Gobble Promises to Help Customers Make Delicious Meals in 10 Minutes or Less
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I haven't dove down into fraud statutes too much but I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that when someone takes payment they have a legal obligation to verify the credit card holder actually authorized the payment they collect. At the very least Visa,etc,'s lawyers will care. There are also a whole bunch of other statutes that can apply too.
Issue a chargeback and report them, that's beyond shady.
You never think "Do X every week" is going to be difficult to code, but man, when I actually coded that ... a lot of things can go wrong in subtle ways that you don't really consider in advance until a customer clicks something or uses features in a sequence nobody's ever stumbled onto before.
As for the credit card thing - easily explained as "Submitted info to Stripe, but not the actual form, backend system got confused"
MVP LYFE!
Disclaimer: I never worked at Gobble, I don't know if this is what's happening, but I painfully know how this can happen
Someone abandoning the checkout process is absolutely the first thing you should consider in advance.
There's a lot of things you should do, but the truth is that making modern async webapps with a million moving parts is hard.
I build modern async web apps for a living and it's not that hard. I ran eCommerce for a medium-size software company (as a part of my duties) for several years. If you find an ecommerce application difficult to maintain, it is probably a result of poor design.
HN has built in rate-limiting. Sometimes you have to wait for the reply button to show.
And there's eCommerce and then there's eCommerce. Recurring weekly subscriptions with moving parts are hard. Amazon Subscribe&Save is a mess and I haven't heard of anyone who's had a good experience with that. And Amazon probably devoted much more engineering power to that problem than people at a startup can.
Sometimes hardness isn't a result of poor design, but the result of things being complex. Especially if (as in a startup) your definition of "things" is changing rapidly because you're still not sure what exactly you are building.
If you are doing something so brain dead as charging customers who abandon the checkout process that means there is a huge problem with how you are running your shop. When you charge a CC you have to make absolutely SURE you get permission first, that's like really important. From a moral standpoint, a legal standpoint, and a "I want to keep my agreements with MasterCard/Visa/etc" standpoint.
So it's your #2 priority then...
* extravagant, simply incredible amounts of packaging. There was easily a 4:1 ratio of packaging to food. I had to stop using the service out of packaging shame
* The produce was often not that good because it needs to withstand transport and storage. The tomatoes were faint pink and could have probably made it through a baseball game without a lot of damage
* It made me try recipes and ingredients that I wasn't used to, which I enjoyed. I feel like it's a kind of Guitar Hero for cooking.
My understanding is that Gobble is taking this stuff one step further, by doing the prep work. I'll be interested to see how they address the problem of having stuff be freshly prepared and transportable/storable at the same time.
This stuff gets marketed at beginning cooks, which seems unwise. If you're just getting started, fancy restaurant meals are not the way to go. Make an omelette or two.
Most of cooking is about mastering a few fundamental skills and developing a feel for how food reacts to heat. Better to ruin your first dozen omelettes (and similar simple dishes) and build up your base of experience than try to autotune your way through these elaborate dinners.
However - I don't think these services are trying to teach you how to cook any more than boxed mac and cheese is. They are for the "I want to have a home cooked meal but I don't want to make it." types.
Speaking of eggs, I didn't know what I was doing wrong with them for a long time, they weren't bad by any means, just everyone else did them better. Then I was having a conversation with my mom about how she makes better eggs than me. She told me "eggs are done before they are done." Now I cook eggs like a champ.
My own egg epiphany was "cook them on the lowest heat you can, until you think the waiting will make you insane."
But you also make an excellent point—ask your mom (or some other person in your life who cooks well)!
Using my original (larger) pan, the eggs cooked through so quickly that I had a very narrow window to hit.
I think the most important bit of advice on this thread though is: plan to throw a couple away. Eggs are very cheap. An easy way to get hung up cooking is to assume you only get one shot.
* Packaging: it just takes a bit of planning to deal with. Personally I fold the cardboard box and it fits nicely in my outdoor garbage can for paper (which is recycled), and I make sure the ice packs are re-used by giving them away[1]. So I only have to trash the foam (approximately 1x8 feet of foam every week).
* Quality: I am blown away by the quality of the meals. It is similar or better in taste to what is offered by a trendy restaurant rated 3½-4 stars on Yelp in my area (San Francisco). Even my wife would agree and she is a picky eater :) Yes sometimes I receive a lettuce or parsley that does not looks that great, but it is rare (<3-5% of the ingredients).
* Difficulty: I find the Blue Apron instructions very easy to follow, and I only had very basic cooking experience before (frying steaks, making rice and pasta, etc). I have never messed up the cooking of a single meal or found any one to be difficult. Just follow the instructions precisely and I believe anyone can do it.
[1] I accumulate 4 weeks's worth of ice packs, then put them in a box on my doorstep and post them on Craigslist in the "free stuff" section - someone usually picks them up in the next 12-24 hours.
