Hacker News Reader

Comment by ams6110 | Hacker News Reader

I believe this idea would have worked if you had decent marketing.

I'm not convinced. I am surprised to hear it has worked anywhere.

I'm not a gourmet cook by any stretch, but I do cook most of my own meals. I would never buy fresh ingredients online. Shopping for the ingredients, perusing the choices and selecting "the best" unblemished fruits, vegetables, and meats is part of the experience of cooking. I don't want to have someone else or some robot do it and dump it on my doorstep. When I don't care, I just go to a restaurant, which will be cheaper and faster than a service like this could possibly be.

View on HN

People may want the occasional experience of being a cook, without being super dedicated. It's like getting the occasional riding lesson, but never buying a horse. Horse enthusiasts say that caring for the horse, raising it, selecting a saddle, etc. is an integral part of the experience, and they might be right, but that doesn't stop places from succeeding at offering riding lessons.

I also like to cook, but I buy all my vegetables online anyway. I find the online experience good enough, and the convenience totally worth it. I would probably be an infrequent user of this service.

Would you be interested in a service where you could outline a meal plan for say, a week, and then get all the groceries required for those meals? I think the service would be more valuable as something that fusses the traditional on-line grocery shopping experience with this per-meal ingredients offering based off of recipes..

It would also be neat if you could allow people to store customized versions of recipes. Say they like more carrots in a particular soup, etc.

My family uses a service called Green Bean delivery. They deliver fruits, vegetables, and herbs. I don't think they deliver meats yet. We were a little worried that we wouldn't be selecting the fruits and vegetables ourselves but they have excellent quality control. We've never been disappointed with a delivery.

The thing is, they do it right. Once they get the orders, they go directly to the farms and get exactly what they need for delivery each day. That way they never have to deal with spoilage. And they can be picky about the product they buy and later deliver to their customers. And to top it all off, they offer free delivery and are still usually cheaper than shopping at the grocery store. I believe this is profitable for them because they don't have to deal with spoilage.

One of Dinnr's selling points was same day or next day delivery. I think that sort of just-in-time direct from farmer delivery model would have required longer lead times between receiving and fulfilling orders.

For many people that is part of a lifestyle choice, and they tend to live in places where that shopping is easily accessible. Personally, I can do that whilst walking home from work.

I don't believe it's coincidental that the delivery service worked in the least densely populated part of Europe.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com