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Maybe I'm just not their target but I want to pick my own veggies and meat. I don't want to leave it up to a minimum wager tossing whatever in my box as it head

Maybe I'm just not their target but I want to pick my own veggies and meat. I don't want to leave it up to a minimum wager tossing whatever in my box as it heads down the line.

ceejayoz 8y ago
You're getting downvoted, but this was an issue for me as well. I'll go through half a dozen ribeyes before picking the one I like the looks of. Same for produce - I'll pick certain onions, good looking broccoli, the non-slimy mushrooms. This is at a high-end grocery store (Wegmans), too.
- incomplete 8y ago
  i used blueapron a lot when my wife was finishing her dissertation and we were remodeling our house... the quality of the ingredients is actually much higher than i would have expected, and (imho) at the minimum as good as you'll get at wegman's. blue apron (or any service like this) needs to have the best quality food in the box, otherwise it's just not worth it... and at ~$10/person per meal, it had BETTER have good ingredients. anyways, we just cancelled our blue apron account... it was definitely pricey, and where we live (berkeley ca) there are myriad amazing options for groceries. it served it's purpose when we needed it, tho. it's sad to see them failing, but they chose a very difficult business model, so i'm not entirely surprised. :(
- paulcole 8y ago
  This is one of the big complaints against Blue Apron. They buy a ton of produce, sort out the good looking ones to send to customers and just throw away the stuff that doesn’t look good.
- jrochkind1 8y ago
  When I first started using Blue Apron a year plus ago, I found the meat to be generally pretty high quality, as good or better as what I could get at the standard grocery store picking it out myself (rather than a "premium" one like whole foods or whatever), and better than Trader Joe's'. (around me, the standard grocery store has pretty crappy meat). My sense is that meat quality has been going down, but I dunno, maybe it's exactly the same meat and the novelty has just worn off. My sense is also that Blue Apron has historically had higher quality ingredients than some competitors, but I can't say that for sure, and am not sure it continues to be true.
  - 14 8y ago
    Don't doubt your senses. I am certain, in the sense of my own taste experience, that 7-11 started off using higher quality meat then switched. In Canada 7-11 had a big change a couple years back and started selling fried chicken as well as pizza some of which had chicken. Initially I was really impressed with meat quality. It was tender white meat and fresh and seemed of comparable product to what you would expect from kfc back in the day. Then one day it stopped. Just never got as good. It was like they fed us their best for half a year then once in moved to a lower cheaper meat.
    - ransom1538 8y ago
      Like a dinner party. Excellent wines first, 8 more bottles deep, start pouring the 10$ bottle.
- rsynnott 8y ago
  Yeah, I don't think this is all that unusual. I find myself carefully looking over vegetables in particular when shopping, and I'm not the only one doing it at any given time.
asaph 8y ago
> ...I want to pick my own veggies and meat. I don't want to leave it up to a minimum wager... If the veggie/meat pickers were highly paid experts, would it make a difference? At what pay grade and education level would you be comfortable delegating your veggie/meat picking?
Johnny555 8y ago
I think people like you are not the target market for this kind of product -- you care what your food looks (and tastes) like, and are willing to put the time in to choose it yourself. Then there's people like me -- I don't really care too much about getting the perfect vegetable, as long as it's not spoiled and tastes reasonably good, I'm happy with it, and I want to spend as little time as possible -- I'm happy to pay someone else to choose if it it means I can escape a visit to the grocery store.
- anonytrary 8y ago
  > I don't really care too much about getting the perfect vegetable, as long as it's not spoiled and tastes reasonably good, I'm happy with it, and I want to spend as little time as possible. Ordering takeout is the most efficient way to cater to people in this slice of the market. The intersection of people who don't intimately care about their ingredients and people who want to cook is very small. Most people who want to minimize time spend on food would not entertain the idea of cooking serious meals at home.
  - josefresco 8y ago
    Robust takeout is not available in my region. We're a busy family, like all families. Both my wife and I hate visiting the grocery store, and find Peapod delivery to optimal. I also wouldn't make the assumption that people like us, and the OP "don't care about ingredients". We just don't believe, like some do that our choices in ingredients will really matter that much. The ingredients our delivery guy brings us are the same as what's available in the local grocery store, we've never had bad ingredients delivered, and if we did it's easily sent back/refunded.
    - Johnny555 8y ago
      I agree with all of your points -- the delivery ingredients are "good enough", I don't need the perfect piece of broccoli for my dinner. But I do like having some control over how dinner is prepared, I find a lot of restaurant food to be way too salty (especially in the $12 price range of box-meal delivery), so I like being able to prepare it the way I want to.
CamperBob2 8y ago
These complaints make me wonder if they should focus exclusively on very high-end gourmet meals, instead of trying to find and fill an awkward niche between Lean Cuisine and Uber Eats that might not even be there. If they gave you access to all kinds of exotic ingredients in appropriate quantities, selected by professional restaurant buyers who definitely know what they're doing, you might find it interesting to use the service just to explore new recipes and variations. You could almost run a whole "cooking by mail" course that way. An obvious next step would be wine service, in areas where that's permitted.
- mariojv 8y ago
  They actually do have a wine service already: https://www.blueapron.com/wine https://www.blueapron.com/wine I think with their meal service, there's also an option to pair with a wine that they determine goes well with the meal.
josefresco 8y ago
I've used Peapod delivery service for years now and this is the #1 thing I hear from older family members. The veggies, fruit and meat are fine - stop worrying! I've never gotten an apple, veggie or cut of meat that I was unhappy with - just cook the damn meal! Now, if cooking the damn meal is the only thing you have planned for the day, by all means, inspect your food like a scientist.

