4 ms·

The value of BlueApron isn't on a per meal price basis. As you mentioned, buying the ingredients yourself will be significantly less expensive. The value for B

by jarito 9y ago

The value of BlueApron isn't on a per meal price basis. As you mentioned, buying the ingredients yourself will be significantly less expensive. The value for Blue Apron for us: * I don't have to look through and choose recipes. * I don't have to spend a hour in the store, we pretty much just get staples (eggs, milk, etc) these days. * I don't throw away near as much food. We used to throw away around 50% of food purchases due to changing schedules / spoilage. We actually saved money moving to Blue Apron. * Blue Apron can include specialty ingredients that I won't normally have (e.g. I'm not routinely going to the Korean grocery). I like to cook. Blue Apron makes it easy to do that while exposing us to new and interesting recipes without committing a lot of time to the process. That's worth money.

ajacksified 9y ago
I personally don't, and can't, use it because my family's too large and the economics outweigh the time (and besides, I like planning and cooking.) I suspect this limits their expansion - I don't see how it can break below the barrier of an upper-middle class that can weigh priorities this way, and I'm not sure that's large enough of an audience to really form a growth strategy around. Now, curated recipe lists without having to buy the groceris through them is a subscription service I'd pay for. I already subscribe to Bon Appetit for the recipes.
notyourday 9y ago
> I don't have to look through and choose recipes. Google: quick and easy <protein> skillet with <what i have in a fridge> > * I don't have to spend a hour in the store, we pretty much just get staples (eggs, milk, etc) these days. In less than 6 months of cooking you would get entire pantry of all kinds of dry and canned ingredients needed by buying them in a reasonably sized containers as needed or as the opportunity presents itself > I don't throw away near as much food. We used to throw away around 50% of food purchases due to changing schedules / spoilage. We actually saved money moving to Blue Apron. That just means you are overbuying/overcooking. After 6 months of cooking a cost of a "complex" BA like meal without BA should be $2-3 per person even in the most expensive markets in the US. Blue Apron's cost can never match a cost of buying protein/pantry/vegetable items on sale as neither BA has the infrastructure and volume to match grocery chains nor does it have other ways of squeezing the margins. Now, you may decide that you do not want to have a pantry or use Google or know that $0.49-0.59 is a good price for chicken thighs and $0.99 is a good price for whole chicken in NYC or that you should not buy turmeric at Chelsea market because it is 4x the price at any other grocery store and that's why you would use BA. The problem is that there are just not enough people like you to make BA profitable, especially now with Amazon buying Whole Foods.
- eropple 9y ago
  I agree with most of your post, but I think that $2-$3 a person is probably optimistic. I regularly manage about $5.50/meal, but less than that involves cutting back in quality or selection.
  - notyourday 9y ago
    Chicken - 0.49/lb Chicken, whole - 0.99/lb Beef cubes - 3/lb Beef, NY strip - 11/lb Beef, Sirloin - 5.99/lb Pork, Ribs - 1.99/lb Pork, tenderloin - 5/lb Pork, everything else - 1.19/lb Lamb - 5/lb Lamb, Leg - 7.99/lb ( was $3.99/lb for Easter) Lamb, Rack - 9.99/lb Salmon - Whole Fresh Alaskan non-frozen - 11/lb Grouper - Whole Non-Frozen - 9/lb Red Snapper - 6/lb These are your most expensive ingredients in NYC today in a non-upscale ( and non-ethnic ) supermarkets. At best you are getting 1/4lb per portion. All other ingredients would barely make a dollar if you don't buy a precious single onion and instead buy a bag of onions or instead of getting a single carrot, you buy a small bags of carrots. Obviously you don't buy salmon when it is $16/lb as you know that at some point over next few weeks it would be $11/lb. The last one that I got at Chelsea market was $9.99/lb because they did not correctly predict how many were going to be bought as fillets and sushi so they wanted to offload the last two at the end of the day before getting another 10 next morning. BA cost of raw ingredients is at best 5-10% better than yours when you walk into a random supermarket and just buy non-insanely priced items.
    - eropple 9y ago
      Maybe you're very well-situated, 'cause I've never seen prices in that ballpark. I live outside of Boston (at a T stop, but in the city itself) and there's nowhere I'm getting sirloin for $6 except on sale and nowhere I'm getting chicken for fifty cents a pound.
  - shadowwolf007 9y ago
    Yeah BA is way over-priced, but aside from a few of their completely nonsensically simple recipes I've never made anything comparable for $2 - $3 a person. The $5.50 mark sounds about right for me in the midwest and I'm buying pretty good quality ingredients still. I often splurge and go to $8 - $10 a person but that's totally excessive :) I've cooked and bought groceries in NYC several times and while the prices are definitely competitive with some hunting, the 99c whole chicken I found was total garbage and basically was like water and salt. My step-dad used to swear he couldn't tell a difference between the $1.99 special chicken and the regular stuff I bought that was $4 - 6.99. To me the $1.99 tastes like eating saline solution (I've had saline injections, it tasted like that to me). Maybe it's just a question of taste.

