I just don't know where all this demand is for single-serving meals you cook yourself but that are priced like restaurant meals.
They may have considered that... and not cared. Their job was to pump up the number of subscriptions, sell Wall Street on their growth metrics, and then cash out in an IPO.
Blue Apron truly doesn't feel like a company built to be around for a long time.
Even most chefs start as prep cooks chopping vegetables. Start with watching how to cut an onion and start making dishes with onions.
If people are only buying blue apron to learn then what happens when all their customers can cook for themselves.
I don't use any of these meal prep services, but I know people who do and they love it.
If I can't find something, at the end of the day, pretty much any piece of food seasoned and grilled will taste good.
Fast forward a year, and I can now cook almost everything more to my tastes than any restaurant serves. The one exception is dim sum, which I tried a few times and decided it was far too much effort for far too little food. Very fiddly, you need a lot of patience.
But just, what do you like? Look up a recipe on the internet, go buy those ingredients, and it's gonna suck at first, but practice, practice, practice! (And now, turns out cooking is sexy. Nice side-effect to discover for having been out of the game for a while.)
I do this often. "What is this odd ingredient/vegetable?" Look up a recipe and buy it.
>> Any advice for someone like me who doesn't cook much?
Start by cooking whatever you're used to eating. And keep it as simple as possible.
A one sentence detour: I feel shame for the fuel and packaging these things require.
That said, we are finding it easier to cook healthy things for ourselves by copying the general patterns in the meals.
One pattern for you: get a food in the Brassica oleracea category. Dice it up, cook it in a pan with some olive oil. Move it to the side, and fry a chicken breast in the center of the same pan. Throw some cherry tomatoes and a few teaspoons of vinegar into the pan. After the chicken is cooked, throw a can of some vegetable sauce, like tomato sauce, onto all of it and cook it in the oven for 20 minutes.
Each thing can be substituted with something else, but those are the dance steps for half of the meals.
Get spices ( garlic powder, coriander - whole, paprika, cumin, turmeric, chili powder, ginger powder - the rest is up to you)
Buy a container of chicken or vegetable stock - after you open it and whatever you do not use freeze the rest. Next time just thaw it and use it again.
Soy sauce, vinegar (balsamic and rice ), sriracha, any-other-stuff-that you happen to have, olive oil.
When you have this on your way from work go to a store on a way:
Give yourself a strict ten minutes to get stuff. Decide what protein you want. Get it. Go to vegetables. Pick one thing that is familiar and one thing that is not that familiar. Get them. Get a single bunch of herbs. Herbs make everything better. If you do not have an onion, a tomato, a head of garlic, get it.
Ten minute limit would force you just to "grab stuff" rather than fixate on all kinds of blockers.
Go home, google "Fast and easy <protein> with <vegetable> skillet". Follow directions like a guideline for your CRUD application.
This is where the price premium is worth it to some people.
For the record I believe you have the nail on the head, as to the value of that service.
I don't buy a bunch of portioned ingredients for a set of rescipies, just a lot of basic ingredients and some wild cards to keep it interesting. As long as you have a good set of spices, oils, and garnishes you can find some way to prepare your random leftover ingredients into something pretty good.
I remember just hanging out with my mom/dad/grandparents when I was a kid watching and helping them cook. I always thought that was pretty standard along with watching and learning about all kinds of other household tasks. Is that not the case anymore? It just seems like such a basic life skill.
We avoid the dreaded, "What do you want?" questions around meals and the app's autogenerated shopping list has really helped us reduce food waste and avoid worrying that we're missing one or two ingredients when cooking a meal.
although i would still argue that 10$ for the meal plus the time to cook it is still more expensive than paying the $12-15 to order something from seamless. not worth it to me at all
Their ads say they can deliver to 97% of the continental US
Menu price depends on zipcode. For New Jersey, the price was $9.79 before tax and tip. Californa was $9.99. Also, most national chains like Applebees, Chilis, TGI Friday's microwave their food. The end result is a meal that Blue Apron customers wouldn't consider to be the same quality.
Blue Apron may be overpriced but I can't think of any restaurant that sells comparable meals (similar ingredients) for the same price. Also, actually going to the restaurant is often more of hassle than just staying home and having meals delivered.
I don't know many restaurants near major cities that do that. Especially if you factor in drinks, tip, etc.
Right, but at home I can enjoy a drink of my choice for cheap. At a restaurant I can pay several dollars for a drink, or I can drink water. (Unless it's a BYOB. But that's for alcohol, and I don't drink that often)
> you should also be factoring in the time and electric/gas (Stove/Oven, Dishwasher)
The time isn't free but it can be fun to cook with somebody. YMMV obviously. Sometimes time we enjoyed it, sometimes it was more work than we felt like.
Gas/electric resources to cook and wash? Pennies.
For us it was kind of like a "date night" thing three times a week. It was fun cooking the meals together. More fun than a restaurant really, because we still got to sit down and enjoy a nice meal.
We found the cost (about $10/person/meal) to be about halfway between buying our own groceries and dining out. If Blue Apron replaces dining out, it's actually sort of a money saver.
Groceries are expensive. We usually spend a little over $120 per week for food for two. Our dinners usually come out to like $4 or $5 per meal per person I think.[1] A decent restaurant, not fast food or Applebees... including tip and everything, I find we usually spend around at least $30 for two.
Why did we unsubscribe? Well, it is more expensive than groceries and we wanted to trim expenses even more. And my work schedule makes it hard for me to be home in time for us to cook together, which was half the fun. Also the portions were a bit small... though maybe that's just because my idea of a portion is too big.
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[1] Now, before anybody says anything, yeah, I was a poor student once too. Trust me, I know how to eat a LOT cheaper than that. I remember making $20 last a whole week. Gotta load up on the eggs and rice. Ramen too, but if you're eating a ton of it you gotta throw away at least half of the flavor packets so you don't die of a sodium overdose. Maybe throw a few multivitamins down your throat once in a while too so you don't get scurvy. I actually sort of miss those days.
Have you seen what most people eat when single, and just want some food? It's abhorent.
I have more than a few bachelor friends(or those that use to be), and the food they consume is, well I'd say I wouldn't feed to my dog, but that doesn't quite cover it.
I know they are busy professionals, and I cannot honestly say I have eaten the most top quality foods myself when I have been tired, but they exist from day to day on those things.
For £5 you can get.....a frozen burger and a pint of pepsi from a local pub? I can't think of any restaurant that would have starters this cheap, much less mains.
The demand for me is that it's fresh, delicious and I learn a lot about cooking while making it - it's been 100% worth the money so far.
I've started using Good Eggs for weekly dinner kits with my SO and have found the meals to be tasty, healthy, easy to prepare, easy to clean up, and we enjoy preparing the meal and sitting down to eat together.
We're both fortunate enough to be in high income professions, and the convenience is worth a few extra dollars/meal to us. It doesn't break the bank.
As for the restaurant comparison, sure we could get cheap takeout for $10 per person, but it wouldn't be anymore near as healthy, and it wouldn't involve any cooking together. A similar quality meal at a restaurant would probably be at least $15 per person.
The point being is that, there are people who value the convenience these kits provide. But I am dubious as to whether there are enough to justify Blue Apron's valuation.