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Blue Apron Announces 1-for-12 Reverse Stock Split
- elischleifer 3y agoNo surprise here. This business has crazy high costs and the marginal value is just not there. Subscription businesses in consumer are brutal.
- jfengel 3y agoThat's too bad. There's merit in the idea. It's good for people to cook more, and the easier you can make it for them, the better. It's a good way to try out recipes, ingredients, and techniques that might otherwise be difficult or off-putting. But yeah, the margins are brutal. And the market is a sliver: people willing to cook but not wanting to do all of the research and shopping. I've never had the service because I actually enjoy cooking and even shopping for groceries. But I've helped other prepare their Blue Apron deliveries, and I really enjoy it. So I hope that the business model doesn't get completely squeezed out, even though I'll never use it.
- bombcar 3y agoI'm starting to think that consumer subscription services that aren't marginally "free" are basically impossible to keep going long-term, unless subsidized by other parts of the business. By marginally "free" I mean like cable TV - it doesn't cost much at all to enable some channels for a customer, even though you charge them $79.99. But something that costs $50 to provide, sold for $80+, there's no margin there even though it appears there is. Grocery stores have tried the "meal in a box" and failed; and they're best positioned for it.
- legitster 3y agoI mean, that's basically it. Blue Apron was being evaluated purely based on revenue growth like a tech company. If you were buying their stock you were not actually looking at their product margins.
- bombcar 3y agoMuch of the last twenty+ years can be summed up as "low margin business sold as a high-margin tech company to investors".