5 ms·

> The supermarkets have changed very little about the way they've done business in the last half-century, and as such I have a difficult time imagining them doi

by trimbo 9y ago

> The supermarkets have changed very little about the way they've done business in the last half-century, and as such I have a difficult time imagining them doing a good job executing on something like this. I don't get what you mean by "ensure good execution" because it takes so little for grocers to successfully move into a market like Blue Apron's. 20 years ago, grocers destroyed the "fast casual roasted chicken" restaurants (Boston Market, Kenny Rogers Roasters) by simply buying chicken roaster machines and adding hot prepared food to the deli counter... and charging about a third the price. I'd hazard a guess that Safeway's chicken isn't as yummy[1] as Kenny Rogers' Roasters but that didn't stop anything. So what about their execution is required here beyond "cheap and available where you already shop"? No one can use Blue Apron without a regular grocer in their routine already. Grocers successfully tapping into this higher margin product line seems inevitable, even if done with lower quality (is that what you mean?) [1] - Or their neon sign as bright

dragonwriter 9y ago
> So what about their execution is required here beyond "cheap and available where you already shop"? It's not 20 years ago, and “online for home delivery” is increasingly where people already shop. And, it's easy to displace a business that requires a trip out with one that requires a trip out, but one you were likely taking already. Harder to do that with something that doesn't require a trip out at all. > No one can use Blue Apron without a regular grocer in their routine already. Yes, you can. Cooking oil, salt, and black pepper—the only ingredients BA doesn't usually supply—don't require a traditional grocery or even one of the limited-area perishable delivery services to acquire. If BA is your only home cooking, you literally never need to enter a traditional grocery store, or order from a similar full-grown online delivery service. Google Express or Amazon in one of the areas where they don't have grocery delivery will work fine.
- emodendroket 9y ago
  A life where Blue Apron is literally the only food you eat at home besides takeout seems dystopian.
  - skinnymuch 9y ago
    Always these comments :p. Obviously we both know the poster was just making a point that you could possibly do Blue Apron only for home meals. I don't care for food. I know most people do. Most people care about variety and possibly some sort of cooking sometimes. I do cook chicken in bulk, but that's a pretty quick process. Otherwise I'm perfectly satisfied having the same 2 meals whenever I am at home for those meal times. One of them includes Soylent, the other includes 1-2 glasses of milk. I can still go out and enjoy social lunch or dinner with business acquaintances or friends.
    - jimmywanger 9y ago
      If you don't care about food, why are you responding? The only value adds Blue Apron gives are pre-portioning, recipes, and delivery. That might not be worth 594 million (at last count). Simply because you don't care about food doesn't mean nobody else does - in fact, you said that most people do care about food. Exactly what value does your comment add to the conversation?
      - skinnymuch 9y ago
        Guess you never wanted to let us know how your comment added any value to the conversation, huh? Or why you responded?
      - skinnymuch 9y ago
        I responded to someone saying Blue Apron for home meals seems dystopian. How is my comment not relevant or adding on to the conversation? Blue Apron for your home meals does not seem dystopian to me. I'm replying to that notion. That answers both of your quite condescending questions.
  - ryanlol 9y ago
    What about only takeout? That seems fairly normal.
    - emodendroket 9y ago
handedness 9y ago
> I don't get what you mean by "ensure good execution" because it takes so little for grocers to successfully move into a market like Blue Apron's. It also took little more than a good website to compete with Amazon in the early days, but B&N/Borders/etc. never figured out a way to do it well. What I want to do is order stuff with as little friction as possible, and have the right items delivered in a way that's convenient. The chain delivery service we tried involved a few things: 1. A poor site experience. It had 'pantry' functionality, but it was anything but good. Putting together a large order took nearly as much time as doing it in person. 2. Delivery was scheduled during windows, windows that were often either missed, or perhaps worse, beat by many hours. They were often many hours outside the window. We eventually stopped including anything fresh in the order and would pick those up ourselves on days when we were hosting guests. That defeats much of the point. It was like ordering groceries from the cable company. 3. We were able to select whether we'd want substitutions if something was unavailable. In virtually every order, we would either receive items (we didn't want) when we specified no substitutions, or didn't get substitutions when we wanted them. Often the substituted items were poorly chosen as stand-ins for what was unavailable. 4. It required a young male delivery guy to enter the home to deliver the items to the kitchen. It was a different person nearly every time. This is unacceptable for a number of reasons. Whenever substitution issues happened they seemed so disconnected from the process that it meant it never got better, and recourse took more time than it was worth. Why a company with billions at its disposal and half a million employees can't get that right is somehow both a mystery, yet also a foregone conclusion. While I seriously doubt Blue Apron poses much of a threat to the entrenched companies, I think someone else (perhaps Amazon) probably does.
- trimbo 9y ago
  Ah ok. So the execution you're speaking of is on the delivery aspect. That makes sense now. In terms of execution, I was thinking you meant purely of the food itself and leveraging the existing dominant consumer behavior (going to the grocery store)
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  > It also took little more than a good website to compete with Amazon in the early days, but B&N/Borders/etc. never figured out a way to do it well. Borders didn't try in the early days; when they got around to online retail, they outsourced it to Amazon. Much too late they tried their own... B&N actually had a good website (it was always better than Amazon's for ordering books, IMO), they just weren't committed to competing with their own stores on price because the website was an "and, also..." not a bet-the-compaby deal.
emodendroket 9y ago
I wish they would have ripped off Boston Market's meatloaf instead.