Maybe I'm just not their target but I want to pick my own veggies and meat. I don't want to leave it up to a minimum wager tossing whatever in my box as it heads down the line.

ceejayoz 8y ago

You're getting downvoted, but this was an issue for me as well. I'll go through half a dozen ribeyes before picking the one I like the looks of. Same for produce - I'll pick certain onions, good looking broccoli, the non-slimy mushrooms. This is at a high-end grocery store (Wegmans), too.

incomplete 8y ago
i used blueapron a lot when my wife was finishing her dissertation and we were remodeling our house... the quality of the ingredients is actually much higher than i would have expected, and (imho) at the minimum as good as you'll get at wegman's. blue apron (or any service like this) needs to have the best quality food in the box, otherwise it's just not worth it... and at ~$10/person per meal, it had BETTER have good ingredients. anyways, we just cancelled our blue apron account... it was definitely pricey, and where we live (berkeley ca) there are myriad amazing options for groceries. it served it's purpose when we needed it, tho. it's sad to see them failing, but they chose a very difficult business model, so i'm not entirely surprised. :(
paulcole 8y ago
This is one of the big complaints against Blue Apron. They buy a ton of produce, sort out the good looking ones to send to customers and just throw away the stuff that doesn’t look good.
jrochkind1 8y ago
When I first started using Blue Apron a year plus ago, I found the meat to be generally pretty high quality, as good or better as what I could get at the standard grocery store picking it out myself (rather than a "premium" one like whole foods or whatever), and better than Trader Joe's'. (around me, the standard grocery store has pretty crappy meat). My sense is that meat quality has been going down, but I dunno, maybe it's exactly the same meat and the novelty has just worn off. My sense is also that Blue Apron has historically had higher quality ingredients than some competitors, but I can't say that for sure, and am not sure it continues to be true.
- 14 8y ago
  Don't doubt your senses. I am certain, in the sense of my own taste experience, that 7-11 started off using higher quality meat then switched. In Canada 7-11 had a big change a couple years back and started selling fried chicken as well as pizza some of which had chicken. Initially I was really impressed with meat quality. It was tender white meat and fresh and seemed of comparable product to what you would expect from kfc back in the day. Then one day it stopped. Just never got as good. It was like they fed us their best for half a year then once in moved to a lower cheaper meat.
  - ransom1538 8y ago
    Like a dinner party. Excellent wines first, 8 more bottles deep, start pouring the 10$ bottle.
rsynnott 8y ago
Yeah, I don't think this is all that unusual. I find myself carefully looking over vegetables in particular when shopping, and I'm not the only one doing it at any given time.

asaph 8y ago

> ...I want to pick my own veggies and meat. I don't want to leave it up to a minimum wager... If the veggie/meat pickers were highly paid experts, would it make a difference? At what pay grade and education level would you be comfortable delegating your veggie/meat picking?

Johnny555 8y ago

I think people like you are not the target market for this kind of product -- you care what your food looks (and tastes) like, and are willing to put the time in to choose it yourself. Then there's people like me -- I don't really care too much about getting the perfect vegetable, as long as it's not spoiled and tastes reasonably good, I'm happy with it, and I want to spend as little time as possible -- I'm happy to pay someone else to choose if it it means I can escape a visit to the grocery store.

anonytrary 8y ago
> I don't really care too much about getting the perfect vegetable, as long as it's not spoiled and tastes reasonably good, I'm happy with it, and I want to spend as little time as possible. Ordering takeout is the most efficient way to cater to people in this slice of the market. The intersection of people who don't intimately care about their ingredients and people who want to cook is very small. Most people who want to minimize time spend on food would not entertain the idea of cooking serious meals at home.
- josefresco 8y ago
  Robust takeout is not available in my region. We're a busy family, like all families. Both my wife and I hate visiting the grocery store, and find Peapod delivery to optimal. I also wouldn't make the assumption that people like us, and the OP "don't care about ingredients". We just don't believe, like some do that our choices in ingredients will really matter that much. The ingredients our delivery guy brings us are the same as what's available in the local grocery store, we've never had bad ingredients delivered, and if we did it's easily sent back/refunded.
  - Johnny555 8y ago
    I agree with all of your points -- the delivery ingredients are "good enough", I don't need the perfect piece of broccoli for my dinner. But I do like having some control over how dinner is prepared, I find a lot of restaurant food to be way too salty (especially in the $12 price range of box-meal delivery), so I like being able to prepare it the way I want to.

CamperBob2 8y ago

These complaints make me wonder if they should focus exclusively on very high-end gourmet meals, instead of trying to find and fill an awkward niche between Lean Cuisine and Uber Eats that might not even be there. If they gave you access to all kinds of exotic ingredients in appropriate quantities, selected by professional restaurant buyers who definitely know what they're doing, you might find it interesting to use the service just to explore new recipes and variations. You could almost run a whole "cooking by mail" course that way. An obvious next step would be wine service, in areas where that's permitted.

mariojv 8y ago
They actually do have a wine service already: https://www.blueapron.com/wine https://www.blueapron.com/wine I think with their meal service, there's also an option to pair with a wine that they determine goes well with the meal.

josefresco 8y ago

I've used Peapod delivery service for years now and this is the #1 thing I hear from older family members. The veggies, fruit and meat are fine - stop worrying! I've never gotten an apple, veggie or cut of meat that I was unhappy with - just cook the damn meal! Now, if cooking the damn meal is the only thing you have planned for the day, by all means, inspect your food like a scientist.