12 ms·

After 10 years of marriage, my wife thought it would be helpful for me to start cooking, as she was getting stressed out with our 2 years old. We used Blue Apr

After 10 years of marriage, my wife thought it would be helpful for me to start cooking, as she was getting stressed out with our 2 years old. We used Blue Apron as the starting point. I can't tell you how much time we save in planning meals and trips to the store. My wife doesn't have nag me about what I what I want for the week's dinner. The quality of the food and the time saved is well worth the price. I know there are some disadvantages about Blue Apron such as waste, carbon food print etc... Cooking with Blue Apron is now extremely relaxing for me as I cook and just tune into NPR or teach my son to cook. Out of 100 meals I would say that we only had maybe one that was mediocre. I suspect Blue Apron will survive as it will probably be taken over or bought out. It's kinda the leader of the pack and the market will eventually consolidate. It also helps that I might have helped I bought about $1000 discounted gift cards at Costco.

robertAngst 8y ago
Dang, I had the opposite experience with Blue Apron. Never saved time. Expensive and the recipes took 2-3x longer than it says on the box. Delicious food, but there was no leftovers. We finished the food and were still hungry. Cannot fathom using them as a meal provider. The only thing I learned is that roasted beats and carrots are delicious. Don't need Blue Apron anymore.
- jonathanjaeger 8y ago
  They recently added meals that take 20-30min rather than 30-55min and it has made a world of difference, not to mention they expanded the menu. I also find some of the meals tastier because they're simpler rather than using too many ingredients. I still get the occasional bland one, but they have improved. As a company I wouldn't invest in them. The amount they spend on advertising (e.g. really pricey podcast advertising) with a high churn rate is concerning.
  - ghaff 8y ago
    I only used them once and one of the meals was the most complicated hamburger recipe I'd ever made and I didn't think it was really all that good. I half suspect there are motivations behind making the recipes for these services complex and a little exotic. If they had four ingredient recipes that took 10 minutes of prep, I daresay a lot of people would think "I'm paying 2x to 3x what I would pay in the grocery store for that???" I'm glad to hear they're simplifying things though. The only reason I'd use something like this is if they did a lot of the pre-prep so it really is a quick meal on a weekday night when I really just don't have the energy to do more than minimal cooking. (Especially when there's so much in the grocery store that's partly prepped these days.)
    - pfranz 8y ago
      There's definitely a novelty factor--sometimes it pays off and other times it doesn't. I think "the standards" for American cuisine have the least payoff. I like that they would rarely repeat the grain/rice. It's likely a lot cheaper for them to acquire something popular in Italy in bulk, interesting to try in a controlled setting, and if I want to make the recipe again I can swap it out for white rice. > The only reason I'd use something like this is if they did a lot of the pre-prep so it really is a quick meal That sounds like a different market than Blue Apron is going for. From what I've seen they seem to be focusing on people who like getting whole fruits and vegetables and you cut and peel them yourself. People who are interested in cooking, but don't necessarily have formal training. Other meal kits will probably be a better fit for a quick, weeknight meal with little to no prep.
    - behringer 8y ago
      What's really weird to me is that you can go to the store and get food that's basically ready to serve after you warm it up. You could eat steaks, fish sticks, brats, chicken, pork, chicken nuggets, fries, a huge variety of vegetables ready to be steamed from the frozen section. You could eat that every day and pay a quarter of what it costs for this stuff to be hand picked for you. You don't even need to season any of it and it's delicious fried up in olive oil and butter and a little salt.
      - 8y ago
- chad_strategic 8y ago
  I agree that there is just enough food, maybe not enough. But then again, I'm dropping weight. So maybe a good thing. I got faster making meals over time. For me right now time is more important than money. I don't think have ever eaten more roasted beets, carrots, cauliflower, kale and broccoli in the last two years, than I have in my life. (and enjoyed.)
  - ghaff 8y ago
    Roasting vegetables seems so obvious in retrospect and, even for a group, it's actually much easier to control doneness. I'm not sure why it mostly only appeared as a technique (outside of root vegetables and squash) relatively recently in the US.
- chrisseaton 8y ago
  > Delicious food, but there was no leftovers. I don't understand why do you want leftover food?
  - SkyPuncher 8y ago
    So you can eat it for lunch the next day.
    - chrisseaton 8y ago
      If you want two meals why not get two meals instead of expecting one meal to provide two - doesn’t seem like a reasonable expectation to me.
      - behringer 8y ago
        Because when you're paying $10 for one meal you kind of hope it goes a little further. To put this in perspective, if I go to the store and buy a 10 dollar meal, I'll be eating: porter house, slathered in butter and olive oil, asparagus fried in the juices, with a baked potato. I'll have also a side of chilean grapes and a slice of cheese cake for desert. 10 dollars is a crazy amount for a dinner. (Ok that might cost more like $15)
        crysin 8y ago
        A porterhouse alone is typically 8 to 10 dollars, so no you're meal you listed there is more like 20. Sure Blue Apron is expensive but don't go making it sound like you can have a big nice steak, a baked potato, an expensive dessert, some butter and vegetables for near the same cost.
        Spivak 8y ago
