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I like their recipes but it’s just a grotesquely wasteful way to ship food around. Ultimately this business belongs in grocery stores. I’d happily drive down to

I like their recipes but it’s just a grotesquely wasteful way to ship food around. Ultimately this business belongs in grocery stores. I’d happily drive down to Wegmans once a week to pick up 3-4 locally packaged blue apron style meals.

ghaff 8y ago
In the scheme of things, most likely including going to restaurants, I have trouble working up too much outrage about the packaging and shipping. That said, I agree with your broader point. I'm not sure why more stores (some do) don't have more kits. Planning for the next week in a way that includes picking 3 meals that will involve at least a modest amount of effort doesn't work for me--and I like to cook generally. I get that they appeal to people who like to cook but want some structure (and home delivery) around it. But it seems a pretty niche market. I got Blue Apron once. It was "OK." And, while I've thought about it, I've never ordered from any of these services again.
- nemothekid 8y ago
  I used Blue Apron for a couple month. I’m hardly a “save the earth” type - but one of the reasons I’ve been skipping the service is the huge amount of cardboard and plastic ships with each box. I must have 8 full extra heads of garlic lying around. The “ice packs” are a pain in the neck to get rid of and it doesn’t feel right to dump that stuff in the trash. However I will admit I got tired of the selection. Usually there will only be one meal that I’m actually looking forward to eating and the other 2 are unappetizing enough for me to just eat out.
  - ghaff 8y ago
    I reuse a lot of the plastic bags. But I imagine I'd run out of use for ice packs after a while. Given the amount of cardboard I have to take to recycling from Amazon and elsewhere, I'm not sure a bit more makes much of a difference. But the menus mostly don't excite me that much. And if I'm going to spend that much effort I have tons of cookbooks and online recipes. Your experience sounds like the one week I tried it. There was a pretty good recipe. An OK recipe. And then some obnoxiously complex hamburger recipe that wasn't even all that great.
TaylorAlexander 8y ago
I saw what looked like a blue apron competitor at Safeway (California grocery store) the other day. So I suppose it’s happening.
- ghaff 8y ago
  I've seen packaged meals in a couple stores but none of the biggish chains I shop out. Not sure why it's not more common. It's not like there's any shortage of prepped vegetables and the like. Actually seems an opportunity to sell meal kits with more stuff pre-prepped than Blue Apron does.
  - hakfoo 8y ago
    I think pricing is a big problem. The ones in local shops are close to restaurant pricing ($7 per person) for home-cook quality food. This basically collapses the market to a small demographic-- singles and couples who are affluent and time starved and willing to pay $3 per meal extra to save 20 minutes of prep work in a 60 minute recipe. A family of four with a blue-collar salary will sail right past that and go for frozen meals if they want an easy option. I think this is also what killed the ready-made meals trend of a few years ago. I wonder if there's a way to repackage the product to fit a more frugal audience. Something like "we're doing one recipe per day, in huge quantities, with minimal waste, simple packaging, and efficient prep" -- get the cost of the kit comparable to buying the ingredients loose.
    - snickerbockers 8y ago
      >This basically collapses the market to a small demographic-- singles and couples Actually just couples. I tried it earlier this year because somebody gave me a gift certificate, and what I found is that when you're on their service, they will ship you two meals a week and each meal has two servings. That means that if you're single then 4/7 dinners every week is being chosen from whatever Blue Apron is offering in that week's very-limited selection of prepackaged meals. It's absolutely dismal. They know this is a problem too, because when I ended my subscription they had a survey that asked me why, and one of the prefilled answers was that I'm single.
kalleboo 8y ago
Where I'm from all the big grocery store chains have a variant of a Blue Apron style service. Usually with options for either delivery or pickup in-store.
makecheck 8y ago
Stores seem way worse for food waste. Delivery services generally ship plain ingredients, as-is, and even in specific lesser quantities (like one celery stick). In a store, things are often “partially finished” in ways that not everyone may agree with (e.g. pre-seasoning a bunch of cuts of meat, which means you either want that particular seasoning or you won’t buy that meat at all; what happens to the leftovers?).
anonytrary 8y ago
Once they start selling their kits in local grocery stores, they would eventually be competing against 3 minute Healthy Choice (and similar options) meals, and would lose because time is everything. Then, Blue Apron would slowly move away from fresh towards frozen and quick-cook to compete, and we'd have gone full circle back to kits like Hungryman or Healthy Choice.

