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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

#81

Post by FussyZeus »

komali2 wrote: post #78
Mz wrote: post #10

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. The problem is that such a service has no real hope of taking the place of someone with actual cooking skill who knows you well and will tweak the recipe to your preferen…

I had to catch myself from saying "what the fuck" out loud. I don't want to be rude to you, but I find this to be hilarious: >Such a service has no real hope of taking the place of someone with actual cooking skills who knows you well and will tweak the recipe to your preferences, possibly without you even having to explicitly ask or remind her. Sounds like a job for a... maid! Which really puts a delicious spin on t…

I mean, I get what he's saying. I do most of the cooking around our house, and do tweak recipes to suit my woman's tastes. Yes, could've been phrased better but I think he's onto something in terms of the dedicated homemaker in general of either sex becoming a bit of a reach for most households to have.

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

#82

Post by Mz »

komali2 wrote: post #78
Mz wrote: post #10

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. The problem is that such a service has no real hope of taking the place of someone with actual cooking skill who knows you well and will tweak the recipe to your preferen…

I had to catch myself from saying "what the fuck" out loud. I don't want to be rude to you, but I find this to be hilarious: >Such a service has no real hope of taking the place of someone with actual cooking skills who knows you well and will tweak the recipe to your preferences, possibly without you even having to explicitly ask or remind her. Sounds like a job for a... maid! Which really puts a delicious spin on t…

I'm a former homemaker and full time mom. You have failed in your stated goal of not being rude to me.

I am merely describing the problem space. If people wanted to, you know, tweak it themselves, then there would be no food services of any kind, not restaurants and not take out food and not meal-in-a-box delivery services. We would just all cook for ourselves if everyone just loved doing that and didn't want this somehow magically taken care of by some other means.

Everyone needs to eat. It is a requirement to remain alive. But most people don't want to spend all their time on this vital activity. They want a good meal, but hassle-free or low hassle.

That isn't a criticism. I don't really like cooking either. It is just an observation about reality.

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

#83

Post by thenewwazoo »

mothers wrote: post #77
harryh wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can afford a meal-in-a-box service, why would you not just go to a restaurant Because I'd rather eat at home. Especially if I have kids. It's easier. Because it's a lot cheaper. Because it's better for me from a health perspective.

I highly doubt any of these claims are true on the low end. Maybe if you only go to expensive restaurants.

You're ignoring that the GP comment is working on multiple axes. For a given level of healthfulness, these services may well be cheaper and easier. Sometimes cost is not the primary constraint.

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

#84

Post by urethrafranklin »

dragonwriter wrote: post #37
urethrafranklin wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whole Foods themselves do home delivery. Amazon do not.

Amazon Prime Fresh is a thing; they absolutely do home delivery.

The delivery is outsourced and not handled directly by Amazon.

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

#85

Post by mothers »

thenewwazoo wrote: post #83
mothers wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I highly doubt any of these claims are true on the low end. Maybe if you only go to expensive restaurants.

You're ignoring that the GP comment is working on multiple axes. For a given level of healthfulness, these services may well be cheaper and easier. Sometimes cost is not the primary constraint.

even for a given level of healthfullness preparing your own food is faster and cheaper. what's your point? the only thing meal kits have on making your own food is variety. that's ultimately what you're paying for.

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

#87

Post by revelation »

frandroid wrote: post #68
wrsh07 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, after > 2 years on plans like this, either my wife or I can usually cook in the amount of time specified, and together we consistently hit the low-end. I'm not sure at what point we got this efficient, and our kitchen is also easy-to-work in. [I don't imagine that's the case for lots of apt-dwellers] I think you're definitely right that there will be a significant amount of automation that will be able to make…

> together we consistently hit the low-end. But that's two people, so really you just hit double the low end?

Amdahl's law applies, what fraction of cooking these recipes is purely serial? What does the critical path look like? How much inter-kitchen communication is there to get tools and ingredients to/from your wife?

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

#88

Post by detaro »

urethrafranklin wrote: post #84
dragonwriter wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon Prime Fresh is a thing; they absolutely do home delivery.

The delivery is outsourced and not handled directly by Amazon.

Why is it relevant if the delivery is done by contractors of some kind or by the company directly? Amazon probably even has closer control over their network than WF over Instacart, which isn't exclusive to them.

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

#89

Post by eropple »

opportune wrote: post #60
pavel_lishin wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think drone delivery is the bottleneck for incredibly cheap, yet personalized food that's delivered to you on the order of ~15 minutes. Ingredients, chef's time, kitchen space, etc. are going to eat that five bucks right up. A six-inch sub from Subway is already nine bucks, and that includes the Sandwich Rembrandt personalizing it for me with an extra slice of provolone for a dollar extra. The market isn't wa…

I'm not thinking of anything like a subway. Having each person's food prepared individually is ridiculously inefficient. I'm envisioning a facility tied to an Amazon warehouse or something similar that might be preparing food for >10000 people every day, not a huge kitchen with hundreds of chefs running around to fill maybe a couple thousand or so individual orders per day. There's no reason the production of somethi…

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 impersonal drones delivering your Food Packages so you don't need to see and interact with human beings and maybe generate some flavor of empathy somewhere inside of you. We need the exact opposite of that.

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

#90

Post by stcredzero »

Mz wrote: post #10

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. The problem is that such a service has no real hope of taking the place of someone with actual cooking skill who knows you well and will tweak the recipe to your preferen…

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 wouldn't have it. So the next step would be polygamy, but she didn't want that either. (Nor did I ask for that!)

I had the same discussion with my fiancee just last night. (The "wife" part, but not the polygamy.) She doesn't want me to be her wife either.

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