        If you buy every single ingredient absolutely but that's not how cooking-at-home food math works. You head to the grocery store and buy whatever beef cut is on sale so if you're buying a porterhouse it's because it's $4-6. Your pantry is already stocked with butter, flour, eggs, sugar, and potatoes. You had some almost stale graham crackers lying around which is why you decided to make cheesecake. You hit up the store buy some asparagus, cream cheese, and whatever fruit is in season rounding out to about $10-12 bucks and you've pretty much got the meal with plenty of leftovers and leftover ingredients for whatever you do next. You can spread a good cheese out over multiple meals to lower the cost but I'm not seeing how to get even a brie without going over budget here though.
- pfranz 8y ago
  It's really tough to time a recipe. Especially, because Blue Apron has so many whole foods that need peeling and cutting--it's not like you just put it in the oven and set a timer. I do think their estimations are a bit idealistic. I've seen the prep times vary 2-3x depending on who in the family makes it. One thing I've noticed that can improve prep times is taking a basic knife skills class. You'll notice grandmothers who have been cooking for decades are often pretty clunky with a knife. There are still some things that you have limited control over that will slow you down: counter space, kitchen layout, sink size, or what bowls and pots you have. Years ago I feel like they had more leftovers. Usually, it was the side dish where they gave you a whole head of cabbage instead of half to prep. It was usually mentioned in the recipe. I had been meaning to look back to see if they amended the recipes when they repeated them removing the leftovers--but I haven't used Blue Apron in probably a year now. I'm glad you learned that roasting vegetables are dead simple and delicious. I feel like growing up with canned and boiled vegetables this was somehow a well kept secret until recently. But there are other meal-kits out there that vary widely on complexity and prep time.
  - robertAngst 8y ago
    As a note, we have been cooking, daily, for 5 years. I'm good enough with a knife, that I use a knife hone daily. Still took 2-3x longer than suggested. Not sure if I can blame the user.
chad_strategic 8y ago
I don't own any of this stock right now, but I have been keeping an eye on it. For this particular stock, I'm apply the Peter Lynch strategy of investing in regards to Blue Apron. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/stocks/06/peterlynch.asp https://www.investopedia.com/articles/stocks/06/peterlynch.a... Mostly buy what you like and know. All of my other trades are algorithmic...
beart 8y ago
I've never used Blue Apron and I'm curious - how much actual cooking do you do with a typical Blue Apron meal? Are you preparing, mixing, cutting, etc. or are you primarily mixing together already prepared ingredients and timing them as they cook? Could someone who has never cooked use Blue Apron as a starting point to learn basic cooking skills?
- fetus8 8y ago
  You are preparing, mixing, cutting and cooking everything yourself. You're given the raw ingredients just like you'd buy yourself at the grocery store and given an easy to follow recipe to do everything yourself. If you've never cooked before, you are definitely in their target demographic. The recipes are generally simple enough and explained well enough that it would teach you the basic cooking skills you lack.
  - maxxxxx 8y ago
    It sounds like grocery stores could provide that service pretty easily now that they have online shopping. Send them a recipe and they put the ingredients into a shopping bag ready to go.
    - ghaff 8y ago
      To some degree. The portions the meal kits ship for things like spices are only what's needed for the recipe. For people who don't have a well-stocked larder that's probably one of the big advantages of these kits.
    - bluGill 8y ago
      They could, but flour is sold in sacks. With blue apron you get your 2/3rd cup of flour not the full sack. The labor to measure out is too high, and you need larger scale factors than a store would have to make automating that work out.
- brianwawok 8y ago
  Its basically a trip to the grocery store + a print out of a recipe with nice pictures. Not a bunch of half cooked stuff you slap together. I think learning to cook is an excellent use for the service (but not maybe one they love long term)
spyspy 8y ago
The problem is the extremely small niche it fills. The market is people who have enough time and patience to cook their own meals, but not enough to grocery shop and look up a recipe. If you're new to cooking that's one thing, but I'd imagine many users eventually "outgrow" the service as they become more skilled and/or realize how much the convenience is costing.
- Pfhreak 8y ago
  We use a similar service that's closer to a CSA + recipe cards. We get a basic recipe and a bunch of raw veggies/locally produced products. Meal planning is work. Grocery shopping is work. Cooking is work. We've decided that cooking is the work we enjoy, and the other parts are work we'd rather pay someone to do for us. We are more than capable of putting together a meal plan, we just value our time more than money and have found the right service to pay to help us in that regard.
  - tigershark 8y ago
    I’m really surprised... you don’t have any online grocery shopping in US? I have been buying groceries only online for years and I wouldn’t definitely call work to click a couple times more on the ingredients that you need for some meal. If you are particularly lazy you can even create shopping lists for every meal that you need and add all of them with a click.
    - pfranz 8y ago
      What countries have widespread online grocery shopping? I've seen it advertised a bit in the US (more and more recently), but haven't seen it gain a strong foothold yet. I've had some friends that used Amazon Fresh. I've used it once or twice, but wasn't confident it was price competitive and also didn't want to wait the day or two when I could just pick it up for dinner tonight. For me it's just an expectation and familiarity thing (I get confused about all the Amazon services and forget that most of them exist). I've heard some people talk about why grocery delivery "won't work" in the US. There's a huge last-mile problem. For the first few years, Blue Apron was northern east-coast, then west-coast only. It took awhile to get most states covered. Another argument I've heard is that people like to pick their food. They're worried they'll get stuck with blemished/bruised food.
