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Comment by fernly | Hacker News Reader

They could cut some of the packaging by requiring the user to have a wider range of stock items. They could send you an email on Saturday saying, "to prepare your menu selection arriving Tuesday, you will need: Soy Sauce, White Wine Vinegar,..." If you have 'em, fine, if not, you have a couple of days to stock up. That would eliminate the fairy's bottles of vinegar etc. (and lower costs?).

But there's no way around the insulation and frozen gel-packs, and I think they should close the loop on those and take them back. Just say, throw the gel-packs in the box with all the plastic containers, slap this label on the outside, and UPS will take the box away when they drop off next week's food.

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> I think they should close the loop on those and take them back. Just say, throw the gel-packs in the box with all the plastic containers, slap this label on the outside, and UPS will take the box away when they drop off next week's food.

They do: http://origin-blog.blueapron.com/recycling-faq/

You collect a couple of shipments worth of packaging, stuff it in a box, and print out a label for it from your account.

I don't know about you, but to me, packing, label-printing, taping, and shipping a box of trash a couple of times a week, sounds like a less enjoyable chore than going grocery shopping.

I did not know this while I was a blue apron user. Thank you.

"to prepare your menu selection arriving Tuesday, you will need: Soy Sauce, White Wine Vinegar,..." If you have 'em, fine, if not, you have a couple of days to stock up. That would eliminate the fairy's bottles of vinegar etc. (and lower costs?)."

That sounds like a really good idea. We also tried Hello Fresh, but indeed, many things we already owned in bigger bottles. Combine it with a lower price indeed and I wonder what it will mean for sales.

By the way, our local supermarkets are also starting to make these packages of "everything you need for one meal for 2 or 4". You can also have them delivered. In general though they are much more expensive then taking the products from the shelves, but that is to be expected. Robotozation of large stores combined with self-picking up of crates of supplies can fix that too (we have that at some stores, minus the robots).

Meanwhile here (in the Netherlands), you see more and more small electric vehicles delivering groceries around the city and picking up and bringing back elderly that want to shop. Things are really changing.

I'm confused. How is this different from just following a recipe and going to the grocery store?

Well, there's probably a bunch of ingredients most folks will have in their larder/pantry cupboard e.g. salt, pepper, vinegar, one or two jars of spices (say, chilli, paprika), stock cubes... the sort of thing you can easily pick up from a regular supermarket or your local 7-11.

The more "exotic" ingredients would come with the box. For example, I'm kinda rural, so fresh herbs such as coriander and parsley aren't easy to come by. Fernly is suggesting that company's like Blue Apron should recommend always stocking certain long life standard ingredients that are commonly used in their recipes. They could perhaps even have this as an option on your account so that you get a bit of a discount for agreeing to hold these ingredients rather than having them sent out in tiny amounts in wasteful packaging.

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