ghaff 8y ago

In the scheme of things, most likely including going to restaurants, I have trouble working up too much outrage about the packaging and shipping. That said, I agree with your broader point. I'm not sure why more stores (some do) don't have more kits. Planning for the next week in a way that includes picking 3 meals that will involve at least a modest amount of effort doesn't work for me--and I like to cook generally. I get that they appeal to people who like to cook but want some structure (and home delivery) around it. But it seems a pretty niche market. I got Blue Apron once. It was "OK." And, while I've thought about it, I've never ordered from any of these services again.

nemothekid 8y ago
I used Blue Apron for a couple month. I’m hardly a “save the earth” type - but one of the reasons I’ve been skipping the service is the huge amount of cardboard and plastic ships with each box. I must have 8 full extra heads of garlic lying around. The “ice packs” are a pain in the neck to get rid of and it doesn’t feel right to dump that stuff in the trash. However I will admit I got tired of the selection. Usually there will only be one meal that I’m actually looking forward to eating and the other 2 are unappetizing enough for me to just eat out.
- ghaff 8y ago
  I reuse a lot of the plastic bags. But I imagine I'd run out of use for ice packs after a while. Given the amount of cardboard I have to take to recycling from Amazon and elsewhere, I'm not sure a bit more makes much of a difference. But the menus mostly don't excite me that much. And if I'm going to spend that much effort I have tons of cookbooks and online recipes. Your experience sounds like the one week I tried it. There was a pretty good recipe. An OK recipe. And then some obnoxiously complex hamburger recipe that wasn't even all that great.

TaylorAlexander 8y ago

I saw what looked like a blue apron competitor at Safeway (California grocery store) the other day. So I suppose it’s happening.

ghaff 8y ago
I've seen packaged meals in a couple stores but none of the biggish chains I shop out. Not sure why it's not more common. It's not like there's any shortage of prepped vegetables and the like. Actually seems an opportunity to sell meal kits with more stuff pre-prepped than Blue Apron does.
- hakfoo 8y ago
  I think pricing is a big problem. The ones in local shops are close to restaurant pricing ($7 per person) for home-cook quality food. This basically collapses the market to a small demographic-- singles and couples who are affluent and time starved and willing to pay $3 per meal extra to save 20 minutes of prep work in a 60 minute recipe. A family of four with a blue-collar salary will sail right past that and go for frozen meals if they want an easy option. I think this is also what killed the ready-made meals trend of a few years ago. I wonder if there's a way to repackage the product to fit a more frugal audience. Something like "we're doing one recipe per day, in huge quantities, with minimal waste, simple packaging, and efficient prep" -- get the cost of the kit comparable to buying the ingredients loose.
  - snickerbockers 8y ago
    >This basically collapses the market to a small demographic-- singles and couples Actually just couples. I tried it earlier this year because somebody gave me a gift certificate, and what I found is that when you're on their service, they will ship you two meals a week and each meal has two servings. That means that if you're single then 4/7 dinners every week is being chosen from whatever Blue Apron is offering in that week's very-limited selection of prepackaged meals. It's absolutely dismal. They know this is a problem too, because when I ended my subscription they had a survey that asked me why, and one of the prefilled answers was that I'm single.

kalleboo 8y ago

Where I'm from all the big grocery store chains have a variant of a Blue Apron style service. Usually with options for either delivery or pickup in-store.

makecheck 8y ago

Stores seem way worse for food waste. Delivery services generally ship plain ingredients, as-is, and even in specific lesser quantities (like one celery stick). In a store, things are often “partially finished” in ways that not everyone may agree with (e.g. pre-seasoning a bunch of cuts of meat, which means you either want that particular seasoning or you won’t buy that meat at all; what happens to the leftovers?).

anonytrary 8y ago

Once they start selling their kits in local grocery stores, they would eventually be competing against 3 minute Healthy Choice (and similar options) meals, and would lose because time is everything. Then, Blue Apron would slowly move away from fresh towards frozen and quick-cook to compete, and we'd have gone full circle back to kits like Hungryman or Healthy Choice.