ghaff 8y ago
There's definitely a use case for these services. It's just a fairly narrow one. - Willing and able to cook for, ideally, more than one person - Able to plan a week ahead for the most part - OK with paying a non-trivial premium to have a lot of menu planning and shopping be handled by someone else I tried Blue Apron and thought it was "OK" but I could never really make these meal kit services work out for me. t obviously works for some people though.
- samstave 8y ago
  Blue aprons should seek to have some subsidies from states or insurance where they can provide healthy meals to SnAP users, or elderly, or offer it to apartment complexes where they know how many units just want "blue apron sunday dinner" or something
  - heavyset_go 8y ago
    The average SNAP benefit is $126 a month. According to Blue Apron, their price per serving is $10 plus shipping. At their lowest tier, Blue Apron costs $50 a week for 4 servings. Neither Blue Apron nor SNAP recipients could survive off of one another.
    - samstave 8y ago
      I meant to have a portion of that in some sort of subsidized manner... Not a replacement. I also think snap is bullshit. For example, you cant buy toiletries with it and you cant buy things which are cooked. The best cooked deal of anything is a $5 rotisserie chicken at costco. And snap users can never get those. But it would be interesting if blue apron were to cater to larger groups, such as retirment homes, or elderly communities...
      - heavyset_go 8y ago
        > But it would be interesting if blue apron were to cater to larger groups, such as retirment homes, or elderly communities... SNAP recipients, retirement homes and elderly communities discriminate on cost. It's almost always more efficient to deal directly with a food distributor or wholesaler at that scale.
Pfhreak 8y ago
> my wife thought it would be helpful for me to start cooking, as she was getting stressed out with our 2 years old. This seems like a good opportunity to see if there is more labor (emotional or physical) that your wife is doing that she could use a hand with. > My wife doesn't have nag me about what I what I want for the week's dinner Meal planning is work. She is doing a job for the family. She is trying to include your preferences in the calculus of meal planning. Balancing nutrition, variety, individual preferences, cost, and difficulty is a non-trivial problem to solve every week. When you say she is 'nagging' you about what you want for dinner, take a step back and consider what that is telling others (including your wife) about how much you value that work.
- _zachs 8y ago
  damn dude you really are a Pfhreak.
  - Pfhreak 8y ago
    I know, right? What with all the 'treating other humans with dignity' and 'respecting the work they do'. Wild.
  - sctb 8y ago
    Please don't do this here.
- DoofusOfDeath 8y ago
  Tangent: Tip from a long-time husband: If you often have the perception of your wife "nagging" you, there's probably a relationship-antipattern in effect that you'll want to deal with as soon as you have the emotional energy. IMO, perceived nagging can be the narrow end of a big wedge between a couple.
- scrumbledober 8y ago
  HN: come for the engineering talk, stay for the relationship advice.
  - 8y ago
taude 8y ago
I thought the Blue Apron recipes were too complicated, used too many pans to wash, and wasted too much packaging material. I found no time savings when was all said and done. I have an easy enough time following recipes from books like America's Test Kitchen cooking for two [1], etc, and spending 10 or 15 minutes planning meals each week. Plus, I probably spend quite a bit less, and if I meal plan correctly, I'll do some form of big-batch meal one night that then becomes leftovers or other meals... I did like not making dinner decisions, though, when the meals were things I liked. Note: I haven't used the service in nearly four years. [1] The Complete Cooking For Two Cookbook: https://shop.americastestkitchen.com/8da852d4663a41e4f978fa433e89f0ef.html https://shop.americastestkitchen.com/8da852d4663a41e4f978fa4... EDITED: added link to book I was referring to
- jghn 8y ago
  My experience has been that most of the recipes I’ve received are single pot/pan recipes
  - harryh 8y ago
    BA recipes have gotten WAY WAY simpler over time so your two different experiences are almost certainly explained by using the service at different times.
    - jghn 8y ago
      In particular, they took a serious turn for the simpler side of things around the time their business problems started
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > I thought the Blue Apron recipes were too complicated, used too many pans to wash, and wasted too much packaging material. I've rarely seen a BA recipe use more than one pot and one pan, most, IME, use a single pan (often with a wipe-and-reuse step to do that.) If anything, BA goes out of their way to minimize the required cooking vessels compared to most recipe sources (even America’s Test Kitchen, which is actually pretty good about not gratuitously using cookware.)
rdlecler1 8y ago
Agree with everything you said and I don’t think mealkits are the problem, BlueApron isn’t sufficiently addressing the biggest pain point—time. We used BlueApron but moved to Gobble. The dishes tastes better and it takes 1/2 to 1/3 the time to cook compared to BlueApron. That’s less dishes as well so cleanup is fast. I suspect BlueApron is suffering because competitors are better addressing customer needs, not because mealkits are a bad idea.
joshstrange 8y ago
