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Blue Apron is not a good company relative to the other meal kit delivery services anyway. Their recipes are overly simplistic and their whole experience using

Blue Apron is not a good company relative to the other meal kit delivery services anyway. Their recipes are overly simplistic and their whole experience using UX dark patterns limiting which meals one can get in combination turned me off, and misleading people regarding cancellation. The higher quality meal kits like Home Chef won't have this problem because they give you, for about the same price, more complex recipes with cool ingredients like demi-glace. There are enough things you can't buy in small quantities easily.

emodendroket 9y ago
I felt the opposite way; the recipes I got when I tried Blue Apron were more trouble than I really wanted to bother with on a weeknight.
- tedmiston 9y ago
  Yeah, I can relate. I probably cook 3 meal kits every 2 weeks when I'm doing them which is on/off, and I feel like it is a time commitment (especially cleanup). So, I could commit 30-45 minutes and get a Blue Apron level meal that's usually ~5/10 experience or commit 15 more minutes to get something really nice one that's ~9/10.
  - shiftpgdn 9y ago
    Practice and sharp knives will dramatically change how quickly you can prep, cook, serve and cleanup a blue apron or plated meal. I can usually beat the estimated time by 10+ minutes.
    - tedmiston 9y ago
      That's awesome... I haven't really invested in good knives yet. My girlfriend who's been a daily cook for years can look at the meal kit recipes and find ways to parallelize or speed them up that aren't necessarily obvious, like boiling this water before you start prepping, or cooking a thing inside another already hot pan instead of a separate one. I think the directions prioritize easy before fast.
      - magic_beans 9y ago
        The Victorinox 8-inch Chef's knife is only $45 on Amazon (cheap for a good knife), and is really excellent for the home cook who's not yet ready to invest $200 on a fancy German or Japanese knife. It just needs a little sharpening after 2 weeks or so of daily use. It slices baguettes, onions, and raw meat like dream. I've even managed paper-thin slices of garlic!
        emodendroket 9y ago
        I am always attracted to ceramic knives, although they have a tendency to chip.
  - emodendroket 9y ago
    The thing that killed me was I needed way more pots than I wanted to use; I usually try to go for one- or two-pot meals.
ghaff 9y ago
I was in an urban organic-ish grocer last weekend and I saw they had meal kits. I'm surprised more places don't do this.
- tedmiston 9y ago
  Kroger, which is probably the biggest grocery chain accounting for all of the chains under their umbrella, just started rolling out their own last month. Their price point is $14–18 for two, or just under the price of meal kit delivery services but probably still with better margins given their supply chain. I haven't tried them yet but I plan to. http://www.produceretailer.com/article/videos-article/watch-see-krogers-new-prep-pared-meal-kits http://www.produceretailer.com/article/videos-article/watch-...
  - ghaff 9y ago
    Of course you can also buy a lot of pre-prepped food these days if you're so inclined. That said, I expect the main market here is people who are OK with cooking but just don't want to put a lot of thought into planning, making a shopping list, etc.
mikelward 9y ago
HelloFresh automatically re-activated my membership when I thought it was paused, with no notification until after they'd charged my card on file and shipped a week's worth of food. Never touching them again. Home Chef proactively emails you a week ahead of time telling you what the menu is. I've forgotten to customize my meal selection once or twice, but have been happy enough with the defaults for the "carb conscious" eater profile that I never really have to. Don't think I had any major issues with Blue Apron, except that yeah, their recipes were simplistic, and often used lots of bread, rice, and potatoes.
- tedmiston 9y ago
  That's exactly the experience I saw canceling Blue Apron. You request to cancel, they acknowledge your request and say okay but with a weasel word reply. Something like 4-6 weeks later a new shipment shows up unexpectedly and they purport that they can't refund because it's been delivered. I even tweeted at their CEO about the company's use of questionable and shady growth tactics to no avail. That is the kind of move that makes me open a credit card dispute against the company and write them off for good.
bduerst 9y ago
Yeah, I currently use Blue Apron, and I wish there was an option to just pay a little more for what I want rather than have to figure out what combination of foods I need to fly under the cost limit for the week.

emodendroket 9y ago

I felt the opposite way; the recipes I got when I tried Blue Apron were more trouble than I really wanted to bother with on a weeknight.

tedmiston 9y ago
Yeah, I can relate. I probably cook 3 meal kits every 2 weeks when I'm doing them which is on/off, and I feel like it is a time commitment (especially cleanup). So, I could commit 30-45 minutes and get a Blue Apron level meal that's usually ~5/10 experience or commit 15 more minutes to get something really nice one that's ~9/10.
- shiftpgdn 9y ago
  Practice and sharp knives will dramatically change how quickly you can prep, cook, serve and cleanup a blue apron or plated meal. I can usually beat the estimated time by 10+ minutes.
  - tedmiston 9y ago
    That's awesome... I haven't really invested in good knives yet. My girlfriend who's been a daily cook for years can look at the meal kit recipes and find ways to parallelize or speed them up that aren't necessarily obvious, like boiling this water before you start prepping, or cooking a thing inside another already hot pan instead of a separate one. I think the directions prioritize easy before fast.
    - magic_beans 9y ago
      The Victorinox 8-inch Chef's knife is only $45 on Amazon (cheap for a good knife), and is really excellent for the home cook who's not yet ready to invest $200 on a fancy German or Japanese knife. It just needs a little sharpening after 2 weeks or so of daily use. It slices baguettes, onions, and raw meat like dream. I've even managed paper-thin slices of garlic!
      - emodendroket 9y ago
        I am always attracted to ceramic knives, although they have a tendency to chip.
- emodendroket 9y ago
  The thing that killed me was I needed way more pots than I wanted to use; I usually try to go for one- or two-pot meals.

ghaff 9y ago

I was in an urban organic-ish grocer last weekend and I saw they had meal kits. I'm surprised more places don't do this.

tedmiston 9y ago
Kroger, which is probably the biggest grocery chain accounting for all of the chains under their umbrella, just started rolling out their own last month. Their price point is $14–18 for two, or just under the price of meal kit delivery services but probably still with better margins given their supply chain. I haven't tried them yet but I plan to. http://www.produceretailer.com/article/videos-article/watch-see-krogers-new-prep-pared-meal-kits http://www.produceretailer.com/article/videos-article/watch-...
- ghaff 9y ago
  Of course you can also buy a lot of pre-prepped food these days if you're so inclined. That said, I expect the main market here is people who are OK with cooking but just don't want to put a lot of thought into planning, making a shopping list, etc.

mikelward 9y ago

HelloFresh automatically re-activated my membership when I thought it was paused, with no notification until after they'd charged my card on file and shipped a week's worth of food. Never touching them again. Home Chef proactively emails you a week ahead of time telling you what the menu is. I've forgotten to customize my meal selection once or twice, but have been happy enough with the defaults for the "carb conscious" eater profile that I never really have to. Don't think I had any major issues with Blue Apron, except that yeah, their recipes were simplistic, and often used lots of bread, rice, and potatoes.

tedmiston 9y ago
That's exactly the experience I saw canceling Blue Apron. You request to cancel, they acknowledge your request and say okay but with a weasel word reply. Something like 4-6 weeks later a new shipment shows up unexpectedly and they purport that they can't refund because it's been delivered. I even tweeted at their CEO about the company's use of questionable and shady growth tactics to no avail. That is the kind of move that makes me open a credit card dispute against the company and write them off for good.

bduerst 9y ago

Yeah, I currently use Blue Apron, and I wish there was an option to just pay a little more for what I want rather than have to figure out what combination of foods I need to fly under the cost limit for the week.