: post #18
culturestate wrote: post #16

My biggest gripe with HelloFresh, et al is that I still need to do the prep, so they don't actually save me much time. It's nothing more than curated grocery delivery. Years ago, there was a service in Hong Kong (I wish I could remember the name) that did daily delivery of already prepped meal kits - onions pre-chopped, avocados cubed, oil portioned for each step, etc. It was basically cooking by numbers, and extraor…

Freshly does that

[deleted]

Re: Home food delivery’s questionable value, for consumers and investors

#33

Post by andrenotgiant »

culturestate wrote: post #16

My biggest gripe with HelloFresh, et al is that I still need to do the prep, so they don't actually save me much time. It's nothing more than curated grocery delivery. Years ago, there was a service in Hong Kong (I wish I could remember the name) that did daily delivery of already prepped meal kits - onions pre-chopped, avocados cubed, oil portioned for each step, etc. It was basically cooking by numbers, and extraor…

not trying to be snarky, genuinely curious: What benefit does that have over ordering delivery from a restaurant?

Re: Home food delivery’s questionable value, for consumers and investors

#34

Post by jakeinspace »

Not ashamed to admit that I’ve signed up for 3 or 4 different meal kit delivery services in the past 2 years just to get the signup promo, and then abruptly canceled (milking venture backed businesses is my passion). The main value add for me is finding new recipes I can buy myself at the grocery store, since the mark up is a bit too high for my budget. Maybe if one of these businesses reached a critical density, they could figure out a more economical delivery system, like the milk man of yore.

Re: Home food delivery’s questionable value, for consumers and investors

#35

Post by tlbsofware »

rcme wrote: post #28
culturestate wrote: post #16

My biggest gripe with HelloFresh, et al is that I still need to do the prep, so they don't actually save me much time. It's nothing more than curated grocery delivery. Years ago, there was a service in Hong Kong (I wish I could remember the name) that did daily delivery of already prepped meal kits - onions pre-chopped, avocados cubed, oil portioned for each step, etc. It was basically cooking by numbers, and extraor…

I usually buy groceries once a week. We typically buy 5 meals worth of food and eat left overs for two days. Thinking of those 5 meals takes about half the time buying groceries does. Personally, I like cooking and I like choosing what to eat. But every once in a while I wish someone would make a menu for me.

Hello Fresh has a rotating list of recipes on their website that do not require a membership to access.

https://www.hellofresh.com/recipes

Re: Home food delivery’s questionable value, for consumers and investors

#36

Post by shagie »

culturestate wrote: post #16

My biggest gripe with HelloFresh, et al is that I still need to do the prep, so they don't actually save me much time. It's nothing more than curated grocery delivery. Years ago, there was a service in Hong Kong (I wish I could remember the name) that did daily delivery of already prepped meal kits - onions pre-chopped, avocados cubed, oil portioned for each step, etc. It was basically cooking by numbers, and extraor…

I make use of a few different meal services... and I completely agree with the prep issue. While the "get fresh food for X meals" is a nice idea, I invariably hit issues with portions - most companies only provide portions for 2 or 4 people. This works poorly for the odd sized household (especially the 1 sized).

So... I have factor. They're single sized microwave items. Very convenient for lunches with a 2 minutes in the microwave and you're good.

I also have tovala. They've got a special (but inexpensive) toaster oven or air fryer. With them, you get raw protein and a side and do 1 min of prep for it and then cook it in the oven for 13 to 20 min depending on the food. The portion sizes there are 1. The longer prep and the "need that toaster oven" make it not as useful for the "on the go". This is cooked in single use aluminum trays and so cleanup is minimal.

And I also splurged for a suvie (. That's in the 30 min and longer category with more cleaning (of the trays - they're not single use), but you can cook for a time (have this ready at 12:15 pm) and it does it. It's got a much more expensive (and larger) kitchen device... but the prep is typically in the less than 5 minutes and has the advantage of frozen to cooked rather than refrigerated to cooked meaning that the meal kits can be stored in the chest freezer in the basement for longer durations rather than needing to be done by the end of the week.