> After 10 years of marriage, my wife thought it would be helpful for me to start cooking, as she was getting stressed out with our 2 years old. After 10 years of marriage your wife had to be the one to bring up that you should probably be helping with basis household chores?? > I can't tell you how much time we save in planning meals and trips to the store. Is it because you haven't really saved the time? Also People VASTLY overestimate the value of their time in my experience. And they also VASTLY overestimate how much time it takes to plan and shop. > My wife doesn't have nag me about what I what I want for the week's dinner. Well if your opening line didn't cement my opinion for me this one did. As the person who plans meals in my household let me let you in on a little secret. She ASKS you what you want because she wants to make you happy and/or wants you to like what she makes. You've placed her in a no-win situation, if she asks you what you want she is nagging but if she doesn't and you don't like the food she also feels bad. The fact that you call it "nagging" is just crazy, wow, the nerve of your wife wasting all of your valuable time trying to make you happy. What a bitch. (/s if that was PAINFULLY obvious) > The quality of the food and the time saved is well worth the price. False > I know there are some disadvantages about Blue Apron such as waste, carbon food print etc... How nice of you to throw in a one line disclaimer, I'm sorry but that's not enough and undersells the horrible underbelly of this industry. > Out of 100 meals I would say that we only had maybe one that was mediocre. I don't believe this for 1 second. > I suspect Blue Apron will survive as it will probably be taken over or bought out. It's kinda the leader of the pack and the market will eventually consolidate. Oh, can't wait for them to consolidate and raise their prices up to realistic levels. If you think their prices are high now I can't wait to see what you think about their prices when they've killed off or merged with all their competition. Investors aren't going to subsidize it for forever. > It also helps that I might have helped I bought about $1000 discounted gift cards at Costco. What does this even mean??
- bthrn 8y ago
  There is basically nothing helpful or constructive in your comment here. You seem to be pretty upset about this, do you have some sort of vendetta against Blue Apron?
  - 8y ago
cflewis 8y ago
I think Blue Apron recipes are generally too fancy: check out Sun Basket. I like them more, and they are pretty good on the timings (if it says 20 mins, it's actually 20 mins).
naravara 8y ago
>I suspect Blue Apron will survive as it will probably be taken over or bought out. It's kinda the leader of the pack and the market will eventually consolidate. It also helps that I might have helped I bought about $1000 discounted gift cards at Costco. I'm not so sure. Even most people I know who have tried Blue Apron tend to either regress back to not cooking or they "graduate" to buying their own ingredients and planning their own meals. It's not like grocery delivery is that different or hard to do. I actually think it is pretty great as a way to build the habit of cooking at home and to get comfortable enough in your kitchen. But it only takes about a month to do that. Afterwards it's so much cheaper and easier to just handle the recipes and cooking yourself. Once you get a feel for proportions and learn some staple recipes Blue Apron adds very little extra value and a lot of extra headache (no flexibility in the menus, fixed proportions, etc.) So there isn't much point in doing it. Also, their vegetarian options too often tend to either be carbs + cheese or bland vegetables. I'd much rather just make Indian food at home.
- chad_strategic 8y ago
  Well... that's what makes a market... Differing opinions. I will probably pick up some stock in the next few months. Because I will put my money where my mouth is. (pun intended) They are changing their business strategies and growing in different ways. (They sell prepackaged food in Costco in California).
- Retric 8y ago
  As long as you have low customer acquisition costs you can still have a large stable business like this. Look at huggies diapers, some kids spend a lot longer in diapers than others but generally it’s a short but profitable window.
  - naravara 8y ago
    >As long as you have low customer acquisition costs Blue Apron doesn't though. And it doesn't seem like they have much luck lowering their customer acquisition costs. There are a lot more options for feeding yourself at or below $10 per meal than there are for containing poop.
Waterluvian 8y ago
So my local grocery store chain is offering what blue apron does, except it's just their in house butchers and whatnot preparing the ingredients. Then you buy the kits the way you would groceries: off the shelf or online for pickup. I'm not sure blue apron has any magic that can't be reproduced by everyone else.
- whoisthemachine 8y ago
  I think this is their biggest weakness: grocery stores are all starting to offer this service, on demand. Grocery stores don't even need to devise the meals themselves, they can outsource that to a third party, and just handle the ingredient gathering component. On the other hand, this improves the utility of grocery stores greatly!
chad_strategic 8y ago
I thought I would just add this for the record... >My wife doesn't have nag me about what I what I want for the week's dinner. This line has been misinterpreted. My wife would normally ask me on Sunday, what we should have for dinner for the week. My response was usually "whatever is fine", which doesn't really help her. Blue Apron removes that question. My wife never "nagged" me, it was more my fault, because didn't give a good answer. So the overall process was an issue and mostly on my part. After over ten years of marriage and a child and two dogs, it really becomes clear how important a partnership is. My son is now learning to cook with me as well. Obviously, men can be in the kitchen as well. It's fun, even if I'm just a "blue apron cook". I'm also adding this clarification because it's pretty slow here at work and I have to look busy...
megy 8y ago
Ok, but don't you usually go to the supermarket anyway? I don't quite see what the point is, how did you survive until this point? The only thing difference is you are buying some more ingredients.

