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Comment by JumpCrisscross | Hacker News Reader

Beyond Meat is industrial plant-based protein. The wealthy and upper middle class can afford real plants. That means their market is is poor and lower middle-class folks—hence the distribution through fast food and mid-grade grocery channels.

They’re not buying plant-based proteins. (The conscientious are already eating plants.)

Beyond Meat is broken as a mass-market brand. It should be restructured as a niche play.

> young folks already grow up with a very critical attitude towards meat consumption

Statistically insignificant [1].

[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030691922...

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> The wealthy and upper middle class can afford real plants.

I don’t understand this take on what (is / should be) a premium brand.

The whole dismissal doesn’t make sense to me. It’s marketed at well-off former meat eaters.

The poor will live on rice and tofu or pinto beans just like they have for the last hundred plus years.

> don’t understand this take on what (is / should be) a premium brand

It’s not. The premium options for plant-based foods are vast, fresh and more expensive than BM.

Beyond Meat isn’t serving premium. It’s premium to the lowest-grade ground beef. But that’s like saying a basic economy seat is premium to Greyhound. Technically true. But misleading relativism.

> The poor will live on rice and tofu or pinto beans

Globally? Sure. In developed countries, of course not.

The market must be very different in the US. In the UK, Beyond Meat is the most expensive meat free option in my local supermarket, other than one type of fake steak. There are some other premium brands at slightly lower prices, then cheaper brands, and finally supermarket own brands.

> Beyond Meat is the most expensive meat free option in my local supermarket

I think that’s true here too. The point is it’s less expensive than both high-quality meat and very fresh vegetables bred and grown for taste versus weight.

> Globally? Sure. In developed countries, of course not.

Not even the poor immigrants from countries with those food cultures? Really?

> The wealthy and upper middle class can afford real plants.

I have never understood the implicit premise here.

I can get a 4 lb. bag of split yellow peas for $6 CAD locally without even trying to look for a sale; most of my supply has been purchased at about $4. By weight, it's on par with raw ground beef for protein content, and 4 lb. of that would cost several times as much.

> I can get a 4 lb. bag of split yellow peas for $6 CAD locally without even trying to look for a sale

Not as tasty as meat or garden-fresh vegetables.

Says you. My split pea soup is awesome.

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