by jarito 9y ago

ajacksified 9y ago

I personally don't, and can't, use it because my family's too large and the economics outweigh the time (and besides, I like planning and cooking.) I suspect this limits their expansion - I don't see how it can break below the barrier of an upper-middle class that can weigh priorities this way, and I'm not sure that's large enough of an audience to really form a growth strategy around. Now, curated recipe lists without having to buy the groceris through them is a subscription service I'd pay for. I already subscribe to Bon Appetit for the recipes.

notyourday 9y ago

> I don't have to look through and choose recipes. Google: quick and easy <protein> skillet with <what i have in a fridge> > * I don't have to spend a hour in the store, we pretty much just get staples (eggs, milk, etc) these days. In less than 6 months of cooking you would get entire pantry of all kinds of dry and canned ingredients needed by buying them in a reasonably sized containers as needed or as the opportunity presents itself > I don't throw away near as much food. We used to throw away around 50% of food purchases due to changing schedules / spoilage. We actually saved money moving to Blue Apron. That just means you are overbuying/overcooking. After 6 months of cooking a cost of a "complex" BA like meal without BA should be $2-3 per person even in the most expensive markets in the US. Blue Apron's cost can never match a cost of buying protein/pantry/vegetable items on sale as neither BA has the infrastructure and volume to match grocery chains nor does it have other ways of squeezing the margins. Now, you may decide that you do not want to have a pantry or use Google or know that $0.49-0.59 is a good price for chicken thighs and $0.99 is a good price for whole chicken in NYC or that you should not buy turmeric at Chelsea market because it is 4x the price at any other grocery store and that's why you would use BA. The problem is that there are just not enough people like you to make BA profitable, especially now with Amazon buying Whole Foods.

eropple 9y ago
I agree with most of your post, but I think that $2-$3 a person is probably optimistic. I regularly manage about $5.50/meal, but less than that involves cutting back in quality or selection.
- notyourday 9y ago
  Chicken - 0.49/lb Chicken, whole - 0.99/lb Beef cubes - 3/lb Beef, NY strip - 11/lb Beef, Sirloin - 5.99/lb Pork, Ribs - 1.99/lb Pork, tenderloin - 5/lb Pork, everything else - 1.19/lb Lamb - 5/lb Lamb, Leg - 7.99/lb ( was $3.99/lb for Easter) Lamb, Rack - 9.99/lb Salmon - Whole Fresh Alaskan non-frozen - 11/lb Grouper - Whole Non-Frozen - 9/lb Red Snapper - 6/lb These are your most expensive ingredients in NYC today in a non-upscale ( and non-ethnic ) supermarkets. At best you are getting 1/4lb per portion. All other ingredients would barely make a dollar if you don't buy a precious single onion and instead buy a bag of onions or instead of getting a single carrot, you buy a small bags of carrots. Obviously you don't buy salmon when it is $16/lb as you know that at some point over next few weeks it would be $11/lb. The last one that I got at Chelsea market was $9.99/lb because they did not correctly predict how many were going to be bought as fillets and sushi so they wanted to offload the last two at the end of the day before getting another 10 next morning. BA cost of raw ingredients is at best 5-10% better than yours when you walk into a random supermarket and just buy non-insanely priced items.
  - eropple 9y ago
    Maybe you're very well-situated, 'cause I've never seen prices in that ballpark. I live outside of Boston (at a T stop, but in the city itself) and there's nowhere I'm getting sirloin for $6 except on sale and nowhere I'm getting chicken for fifty cents a pound.
- shadowwolf007 9y ago
  Yeah BA is way over-priced, but aside from a few of their completely nonsensically simple recipes I've never made anything comparable for $2 - $3 a person. The $5.50 mark sounds about right for me in the midwest and I'm buying pretty good quality ingredients still. I often splurge and go to $8 - $10 a person but that's totally excessive :) I've cooked and bought groceries in NYC several times and while the prices are definitely competitive with some hunting, the 99c whole chicken I found was total garbage and basically was like water and salt. My step-dad used to swear he couldn't tell a difference between the $1.99 special chicken and the regular stuff I bought that was $4 - 6.99. To me the $1.99 tastes like eating saline solution (I've had saline injections, it tasted like that to me). Maybe it's just a question of taste.