by trimbo 9y ago

dragonwriter 9y ago

> So what about their execution is required here beyond "cheap and available where you already shop"? It's not 20 years ago, and “online for home delivery” is increasingly where people already shop. And, it's easy to displace a business that requires a trip out with one that requires a trip out, but one you were likely taking already. Harder to do that with something that doesn't require a trip out at all. > No one can use Blue Apron without a regular grocer in their routine already. Yes, you can. Cooking oil, salt, and black pepper—the only ingredients BA doesn't usually supply—don't require a traditional grocery or even one of the limited-area perishable delivery services to acquire. If BA is your only home cooking, you literally never need to enter a traditional grocery store, or order from a similar full-grown online delivery service. Google Express or Amazon in one of the areas where they don't have grocery delivery will work fine.

emodendroket 9y ago
A life where Blue Apron is literally the only food you eat at home besides takeout seems dystopian.
- skinnymuch 9y ago
  Always these comments :p. Obviously we both know the poster was just making a point that you could possibly do Blue Apron only for home meals. I don't care for food. I know most people do. Most people care about variety and possibly some sort of cooking sometimes. I do cook chicken in bulk, but that's a pretty quick process. Otherwise I'm perfectly satisfied having the same 2 meals whenever I am at home for those meal times. One of them includes Soylent, the other includes 1-2 glasses of milk. I can still go out and enjoy social lunch or dinner with business acquaintances or friends.
  - jimmywanger 9y ago
    If you don't care about food, why are you responding? The only value adds Blue Apron gives are pre-portioning, recipes, and delivery. That might not be worth 594 million (at last count). Simply because you don't care about food doesn't mean nobody else does - in fact, you said that most people do care about food. Exactly what value does your comment add to the conversation?
    - skinnymuch 9y ago
      Guess you never wanted to let us know how your comment added any value to the conversation, huh? Or why you responded?
    - skinnymuch 9y ago
      I responded to someone saying Blue Apron for home meals seems dystopian. How is my comment not relevant or adding on to the conversation? Blue Apron for your home meals does not seem dystopian to me. I'm replying to that notion. That answers both of your quite condescending questions.
- ryanlol 9y ago
  What about only takeout? That seems fairly normal.
  - emodendroket 9y ago

handedness 9y ago

> I don't get what you mean by "ensure good execution" because it takes so little for grocers to successfully move into a market like Blue Apron's. It also took little more than a good website to compete with Amazon in the early days, but B&N/Borders/etc. never figured out a way to do it well. What I want to do is order stuff with as little friction as possible, and have the right items delivered in a way that's convenient. The chain delivery service we tried involved a few things: 1. A poor site experience. It had 'pantry' functionality, but it was anything but good. Putting together a large order took nearly as much time as doing it in person. 2. Delivery was scheduled during windows, windows that were often either missed, or perhaps worse, beat by many hours. They were often many hours outside the window. We eventually stopped including anything fresh in the order and would pick those up ourselves on days when we were hosting guests. That defeats much of the point. It was like ordering groceries from the cable company. 3. We were able to select whether we'd want substitutions if something was unavailable. In virtually every order, we would either receive items (we didn't want) when we specified no substitutions, or didn't get substitutions when we wanted them. Often the substituted items were poorly chosen as stand-ins for what was unavailable. 4. It required a young male delivery guy to enter the home to deliver the items to the kitchen. It was a different person nearly every time. This is unacceptable for a number of reasons. Whenever substitution issues happened they seemed so disconnected from the process that it meant it never got better, and recourse took more time than it was worth. Why a company with billions at its disposal and half a million employees can't get that right is somehow both a mystery, yet also a foregone conclusion. While I seriously doubt Blue Apron poses much of a threat to the entrenched companies, I think someone else (perhaps Amazon) probably does.

trimbo 9y ago
Ah ok. So the execution you're speaking of is on the delivery aspect. That makes sense now. In terms of execution, I was thinking you meant purely of the food itself and leveraging the existing dominant consumer behavior (going to the grocery store)
dragonwriter 9y ago
> It also took little more than a good website to compete with Amazon in the early days, but B&N/Borders/etc. never figured out a way to do it well. Borders didn't try in the early days; when they got around to online retail, they outsourced it to Amazon. Much too late they tried their own... B&N actually had a good website (it was always better than Amazon's for ordering books, IMO), they just weren't committed to competing with their own stores on price because the website was an "and, also..." not a bet-the-compaby deal.

emodendroket 9y ago

I wish they would have ripped off Boston Market's meatloaf instead.