Juicero May Be Feeling the Squeeze

Well, maybe it's even better than the original concept: now you can consume the product even if you don't have the hardware. As long as the juice is good - why not. They just need to start selling their juice packs to those who don't own the device.

Yes, but they're also out $400 on every customer. And those customers can now very easily switch to a different juice provider without losing any "investment" they made in hardware.

I can't find any info on their site about subscription pricing (always a red flag) but this whole thing seems absurdly stupid. I'd be amazed if they managed to scale this in such a way that shipping refrigerated juice to individual customers is more affordable than people picking it up in the store/receiving it with their normal grocery order.

$120m from investors none of whom were aware you don't need a $400 machine to squeeze the juice from fruit?

How do people with so little sense get so much money?

Huh, I wonder if this was just with certain juice bags, or if they generally pulverize the materials in the bags to make it easier to squeeze. I can easily see this for berries, citrus, etc, but it seems less likely for beets, kale, and other hardier vegetables.

Regardless, their actual market has always been restaurants and offices that want to have juice without a mess or someone who knows how to make it, and that seems less impacted, if perhaps less appealing to their investors.

> Juicero declined to comment. A person close to the company said Juicero is aware the packs can be squeezed by hand but that most people would prefer to use the machine because the process is more consistent and less messy.

"We kinda didn't think about this much because the real money is in the packets anyways. This stuff is way better than ink cartridges."