robertAngst 8y ago

Dang, I had the opposite experience with Blue Apron. Never saved time. Expensive and the recipes took 2-3x longer than it says on the box. Delicious food, but there was no leftovers. We finished the food and were still hungry. Cannot fathom using them as a meal provider. The only thing I learned is that roasted beats and carrots are delicious. Don't need Blue Apron anymore.

jonathanjaeger 8y ago
They recently added meals that take 20-30min rather than 30-55min and it has made a world of difference, not to mention they expanded the menu. I also find some of the meals tastier because they're simpler rather than using too many ingredients. I still get the occasional bland one, but they have improved. As a company I wouldn't invest in them. The amount they spend on advertising (e.g. really pricey podcast advertising) with a high churn rate is concerning.
- ghaff 8y ago
  I only used them once and one of the meals was the most complicated hamburger recipe I'd ever made and I didn't think it was really all that good. I half suspect there are motivations behind making the recipes for these services complex and a little exotic. If they had four ingredient recipes that took 10 minutes of prep, I daresay a lot of people would think "I'm paying 2x to 3x what I would pay in the grocery store for that???" I'm glad to hear they're simplifying things though. The only reason I'd use something like this is if they did a lot of the pre-prep so it really is a quick meal on a weekday night when I really just don't have the energy to do more than minimal cooking. (Especially when there's so much in the grocery store that's partly prepped these days.)
  - pfranz 8y ago
    There's definitely a novelty factor--sometimes it pays off and other times it doesn't. I think "the standards" for American cuisine have the least payoff. I like that they would rarely repeat the grain/rice. It's likely a lot cheaper for them to acquire something popular in Italy in bulk, interesting to try in a controlled setting, and if I want to make the recipe again I can swap it out for white rice. > The only reason I'd use something like this is if they did a lot of the pre-prep so it really is a quick meal That sounds like a different market than Blue Apron is going for. From what I've seen they seem to be focusing on people who like getting whole fruits and vegetables and you cut and peel them yourself. People who are interested in cooking, but don't necessarily have formal training. Other meal kits will probably be a better fit for a quick, weeknight meal with little to no prep.
  - behringer 8y ago
    What's really weird to me is that you can go to the store and get food that's basically ready to serve after you warm it up. You could eat steaks, fish sticks, brats, chicken, pork, chicken nuggets, fries, a huge variety of vegetables ready to be steamed from the frozen section. You could eat that every day and pay a quarter of what it costs for this stuff to be hand picked for you. You don't even need to season any of it and it's delicious fried up in olive oil and butter and a little salt.
    - 8y ago
chad_strategic 8y ago
I agree that there is just enough food, maybe not enough. But then again, I'm dropping weight. So maybe a good thing. I got faster making meals over time. For me right now time is more important than money. I don't think have ever eaten more roasted beets, carrots, cauliflower, kale and broccoli in the last two years, than I have in my life. (and enjoyed.)
- ghaff 8y ago
  Roasting vegetables seems so obvious in retrospect and, even for a group, it's actually much easier to control doneness. I'm not sure why it mostly only appeared as a technique (outside of root vegetables and squash) relatively recently in the US.
chrisseaton 8y ago
> Delicious food, but there was no leftovers. I don't understand why do you want leftover food?
- SkyPuncher 8y ago
  So you can eat it for lunch the next day.
  - chrisseaton 8y ago
    If you want two meals why not get two meals instead of expecting one meal to provide two - doesn’t seem like a reasonable expectation to me.
    - behringer 8y ago
      Because when you're paying $10 for one meal you kind of hope it goes a little further. To put this in perspective, if I go to the store and buy a 10 dollar meal, I'll be eating: porter house, slathered in butter and olive oil, asparagus fried in the juices, with a baked potato. I'll have also a side of chilean grapes and a slice of cheese cake for desert. 10 dollars is a crazy amount for a dinner. (Ok that might cost more like $15)
      - crysin 8y ago
        A porterhouse alone is typically 8 to 10 dollars, so no you're meal you listed there is more like 20. Sure Blue Apron is expensive but don't go making it sound like you can have a big nice steak, a baked potato, an expensive dessert, some butter and vegetables for near the same cost.
        Spivak 8y ago
        If you buy every single ingredient absolutely but that's not how cooking-at-home food math works. You head to the grocery store and buy whatever beef cut is on sale so if you're buying a porterhouse it's because it's $4-6. Your pantry is already stocked with butter, flour, eggs, sugar, and potatoes. You had some almost stale graham crackers lying around which is why you decided to make cheesecake. You hit up the store buy some asparagus, cream cheese, and whatever fruit is in season rounding out to about $10-12 bucks and you've pretty much got the meal with plenty of leftovers and leftover ingredients for whatever you do next. You can spread a good cheese out over multiple meals to lower the cost but I'm not seeing how to get even a brie without going over budget here though.
pfranz 8y ago
It's really tough to time a recipe. Especially, because Blue Apron has so many whole foods that need peeling and cutting--it's not like you just put it in the oven and set a timer. I do think their estimations are a bit idealistic. I've seen the prep times vary 2-3x depending on who in the family makes it. One thing I've noticed that can improve prep times is taking a basic knife skills class. You'll notice grandmothers who have been cooking for decades are often pretty clunky with a knife. There are still some things that you have limited control over that will slow you down: counter space, kitchen layout, sink size, or what bowls and pots you have. Years ago I feel like they had more leftovers. Usually, it was the side dish where they gave you a whole head of cabbage instead of half to prep. It was usually mentioned in the recipe. I had been meaning to look back to see if they amended the recipes when they repeated them removing the leftovers--but I haven't used Blue Apron in probably a year now. I'm glad you learned that roasting vegetables are dead simple and delicious. I feel like growing up with canned and boiled vegetables this was somehow a well kept secret until recently. But there are other meal-kits out there that vary widely on complexity and prep time.
- robertAngst 8y ago
  As a note, we have been cooking, daily, for 5 years. I'm good enough with a knife, that I use a knife hone daily. Still took 2-3x longer than suggested. Not sure if I can blame the user.

