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Comment by gscott | Hacker News Reader

Maybe a high percentage of young people go into a supermarket and are overwhelmed. Supermarkets need employees to tell people what can be done with the food they find on the shelves to remain relevant and buying a pre-packaged fresh mailed to you food company is trying to fix a symptom of that actual problem.

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Regardless of feeling overwhelmed, the convenience of picking up one meal kit box vs knowing what ingredients to get, finding them, getting the right amount (often the minimum is far too much for the meal), etc. is huge.

AFAIK a lot of the margins for online meal kit companies is the shipping+packaging cost. Grocery stores don't have to pay for shipping to the customer and can keep the boxes refrigerated which would make the packaging much smaller and cheaper.

I've used a meal kit once or twice. I cook multiple meals for myself a day. But even for me, a person not in a meal kit business' target demographic, I can appreciate the value of not having to spend 10 minutes looking for the butter that was moved to some other location by the elves that run the Supermarkets.

Or buying four sticks of butter when all you need is a pat.

Yeah so I'm working on a pickup meal kit company and that's true. Over half the cost of a meal kit is tied up in last mile logistics. I have yet to see a company not offer door to door delivery, but in my mind that's only 1 piece of the value prop. You can reach the middle market more effectively, while offering more options and customization, by simply having the customer pick it up at a much lower price point.

Recipes are everywhere though.

Plated's market is probably for people who mostly want to save time, but don't want fast food or frozen meals.

And who can't get the same quality ingredients locally.

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