4 ms·

I've ordered pre-made meals before. Having ingredients delivered doesn't make sense to me though. Enough energy to cook but not enough energy to go to the store

I've ordered pre-made meals before. Having ingredients delivered doesn't make sense to me though. Enough energy to cook but not enough energy to go to the store? I'm sure there are a million excuses, but just buy some produce at the store people.

conductr 9y ago
Totally agree. Cooking/cleaning is the hard part, not shopping. Especially with grocery delivery available within <2 hours. Also, and I'm not overly "green" but, the amount of waste generated with a weekly shipment just felt excessive.
- npongratz 9y ago
  Some people really, really, really hate shopping.
  - supreme_sublime 9y ago
    For me I'd say it more that I hate doing all 3 things. Shopping, cooking, and cleaning. Shopping is probably the worst because it involves the most decisions. So if I can cut that out of what I need to do, it makes cooking and cleaning that much easier. I mostly use instacart, but my parents have gotten me food delivery services as gifts and it is pretty nice. The thing I find frustrating about it however are the portions. I'm probably outside of the norm, but I don't mind eating the same thing all the time. I would love to cook a bunch all at once and eat it all week. With the portions offered, I can usually eat 2 of the meals as a single meal.
jowiar 9y ago
It’s not about “just buy some produce”. It’s “decide what I want to eat, go to the store, find the ingredients that turn into said meals, wait in a 15 minute checkout line, haul things home”. For me, Blue Apron lowers the time commitment of cooking at home below that of “go out for a quick dinner”. At the end of a day at a desk, I enjoy doing completely brainless work with my hands for a half hour or so, but the cognitive load of figuring out what to cook is more than I care to do on a regular basis. Also, depending on where you are, urban grocery shopping is often a terrible experience.
- swalsh 9y ago
  When my family grew (2 kids) it became important to me to stop eating out so much. Mostly because eating out with a 2 year old is torture. So I started cooking at home every night. It's easy to do if you plan a menu for the week. I have some common items in the pantry, and I buy meat in bulk every other weekend. I'll run to the store on a weeknight to buy fresh fish, or for the occasional forgotten item. But more or less I just get it all done in one trip, I plan the menu around common ingredients, and I choose things that don't take hours to do. I spend $80 a week on groceries (cut out boxed up processed foods and your bill gets cheap) Families have been cooking dinners for a long time. Nothing new here.
  - jowiar 9y ago
    Tasks like "plan a menu for the week" or "go grocery shopping" are the sort of thing where it's a relatively fixed amount of time whether you're shopping/cooking for 1 or for 4 -- i.e. there's an economy of scale on that time. For me, given the choice of "$30 + the time to plan meals and go shopping" vs "$60", I'll take the latter. If I had a choice between "$80 + the time to plan meals and go shopping" vs "$160", that time is worth a lot more money. In addition, set all of this in a New York apartment, where the ability to maintain a well-stocked pantry is limited.
skynetv2 9y ago
exactly. if i have to cook my own food, which will turn out shitty, why should I pay $10 a meal for ingredients that cost probably $1.50?
Khol 9y ago
I personally find a similar service in the UK an absolute lifesaver. Both myself and my partner have struggled with depression for a number of years. Cooking (and eating freshly cooked food) is one of the few things I can rely to lift my mood. Having to work out what I want to cook on the way home, figuring out whether I have ingredients, go to a shop to obtain them if not are things I can reliably _not_ do. If I hit this point we end up eating ready meals or takeaway. I'd be the first to admit it's an expensive service, but honestly the extra capacity I gain from using it is absolutely worthwhile.
wgerard 9y ago
To be fair, for New York (where Blue Apron is based out of) it actually makes some sense. Grocery shopping in New York can be (heavily depending on where you go) a taxing experience. Especially in Manhattan. Space is expensive, so stores often have pretty narrow aisles in order to cram in as much as they can. You're almost always blocking people the second you stop moving for any reason. Trader Joe's is so popular that it's not uncommon for there to be a line just to get into the store. The checkout line moves quickly, but because it's so large you'll still probably spend 20-30 minutes waiting in line to check out. Anyway just shining a bit of light on why people might hate grocery shopping. I still think grocery delivery services make way more sense than something like Blue Apron, though.
- damontal 9y ago
  just in general grocery shopping drives me crazy. find your item on a shelf. put it in the cart. take it out of the cart. put it on the belt. put it back in the cart. take it out of the cart. put it in your car. take it out of the car. put it on a shelf.
atonse 9y ago
Let me offer an alternative (why my wife and I decided to try it). We get tired of cooking the same homemade Indian food and the same dozen dishes. We only know how to cook about two dozen dishes total. If we want to try something different, the only option is restaurants, which can be pricey when you eat out often, and also often not terribly healthy. Blue Apron and similar products allow us to try new dishes without having to think about what to try. They allow us to try different cuisines without having to research ingredients and buy the wrong amount. Yes meal kits are more expensive than cooking at home. But for us, they gave us often the same amount of food "newness" as a restaurant, without spending as much. That was worth it.

