This is interesting to think about. The benefits you listed are huge - buy local, decreased packaging, fresher food. That alone is compelling enough for me to

This is interesting to think about. The benefits you listed are huge - buy local, decreased packaging, fresher food. That alone is compelling enough for me to choose a local competitor given all else equal. I can see cost savings for local competitors with shipping and packaging. Food costs will be higher, i'm assuming, since volume will be much-much lower than BA. Devils-advocate: how can a local meal-kit delivery business compete with Blue Apron on user-acquisition and tech? It's very easy to waste ad dollars on FB and taboola, which will drive up your CACs to a point where any cost savings from packaging and shipping will be minor at best. Hiring outside help for user-acq is prohibitively expensive for most small businesses, and fraught with scammers and "local SEO expert" types. On the tech side, if you've ever used a local CSA, that's what I imagine most small business meal-kit software will look like unless some SaaS steps in and makes a killer, Shopify-like product for managing these businesses. Maybe this exists, I don't know.