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Blue Apron Files for IPO

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Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#91

Post by throwanem »

harryh wrote: post #74
glup wrote: post #32

I hear a lot of my friends trying Blue Apron, but then canceling because of the 1) excessive packaging 2) excessive salt/sodium content 3) sudden inspiration to just go to a grocery store and learn more about cooking in general. For those of you on HN who have done BA for more than a year, what are your experiences? How do you balance it with other food sources (groceries, delivery food, going out, other services)?

I've been a consistent Blue Apron customer since 2012 getting probably 45 weekly boxes a year. I like it a whole lot. Both my wife and I have busy careers and when it came to dinners were ordering in way too much. Blue Apron is an easy way to get exactly what I need for 3 pretty good dinners a week. I like the variety, I like that they're pretty straight forward to make, and I like that I don't have to think about it…

There's also https://blueapron.com/wtw - 3 free meals on first order, no questions asked.

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#92

Post by mywittyname »

sushisource wrote: post #38
glup wrote: post #32

I hear a lot of my friends trying Blue Apron, but then canceling because of the 1) excessive packaging 2) excessive salt/sodium content 3) sudden inspiration to just go to a grocery store and learn more about cooking in general. For those of you on HN who have done BA for more than a year, what are your experiences? How do you balance it with other food sources (groceries, delivery food, going out, other services)?

I just do it once a month. I really wish they would have an option to do that, instead of forcing me to go on the website once a month and cancel everything except one week. I like it because it's a good way to cook things I might not decide to make otherwise. Complaint #2 makes no sense to me. You add all your own salt. If they want less salt, add less salt.

I'd probably subscribe if they had a single purchase option. It would be nice to try some of the recipes that use ingredients that I've never tried before. Or as training wheels for my partner on days that I get home too late to cook.

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#93

Post by reubenswartz »

Tried it once, and wanted to like it, but it felt like it was stuck in the middle of things:

- Cheaper than eating out for a "nice" meal, but much more expensive per meal than my usual grocery shopping, or even other decent, low-cost eating out options.

- Nice to have stuff show up, but still need to go to the grocery store, anyway-- didn't feel like I was saving a trip.

- Food wasn't hard to prepare, but it was much more cumbersome than most of the things I make in a hurry, like they wanted you to prove to yourself that you could cook something "fancy". It actually added stress (may not be true for many folks).

- Food was reasonably healthy, but not as healthy (or at least as suited to me) as my own groceries.

- Most importantly, the food didn't taste bad, but it didn't taste great, either. (You can always add your own sriracha, garlic, etc, but it kind of defeats the point if you have to make your own sauce.)

Seems like a great fit for folks who want to start cooking and haven't got in the routine yet, but it seems hard to imagine lots of people staying on the plan long term.

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#94

Post by jonaf »

nostrademons wrote: post #39
jonaf wrote: post #23

I'm shocked to see an IPO for one of these delivery companies. Not because there doesn't seem to be a value proposition, but because I don't understand what sets them apart from the competition. They seem to be in a flooded market: Plated, HelloFresh, I think I've seen commercials for a few more, and they seem to barely add value on top of another flooded market, grocery delivery: instacart, uber has a service like t…

Capital. The more money you raise, the longer you last at gambler's ruin. Hence why they're IPOing.

That's interesting, but it sounds too simple. Surely any of the competitors could also IPO, and at that point, Blue Apron still needs to justify why the market is better off investing in their company. By contrast, prior to its acquisition by Google in October 2006, Youtube was one among many social video sites, and neither it nor any of its competitors IPO'd, ever (source: I searched for news relating to "video sharing IPO" and found nothing prior to 2010 -- I could still be wrong about this claim, though). However, the operating costs of such a massive site (65k new videos with 100MM views per day, a mere 1 year after launch[0]) are substantial. If an IPO is just a way to defeat the competition using sheer survival tactics, I would have expected Youtube (or one of its competitors) to IPO or start fielding an IPO early-on. Maybe Google just bought them too quickly, as they were acquired in October 2006?

Does it mean that Youtube competitors like Vimeo must be profitable private companies in order to stay in the market? Youtube's pockets are, at this point, effectively infinite, so my sense is that Youtube competitors are not directly competing with what Youtube offers, but similar niches peripheral to Youtube.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube#Company_history

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#95

Post by selectout »

reubenswartz wrote: post #93

Tried it once, and wanted to like it, but it felt like it was stuck in the middle of things: - Cheaper than eating out for a "nice" meal, but much more expensive per meal than my usual grocery shopping, or even other decent, low-cost eating out options. - Nice to have stuff show up, but still need to go to the grocery store, anyway-- didn't feel like I was saving a trip. - Food wasn't hard to prepare, but it was much…

Agreed 100% on these points. My traditional behavior now is to stop all shipments, if there is a new type of meal/technique in one of the weeks then I order there. Typically get about 1 shipment every 4-5 weeks instead of weekly.