conductr 9y ago

Totally agree. Cooking/cleaning is the hard part, not shopping. Especially with grocery delivery available within <2 hours. Also, and I'm not overly "green" but, the amount of waste generated with a weekly shipment just felt excessive.

npongratz 9y ago
Some people really, really, really hate shopping.
- supreme_sublime 9y ago
  For me I'd say it more that I hate doing all 3 things. Shopping, cooking, and cleaning. Shopping is probably the worst because it involves the most decisions. So if I can cut that out of what I need to do, it makes cooking and cleaning that much easier. I mostly use instacart, but my parents have gotten me food delivery services as gifts and it is pretty nice. The thing I find frustrating about it however are the portions. I'm probably outside of the norm, but I don't mind eating the same thing all the time. I would love to cook a bunch all at once and eat it all week. With the portions offered, I can usually eat 2 of the meals as a single meal.

jowiar 9y ago

It’s not about “just buy some produce”. It’s “decide what I want to eat, go to the store, find the ingredients that turn into said meals, wait in a 15 minute checkout line, haul things home”. For me, Blue Apron lowers the time commitment of cooking at home below that of “go out for a quick dinner”. At the end of a day at a desk, I enjoy doing completely brainless work with my hands for a half hour or so, but the cognitive load of figuring out what to cook is more than I care to do on a regular basis. Also, depending on where you are, urban grocery shopping is often a terrible experience.

swalsh 9y ago
When my family grew (2 kids) it became important to me to stop eating out so much. Mostly because eating out with a 2 year old is torture. So I started cooking at home every night. It's easy to do if you plan a menu for the week. I have some common items in the pantry, and I buy meat in bulk every other weekend. I'll run to the store on a weeknight to buy fresh fish, or for the occasional forgotten item. But more or less I just get it all done in one trip, I plan the menu around common ingredients, and I choose things that don't take hours to do. I spend $80 a week on groceries (cut out boxed up processed foods and your bill gets cheap) Families have been cooking dinners for a long time. Nothing new here.
- jowiar 9y ago
  Tasks like "plan a menu for the week" or "go grocery shopping" are the sort of thing where it's a relatively fixed amount of time whether you're shopping/cooking for 1 or for 4 -- i.e. there's an economy of scale on that time. For me, given the choice of "$30 + the time to plan meals and go shopping" vs "$60", I'll take the latter. If I had a choice between "$80 + the time to plan meals and go shopping" vs "$160", that time is worth a lot more money. In addition, set all of this in a New York apartment, where the ability to maintain a well-stocked pantry is limited.

skynetv2 9y ago

exactly. if i have to cook my own food, which will turn out shitty, why should I pay $10 a meal for ingredients that cost probably $1.50?

Khol 9y ago

I personally find a similar service in the UK an absolute lifesaver. Both myself and my partner have struggled with depression for a number of years. Cooking (and eating freshly cooked food) is one of the few things I can rely to lift my mood. Having to work out what I want to cook on the way home, figuring out whether I have ingredients, go to a shop to obtain them if not are things I can reliably _not_ do. If I hit this point we end up eating ready meals or takeaway. I'd be the first to admit it's an expensive service, but honestly the extra capacity I gain from using it is absolutely worthwhile.

wgerard 9y ago

To be fair, for New York (where Blue Apron is based out of) it actually makes some sense. Grocery shopping in New York can be (heavily depending on where you go) a taxing experience. Especially in Manhattan. Space is expensive, so stores often have pretty narrow aisles in order to cram in as much as they can. You're almost always blocking people the second you stop moving for any reason. Trader Joe's is so popular that it's not uncommon for there to be a line just to get into the store. The checkout line moves quickly, but because it's so large you'll still probably spend 20-30 minutes waiting in line to check out. Anyway just shining a bit of light on why people might hate grocery shopping. I still think grocery delivery services make way more sense than something like Blue Apron, though.

damontal 9y ago
just in general grocery shopping drives me crazy. find your item on a shelf. put it in the cart. take it out of the cart. put it on the belt. put it back in the cart. take it out of the cart. put it in your car. take it out of the car. put it on a shelf.

atonse 9y ago

Let me offer an alternative (why my wife and I decided to try it). We get tired of cooking the same homemade Indian food and the same dozen dishes. We only know how to cook about two dozen dishes total. If we want to try something different, the only option is restaurants, which can be pricey when you eat out often, and also often not terribly healthy. Blue Apron and similar products allow us to try new dishes without having to think about what to try. They allow us to try different cuisines without having to research ingredients and buy the wrong amount. Yes meal kits are more expensive than cooking at home. But for us, they gave us often the same amount of food "newness" as a restaurant, without spending as much. That was worth it.