In particular, the packaging is a big concern for me. I'm actually in the works of landing a huge partnership that will allow us to easily pick up all of our packaging when we drop of each week's current box all across the state (just like the milkman). We're so excited to be able to re-use all the boxes, ice packs, and insulation. We'd be the first in the industry to take this big step. Look out for this announcement in the next couple weeks :)
I've never signed up for their $$$ervice but I've tried a couple of their recipes. Sure, a few of them have hard-to-find ingredients or a spice blend that they don't share details on, but the rest are very possible to source yourself.
I can cook a microwave burrito or a ramen package if I chose to much quicker and considerably cheaper than you can get a burrito or chinese takeout. This doesn't mean taquerias are a ridiculous concept.
It seems that what people might want are 1) simple guide to what basics I should have in the kitchen (spices, oils, etc) and 2) simple recipes where I buy the chicken/fish/veggies fresh. Probably not a fundable idea and likely already exists (although I haven't quite seen it).
(I know I risk being down-voted, but this seems relevant.)
My meals even where there's excess that's tossed cost generally 1-3 dollars per sitting.
12 dollar meals is completely absurd.
A great thing about braises is that they're bulletproof. Almost the only thing you can do to mess them up is to pull them too early. 4-6 hours in a slow oven. Done when you bother to check and the meat pulls easily with a fork. We do carbonnade overnight.
No knife skills required.
... not that I'm recommending the kit. Don't do that, if only because it'll drive you to try to cook fussy stuff.
It's all about a little planning and getting into the habit.
I found that while cooking, I could watch some tv shows, or listen to some pod casts, etc...
Free means $0, not $0 + $n.
So if you liken it to getting take-out, that isn't that crazy, maybe a little high. They also seem to have a lot of variety, and might help people segway into doing their own cooking.
I can see the value in it. If you compare it to buying the raw ingredients yourself and then cooking them, yes, it is expensive. If you compare it to take-out (which is a convenience commodity, like this) it is within the ballpark (depends which takeout).
Also locally to me there isn't much selection of healthy take-out. I mean if you want a burger then you have tons of selection. You might even be able to find a solid salad. But beyond that? Meh.
From a quick Crunchbase & YC search, I see Instacart, Sprig, Chefday, Munchery, Plated, PlateJoy, Spoonrocket, Postmates, Goldbely, Doordash, Plate, Zerocater, Delivery. com, Orderup, Tasteio, Zesty, Ezcater, Table Runner, and Gobble.
I think most of these players serve similar geographies, and while they all have their own unique spin (which usually involves speed of delivery, pricing, or ingredients vs. already cooked), that seems like a lot of competition in an industry with tiny margins.
1. Learn three or four fast single-pan recipes so that you can do them without this hand-holding.
2. Eat more things out of cans, for days you want variety beyond your standard pan dishes- Just because it's in a can does NOT mean it's unhealthy, if you choose the right cans.
3. Take the money you saved in steps #1 and #2 and use it to eat meals prepared by a real chef in a real restaurant, with real fresh ingredients.Most things that come out of cans, taste like the can they were in. Canned vegetables are terrible. I'd go frozen prepared veg over canned.
http://bpafreecannedfood.wordpress.com/bpa-free-canned-food-...
I first tried Gobble when I saw a trial card over at Zombie Runner on California Ave. Back then, Gobble delivered fully cooked dinners at 7pm on weekday nights. I used Gobble about 3 nights a week for a few months. Dinner went from something I had to figure out, to the highlight of my evening. We'd get to eat something new and delicious a few times a week without playing out local restaurants or the handful of dishes that we'd normally cook. Gobble actually improved my relationship with my girlfriend.
At the time, my primary complaint was that I had to reheat the food and eat out of a takeout container.
About a month ago, Gobble switched to delivering these meal kits. Having just met Ooshma in person, I (naturally) gave her a really hard time about this. Cooking takes too long and I have other things to do.
There were fewer choices than before, I needed to wash a pan (sometimes two, if pasta was involved), and I needed to actually get off my computer to help make dinner happen.
That was 15 meals ago.
I still think about the first Gobble dinner kit I made in back August. I actually woke up the next morning thinking about how good perfectly the fresh mozzarella balanced the spicy kick of the chili flakes.
Dinner-Kits Gobble is the best Gobble yet. Now I actually eat dinner like a real person. Sometimes dinner takes a little longer than 10 minutes to prepare, end to end, and sometimes it needs more than one pan, but it ends up tasting so good that I feel stupid complaining about either of those things.
Out of 15 meals, about 8 of them have been wish-there-were-more-leftovers-amazing about 5 of them were good enough order again, and a couple were just ok. All of them were worth way more than the $12 and ~10 minutes of effort.
I have never had a problem with Gobble that a message to Ooshma didn't fix.
Yesterday I got an email from Gobble with 3 invites for 100% free boxes. I've got two left. I think you still need to sign up to use it, but I'm pretty sure you can cancel immediately. If you want one of the invites, first come, first served.
[1] Unless a double espresso and a nice piece of bread counts as a meal.
Therefore I'd love to take you up on the Gobble invite offer. I need to try this. -> swizec@swizec.com
About allergies: We are adding that information to next week's menu (among other exciting improvements!). Stay tuned and you'll see a full ingredient list and allergy labels starting tomorrow.