Re: Home food delivery’s questionable value, for consumers and investors

#37

Post by randallsquared »

mauvehaus wrote: post #30
culturestate wrote: post #16

My biggest gripe with HelloFresh, et al is that I still need to do the prep, so they don't actually save me much time. It's nothing more than curated grocery delivery. Years ago, there was a service in Hong Kong (I wish I could remember the name) that did daily delivery of already prepped meal kits - onions pre-chopped, avocados cubed, oil portioned for each step, etc. It was basically cooking by numbers, and extraor…

Chopped onions change smell after they've been sitting exposed to air for a while, and not for the better. I'll happily prep my own onions, even if it brings tears to my eyes. Sweet potatoes turn brown exposed to air, sometimes even in the span of time from prepping the first to prepping the last before they go into the pot all together. I would venture that most things do not improve with exposure to air once cut up…

Tovala somehow avoids this with sweet potatoes in their meals, though they do require cutting of bell peppers and some other things.

Re: Home food delivery’s questionable value, for consumers and investors

#38

Post by Swenrekcah »

andrenotgiant wrote: post #33
culturestate wrote: post #16

My biggest gripe with HelloFresh, et al is that I still need to do the prep, so they don't actually save me much time. It's nothing more than curated grocery delivery. Years ago, there was a service in Hong Kong (I wish I could remember the name) that did daily delivery of already prepped meal kits - onions pre-chopped, avocados cubed, oil portioned for each step, etc. It was basically cooking by numbers, and extraor…

not trying to be snarky, genuinely curious: What benefit does that have over ordering delivery from a restaurant?

If somebody manages to get the scale right, it should be a bit less expensive, you get to eat freshly cooked food and you know most of what you put in it. Also if people don't already know their way around a kitchen this is a pretty effective way to learn I would think.

Re: Home food delivery’s questionable value, for consumers and investors

#39

Post by mikrl »

rcme wrote: post #28
culturestate wrote: post #16

My biggest gripe with HelloFresh, et al is that I still need to do the prep, so they don't actually save me much time. It's nothing more than curated grocery delivery. Years ago, there was a service in Hong Kong (I wish I could remember the name) that did daily delivery of already prepped meal kits - onions pre-chopped, avocados cubed, oil portioned for each step, etc. It was basically cooking by numbers, and extraor…

I usually buy groceries once a week. We typically buy 5 meals worth of food and eat left overs for two days. Thinking of those 5 meals takes about half the time buying groceries does. Personally, I like cooking and I like choosing what to eat. But every once in a while I wish someone would make a menu for me.

Yea you can really optimize it with some thought.

Make the same stir fry but with a different sauce.

Refried beans can make burritos, tacos or bowls.

Chicken is endlessly versatile in stews, curry, schnitzel, etc.

I too would like a menu made for me, but it would be a luxury, curated for me to explore more meals. My standards are strong, nutritious and go down well with the lady.

Re: Home food delivery’s questionable value, for consumers and investors

#40

Post by pm215 »

culturestate wrote: post #16

My biggest gripe with HelloFresh, et al is that I still need to do the prep, so they don't actually save me much time. It's nothing more than curated grocery delivery. Years ago, there was a service in Hong Kong (I wish I could remember the name) that did daily delivery of already prepped meal kits - onions pre-chopped, avocados cubed, oil portioned for each step, etc. It was basically cooking by numbers, and extraor…

Personally, I'm not trying to save time in the cooking process; I'm trying to save time and hassle in the ingredient-buying phase: deciding what to cook, figuring out what ingredients I need to buy to cook that, finding them in the shop, working out what to do if it turns out that the supermarket is out of spinach, etc. Plus my closest supermarket doesn't have much in the way of stock, so I'd have to go further to get the kind of stuff meal kits tend to want.
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