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That a portion of the cost of operating a kitchen at home is a sunk cost is the only thing that keeps cooking at home cost-competitive with eating out at restau

That a portion of the cost of operating a kitchen at home is a sunk cost is the only thing that keeps cooking at home cost-competitive with eating out at restaurants. The price of eating at a restaurant that is well above the cost of materials is already operating at an efficiency that is above what one can achieve eating at home, all things considered. If the hypothetical prepared meal service could deliver food for near-material cost, it would quickly start to be difficult to justify cooking at home. At least on a cost basis; there are certainly other reasons why one might want to cook at home, even if it costs substantially more money to do so.

ghaff 7y ago
Outside of a dormitory situation (and sometimes even then), how many people are seriously willing to dispense with even the most minimal kitchen (say, refrigerator, burner, toaster oven, kitchen sink, maybe microwave)? To a first approximation, no one wants to order out for an egg and a couple slides of toast in the morning. So most probably can't/don't want to eliminate the kitchen entirely and that minimal kitchen is probably not that different from a lot of urban kitchens in areas like Manhattan.
- randomdata 7y ago
  > no one wants to order out for an egg and a couple slides of toast in the morning. Why do you think that is? To me, having eggs and toast 'magically' appear in front of me when I get up in the morning sounds wonderful and I am really not sure why everyone wouldn't want that if the infrastructure to provide it was there. While the actual act of making an egg and some toast is not terribly difficult, everything else that goes along with it, like having to plan the meal ahead of time such that you have the supplies on hand, starts to add up into a big job. A big job that I cannot imagine why someone who doesn't love cooking would want to take on unnecessarily. I can see how it may be necessary under the status quo as we lack the technology to really deliver on the vision, but our discussion is not about the status quo, but rather a hypothetical future where industry has figured out to produce quality prepared food at scale such that the costs start to approach that of the raw materials.

ghaff 7y ago

Outside of a dormitory situation (and sometimes even then), how many people are seriously willing to dispense with even the most minimal kitchen (say, refrigerator, burner, toaster oven, kitchen sink, maybe microwave)? To a first approximation, no one wants to order out for an egg and a couple slides of toast in the morning. So most probably can't/don't want to eliminate the kitchen entirely and that minimal kitchen is probably not that different from a lot of urban kitchens in areas like Manhattan.

randomdata 7y ago
> no one wants to order out for an egg and a couple slides of toast in the morning. Why do you think that is? To me, having eggs and toast 'magically' appear in front of me when I get up in the morning sounds wonderful and I am really not sure why everyone wouldn't want that if the infrastructure to provide it was there. While the actual act of making an egg and some toast is not terribly difficult, everything else that goes along with it, like having to plan the meal ahead of time such that you have the supplies on hand, starts to add up into a big job. A big job that I cannot imagine why someone who doesn't love cooking would want to take on unnecessarily. I can see how it may be necessary under the status quo as we lack the technology to really deliver on the vision, but our discussion is not about the status quo, but rather a hypothetical future where industry has figured out to produce quality prepared food at scale such that the costs start to approach that of the raw materials.