chad_strategic 8y ago

I don't own any of this stock right now, but I have been keeping an eye on it. For this particular stock, I'm apply the Peter Lynch strategy of investing in regards to Blue Apron. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/stocks/06/peterlynch.asp https://www.investopedia.com/articles/stocks/06/peterlynch.a... Mostly buy what you like and know. All of my other trades are algorithmic...

beart 8y ago

I've never used Blue Apron and I'm curious - how much actual cooking do you do with a typical Blue Apron meal? Are you preparing, mixing, cutting, etc. or are you primarily mixing together already prepared ingredients and timing them as they cook? Could someone who has never cooked use Blue Apron as a starting point to learn basic cooking skills?

fetus8 8y ago
You are preparing, mixing, cutting and cooking everything yourself. You're given the raw ingredients just like you'd buy yourself at the grocery store and given an easy to follow recipe to do everything yourself. If you've never cooked before, you are definitely in their target demographic. The recipes are generally simple enough and explained well enough that it would teach you the basic cooking skills you lack.
- maxxxxx 8y ago
  It sounds like grocery stores could provide that service pretty easily now that they have online shopping. Send them a recipe and they put the ingredients into a shopping bag ready to go.
  - ghaff 8y ago
    To some degree. The portions the meal kits ship for things like spices are only what's needed for the recipe. For people who don't have a well-stocked larder that's probably one of the big advantages of these kits.
  - bluGill 8y ago
    They could, but flour is sold in sacks. With blue apron you get your 2/3rd cup of flour not the full sack. The labor to measure out is too high, and you need larger scale factors than a store would have to make automating that work out.
brianwawok 8y ago
Its basically a trip to the grocery store + a print out of a recipe with nice pictures. Not a bunch of half cooked stuff you slap together. I think learning to cook is an excellent use for the service (but not maybe one they love long term)

spyspy 8y ago

The problem is the extremely small niche it fills. The market is people who have enough time and patience to cook their own meals, but not enough to grocery shop and look up a recipe. If you're new to cooking that's one thing, but I'd imagine many users eventually "outgrow" the service as they become more skilled and/or realize how much the convenience is costing.

Pfhreak 8y ago
We use a similar service that's closer to a CSA + recipe cards. We get a basic recipe and a bunch of raw veggies/locally produced products. Meal planning is work. Grocery shopping is work. Cooking is work. We've decided that cooking is the work we enjoy, and the other parts are work we'd rather pay someone to do for us. We are more than capable of putting together a meal plan, we just value our time more than money and have found the right service to pay to help us in that regard.
- tigershark 8y ago
  I’m really surprised... you don’t have any online grocery shopping in US? I have been buying groceries only online for years and I wouldn’t definitely call work to click a couple times more on the ingredients that you need for some meal. If you are particularly lazy you can even create shopping lists for every meal that you need and add all of them with a click.
  - pfranz 8y ago
    What countries have widespread online grocery shopping? I've seen it advertised a bit in the US (more and more recently), but haven't seen it gain a strong foothold yet. I've had some friends that used Amazon Fresh. I've used it once or twice, but wasn't confident it was price competitive and also didn't want to wait the day or two when I could just pick it up for dinner tonight. For me it's just an expectation and familiarity thing (I get confused about all the Amazon services and forget that most of them exist). I've heard some people talk about why grocery delivery "won't work" in the US. There's a huge last-mile problem. For the first few years, Blue Apron was northern east-coast, then west-coast only. It took awhile to get most states covered. Another argument I've heard is that people like to pick their food. They're worried they'll get stuck with blemished/bruised food.