This is more expensive or just as expensive than takeout.
It has all the downsides of home cooking with ZERO of the upsides
So as far as I can see they are making takeout more expensive and less convenient.
- It tastes better. There IS a dramatic difference in the taste when something is served hot straight from the pan as opposed to something that had been cooked 45 minutes ago and has been winding its way towards you in a brown bag
- You can control ingredients like butter/oil/spice etc. You can add/remove and customize it to your taste.
- It is fun. You can cook something tasty and unique and interesting and learn how to cook new dishes.
Perhaps because to me if I am going to cook something, I'm going to cook something that is to my tastes as well as how much cooking as I'm feeling like doing today. I see recipes as suggestions more than anything.
I also don't like my food hot. It tastes much much better when you let it sit for 10 minutes or so.
I love cooking, but I'm not great at it yet and probably never will be a master chef. Over the year, I have learned (the hard way sometimes) ingredients that work well together and one that don't. The whole experience of going to the supermarket, preparing food and cooking it at is somewhat therapeutic really. The best part is when it works out so well you feel satisfied...something like programming and you get it to work, bug free.
I'm sure we here have heard the of the phrase "Cooking is like programming", it really is in a way.
But I guess we live in an age where people think its a chore. Cooking is a craft, just like every other skill. Take some time out and learn the basics of cooking and you will be fine.
I'm fine having sorrel or scallops pre-packaged for me, but getting a triple-boxed egg or an onion wrapped in bubble tape just felt sad.
Oddly, the one thing they don't provide for you is cooking oil. Who are these high-income loners living in a bare apartment with just a single bottle of olive oil?
Just keep a dozen eggs in your fridge all the time.
To me the salient difference is between stuff I can easily pick up at the corner store (eggs, milk, flour) and things that it really is helpful to get in a kit box (premeasured hoisin sauce, blue potatoes, daikon radish).
The key is re-using the boxes, ice packs, and insulation liners, all of which we are setting up with our new delivery+return system for delivering a box and picking up a box each time we visit a customer.
Putting pre-cut ingredients in a pan for a specified amount of time is not "cooking".
You can get pretty good / excellent meals that have been separately cooked sous-vide in a factory, that you simply reheat in a microwave -- they're much faster, much cheaper, probably better tasting than these pretend-cook meals (and just as healthy).
Give me a break, people. You are not busy, you are just wasting your time being distracted by your phone! It's about priorities.
For me the "annoying" part of cooking is actually the mess I make that I have to clean up afterwards. Not even spills, just dirty pans/knives/cutting boards. Of course I usually end up with a little bit of spill anyways, I'm messier in the kitchen than most others.
If I was going to spend $12/person a meal I would get delivery or takeout especially since I would have to clean the counters and do dishes afterwards.
And.... the plastic!
It can be a very specific cut of meat. A less common herb (fresh). "Ethnic" spices. A distinct type of dairy (which can be simply something like whole milk. I rarely use this, and never buy it in a normal shopping trip), such as a unique type of cheese. A strange vegetable. A very specific oil (even something like peanut or sesame oil would be odd in a normal house, though the moment you open it the expiry clock starts ticking). Etc. And if I do buy them, I usually have to buy them in such a quantity that it makes the meal very expensive, because I know the end result is that I throw out 9/10ths of it, having used the small amount in the recipe.
I usually just skip the recipe, not trusting my judgment on potential substitutions. In the odd case I do pursue it, the shopping experience is usually time consuming and brutal, and very expensive, to make one meal.
There is a business, or at least social, model somewhere in this. e.g. a "menu club" where everyone works through the recipes of a Jamie Oliver book, ideally in a more sustainable manner -- e.g. everyone stops by a location with their own containers and takes the right quantity from the bulk and economically purchased ingredients, taking a little vial of peanut oil, an eggplant, three anchovies, and on and on.
Then I have to trim up the protein, season that and set aside, wash those utensils, and move on to actually cooking.
Any meal with more than three major ingredients, meat, veg, and starch, I save for the weekend.
Your kitchen isn't my kitchen. The stuff I find important for my needs isn't the stuff you find important for your needs.
No, you don't have to spend almost $30 on a damn strainer!
I'm a big fan of only buying the stuff you actually need when you need it, not the stuff you might need in the future because someone else told you you need it. If you find yourself needing a blender, buy one. If you find the food you like to cook doesn't require one, don't buy one.
This guy says get a stand mixer and not a slow cooker! WHOA THERE! I use a slow cooker all the time and never once in my life did I think about getting a stand mixer. The other thing is I (and probably 90% of everyone else I know) don't have room for a stand mixer. I don't even know a single person who has one due to their bulkiness and expense.
And a kitchen scale because "Professional chefs measure many things by weight rather than volume since ingredient density can vary?" Um, well I mostly guesstimate my ingredients and my food tastes just as good. I even guesstimate some things when baking which people say will RUIN YOUR CAKE but I never had a problem with it. I also have never used a wooden spoon in my kitchen.
anyway. carry on.