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#96

Post by bcassedy »

jonaf wrote: post #23

I'm shocked to see an IPO for one of these delivery companies. Not because there doesn't seem to be a value proposition, but because I don't understand what sets them apart from the competition. They seem to be in a flooded market: Plated, HelloFresh, I think I've seen commercials for a few more, and they seem to barely add value on top of another flooded market, grocery delivery: instacart, uber has a service like t…

I'd argue that they add a ton of value over grocery delivery. They're handling meal planning and portioning. That's a lot less wasted food and a lot less stress for anyone that isn't content to recycle the same few recipes week in week out.

I do agree that differentiating between competitors is tough though. On the surface all of these companies look about the same. They try to cater to different segments - health conscious, upscale, etc, but I'm not sure how effective this is.

For a while we ordered mostly takeout which was both expensive and unhealthy. We were able to start cooking for ourselves for a bit on our own, but eventually the weekly meal planning and shopping run got to be too much of a burden. That's where we found Blue Apron which had us eating healthy for another ~6 months. During this time we tried Plated too, but that week was guest recipes from some magazine and they were poorly timed and included practically inedible ingredients. After 6 months work situations changed and we just didn't have time for an hour of cooking 3 times a week. Since then we've been using Munchery which we're very happy with.

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#97

Post by harryh »

throwanem wrote: post #91
harryh wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been a consistent Blue Apron customer since 2012 getting probably 45 weekly boxes a year. I like it a whole lot. Both my wife and I have busy careers and when it came to dinners were ordering in way too much. Blue Apron is an easy way to get exactly what I need for 3 pretty good dinners a week. I like the variety, I like that they're pretty straight forward to make, and I like that I don't have to think about it…

There's also https://blueapron.com/wtw - 3 free meals on first order, no questions asked.

Oh nifty. I never actually knew about that. That's way easier than pinging me. Thanks!

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#98

Post by mrb »

jonaf wrote: post #23

I'm shocked to see an IPO for one of these delivery companies. Not because there doesn't seem to be a value proposition, but because I don't understand what sets them apart from the competition. They seem to be in a flooded market: Plated, HelloFresh, I think I've seen commercials for a few more, and they seem to barely add value on top of another flooded market, grocery delivery: instacart, uber has a service like t…

What distinguishes BA is they have the largest market share. IIRC they are 10x bigger than the #2 company.

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#99

Post by morsch »

nilkn wrote: post #36
paulcole wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>They are trying to help people cook healthy food, they are doing a good thing I don't think the idea that they're "doing a good thing" is so cut and dry. Aren't they producing an astounding amount of waste? And aren't the working conditions uncomfortable at best? https://www.buzzfeed.com/carolineodonovan/the-not-so-wholeso...

I've subscribed to Blue Apron before and, regarding waste, it doesn't seem much different from going to the grocery store. Meat ingredients like chicken breast, salmon, and beef are individually wrapped exactly like they are in the store. Blue Apron doesn't wrap all their produce (but they do wrap some of it); most people I know use a lot of plastic bags for produce when going to the grocery, so that's a small differ…

The first post that popped up on Blue Apron and waste[1] has a picture of the wrapped up ingredients of three meals[2]. It looks a bit random to me -- a few veggies come without (extra) packaging, but then there's a single individually wrapped carrot.

When I buy carrots, there's usually zero packaging; at most there's a thin plastic back for a bunch of carrots. I also don't buy a single leaf of Kale, and another single leaf of a different variety of Kale. Based on that picture, I'd say the amount of packaging is about twice as much as normal -- just in terms of food packaging, another picture shows the total waste[3], which is two or three times again as much. I think that's pretty significant.

I don't feel like I'm trying very hard, either, and -- even though virtually all of it is theoretically recyclable here by law -- I'm still appaled at how much garbage remains. We should strive to do better, not worse. It's not easy, though, since larger serving sizes tend to lead to spoiled food, which is the worst result of all.

And it's probably a drop in the bucket compared to the footprint of micro-grocery delivery compared to the most efficient alternatives.

[1] https://www.buzzfeed.com/ellencushing/these-are-the-trashy-c...

[2] https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2015-11/25/1...

[3] https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2015-11/25/1...

Re: Blue Apron Files for IPO

#100

Post by bcassedy »

WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #89

Very surprising that they've gotten to the point of actually filing for an IPO. Their business model is overly complicated. This company reminds me of Webvan during the 1st internet boom. They tried to do everything a market would do plus delivery. They soon found out it was too costly and went under. What they need to do is partner with grocery stores so that customers can pick up the food or have it delivered witho…

Trust me they're already looking at getting faster fulfillment and avoiding UPS and FedEx. That ice they package with is extremely expensive and their margins would improve drastically if they only needed to keep the box cool for ~12 hours instead of 24+ with the major carriers.
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