ghaff 8y ago

There's definitely a use case for these services. It's just a fairly narrow one. - Willing and able to cook for, ideally, more than one person - Able to plan a week ahead for the most part - OK with paying a non-trivial premium to have a lot of menu planning and shopping be handled by someone else I tried Blue Apron and thought it was "OK" but I could never really make these meal kit services work out for me. t obviously works for some people though.

samstave 8y ago
Blue aprons should seek to have some subsidies from states or insurance where they can provide healthy meals to SnAP users, or elderly, or offer it to apartment complexes where they know how many units just want "blue apron sunday dinner" or something
- heavyset_go 8y ago
  The average SNAP benefit is $126 a month. According to Blue Apron, their price per serving is $10 plus shipping. At their lowest tier, Blue Apron costs $50 a week for 4 servings. Neither Blue Apron nor SNAP recipients could survive off of one another.
  - samstave 8y ago
    I meant to have a portion of that in some sort of subsidized manner... Not a replacement. I also think snap is bullshit. For example, you cant buy toiletries with it and you cant buy things which are cooked. The best cooked deal of anything is a $5 rotisserie chicken at costco. And snap users can never get those. But it would be interesting if blue apron were to cater to larger groups, such as retirment homes, or elderly communities...
    - heavyset_go 8y ago
      > But it would be interesting if blue apron were to cater to larger groups, such as retirment homes, or elderly communities... SNAP recipients, retirement homes and elderly communities discriminate on cost. It's almost always more efficient to deal directly with a food distributor or wholesaler at that scale.

Pfhreak 8y ago

> my wife thought it would be helpful for me to start cooking, as she was getting stressed out with our 2 years old. This seems like a good opportunity to see if there is more labor (emotional or physical) that your wife is doing that she could use a hand with. > My wife doesn't have nag me about what I what I want for the week's dinner Meal planning is work. She is doing a job for the family. She is trying to include your preferences in the calculus of meal planning. Balancing nutrition, variety, individual preferences, cost, and difficulty is a non-trivial problem to solve every week. When you say she is 'nagging' you about what you want for dinner, take a step back and consider what that is telling others (including your wife) about how much you value that work.

_zachs 8y ago
damn dude you really are a Pfhreak.
- Pfhreak 8y ago
  I know, right? What with all the 'treating other humans with dignity' and 'respecting the work they do'. Wild.
- sctb 8y ago
  Please don't do this here.
DoofusOfDeath 8y ago
Tangent: Tip from a long-time husband: If you often have the perception of your wife "nagging" you, there's probably a relationship-antipattern in effect that you'll want to deal with as soon as you have the emotional energy. IMO, perceived nagging can be the narrow end of a big wedge between a couple.
scrumbledober 8y ago
HN: come for the engineering talk, stay for the relationship advice.
- 8y ago

taude 8y ago

I thought the Blue Apron recipes were too complicated, used too many pans to wash, and wasted too much packaging material. I found no time savings when was all said and done. I have an easy enough time following recipes from books like America's Test Kitchen cooking for two [1], etc, and spending 10 or 15 minutes planning meals each week. Plus, I probably spend quite a bit less, and if I meal plan correctly, I'll do some form of big-batch meal one night that then becomes leftovers or other meals... I did like not making dinner decisions, though, when the meals were things I liked. Note: I haven't used the service in nearly four years. [1] The Complete Cooking For Two Cookbook: https://shop.americastestkitchen.com/8da852d4663a41e4f978fa433e89f0ef.html https://shop.americastestkitchen.com/8da852d4663a41e4f978fa4... EDITED: added link to book I was referring to

jghn 8y ago
My experience has been that most of the recipes I’ve received are single pot/pan recipes
- harryh 8y ago
  BA recipes have gotten WAY WAY simpler over time so your two different experiences are almost certainly explained by using the service at different times.
  - jghn 8y ago
    In particular, they took a serious turn for the simpler side of things around the time their business problems started
dragonwriter 8y ago
> I thought the Blue Apron recipes were too complicated, used too many pans to wash, and wasted too much packaging material. I've rarely seen a BA recipe use more than one pot and one pan, most, IME, use a single pan (often with a wipe-and-reuse step to do that.) If anything, BA goes out of their way to minimize the required cooking vessels compared to most recipe sources (even America’s Test Kitchen, which is actually pretty good about not gratuitously using cookware.)

rdlecler1 8y ago

Agree with everything you said and I don’t think mealkits are the problem, BlueApron isn’t sufficiently addressing the biggest pain point—time. We used BlueApron but moved to Gobble. The dishes tastes better and it takes 1/2 to 1/3 the time to cook compared to BlueApron. That’s less dishes as well so cleanup is fast. I suspect BlueApron is suffering because competitors are better addressing customer needs, not because mealkits are a bad idea.

joshstrange 8y ago

> After 10 years of marriage, my wife thought it would be helpful for me to start cooking, as she was getting stressed out with our 2 years old. After 10 years of marriage your wife had to be the one to bring up that you should probably be helping with basis household chores?? > I can't tell you how much time we save in planning meals and trips to the store. Is it because you haven't really saved the time? Also People VASTLY overestimate the value of their time in my experience. And they also VASTLY overestimate how much time it takes to plan and shop. > My wife doesn't have nag me about what I what I want for the week's dinner. Well if your opening line didn't cement my opinion for me this one did. As the person who plans meals in my household let me let you in on a little secret. She ASKS you what you want because she wants to make you happy and/or wants you to like what she makes. You've placed her in a no-win situation, if she asks you what you want she is nagging but if she doesn't and you don't like the food she also feels bad. The fact that you call it "nagging" is just crazy, wow, the nerve of your wife wasting all of your valuable time trying to make you happy. What a bitch. (/s if that was PAINFULLY obvious) > The quality of the food and the time saved is well worth the price. False > I know there are some disadvantages about Blue Apron such as waste, carbon food print etc... How nice of you to throw in a one line disclaimer, I'm sorry but that's not enough and undersells the horrible underbelly of this industry. > Out of 100 meals I would say that we only had maybe one that was mediocre. I don't believe this for 1 second. > I suspect Blue Apron will survive as it will probably be taken over or bought out. It's kinda the leader of the pack and the market will eventually consolidate. Oh, can't wait for them to consolidate and raise their prices up to realistic levels. If you think their prices are high now I can't wait to see what you think about their prices when they've killed off or merged with all their competition. Investors aren't going to subsidize it for forever. > It also helps that I might have helped I bought about $1000 discounted gift cards at Costco. What does this even mean??

bthrn 8y ago
There is basically nothing helpful or constructive in your comment here. You seem to be pretty upset about this, do you have some sort of vendetta against Blue Apron?
- 8y ago

cflewis 8y ago

I think Blue Apron recipes are generally too fancy: check out Sun Basket. I like them more, and they are pretty good on the timings (if it says 20 mins, it's actually 20 mins).

naravara 8y ago

>I suspect Blue Apron will survive as it will probably be taken over or bought out. It's kinda the leader of the pack and the market will eventually consolidate. It also helps that I might have helped I bought about $1000 discounted gift cards at Costco. I'm not so sure. Even most people I know who have tried Blue Apron tend to either regress back to not cooking or they "graduate" to buying their own ingredients and planning their own meals. It's not like grocery delivery is that different or hard to do. I actually think it is pretty great as a way to build the habit of cooking at home and to get comfortable enough in your kitchen. But it only takes about a month to do that. Afterwards it's so much cheaper and easier to just handle the recipes and cooking yourself. Once you get a feel for proportions and learn some staple recipes Blue Apron adds very little extra value and a lot of extra headache (no flexibility in the menus, fixed proportions, etc.) So there isn't much point in doing it. Also, their vegetarian options too often tend to either be carbs + cheese or bland vegetables. I'd much rather just make Indian food at home.

chad_strategic 8y ago
Well... that's what makes a market... Differing opinions. I will probably pick up some stock in the next few months. Because I will put my money where my mouth is. (pun intended) They are changing their business strategies and growing in different ways. (They sell prepackaged food in Costco in California).
Retric 8y ago
As long as you have low customer acquisition costs you can still have a large stable business like this. Look at huggies diapers, some kids spend a lot longer in diapers than others but generally it’s a short but profitable window.
- naravara 8y ago
  >As long as you have low customer acquisition costs Blue Apron doesn't though. And it doesn't seem like they have much luck lowering their customer acquisition costs. There are a lot more options for feeding yourself at or below $10 per meal than there are for containing poop.

Waterluvian 8y ago

So my local grocery store chain is offering what blue apron does, except it's just their in house butchers and whatnot preparing the ingredients. Then you buy the kits the way you would groceries: off the shelf or online for pickup. I'm not sure blue apron has any magic that can't be reproduced by everyone else.

whoisthemachine 8y ago
I think this is their biggest weakness: grocery stores are all starting to offer this service, on demand. Grocery stores don't even need to devise the meals themselves, they can outsource that to a third party, and just handle the ingredient gathering component. On the other hand, this improves the utility of grocery stores greatly!

chad_strategic 8y ago

I thought I would just add this for the record... >My wife doesn't have nag me about what I what I want for the week's dinner. This line has been misinterpreted. My wife would normally ask me on Sunday, what we should have for dinner for the week. My response was usually "whatever is fine", which doesn't really help her. Blue Apron removes that question. My wife never "nagged" me, it was more my fault, because didn't give a good answer. So the overall process was an issue and mostly on my part. After over ten years of marriage and a child and two dogs, it really becomes clear how important a partnership is. My son is now learning to cook with me as well. Obviously, men can be in the kitchen as well. It's fun, even if I'm just a "blue apron cook". I'm also adding this clarification because it's pretty slow here at work and I have to look busy...

megy 8y ago

Ok, but don't you usually go to the supermarket anyway? I don't quite see what the point is, how did you survive until this point? The only thing difference is you are buying some more ingredients.