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Amazon entering the meal kit game (RIP Blue Apron)

G

Guevara

Member
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Amazon's newly-discovered desire to begin offering pre-packaged ingredients for home-cooked meals is already a real thing as a selection of Amazon Meal Kits are available on the company's website. And one user reached out to GeekWire Monday to share his experience with the service.

It's the latest move by the Seattle-based tech giant to reimagine how its customers get food items, coming on the heels of Amazon's bid to acquire the grocery chain Whole Foods for $13.7 billion. Reports of the service sent shares of Blue Apron, the leading meal-kit delivery company that just went public, down more than 11 percent.

Josh Chadd said that the Meal Kits starting showing up in his AmazonFresh search results about a week or two ago; user reviews indicate that the service has been available since late June.

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https://www.geekwire.com/2017/amazo...ed-meal-kits-bites-service-blue-apron-others/

Just send my paycheck directly to Amazon, if old.
 
"user reviews indicate that the service has been available since late June."

Hilarious that it was up for over a week before the press took notice and Blue Apron's stock took a dive.
 
I feel like eventuallly Amazon is going to be looking at an antitrust suit the likes of which not even MS nor Google have seen.
 
Neoweee said:
"user reviews indicate that the service has been available since late June."

Hilarious that it was up for over a week before the press took notice and Blue Apron's stock took a dive.
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It must have been invite only. But I agree. Traders could have made an easy 10% on this.
 
How do they deliver the food and have it not go bad or spoiled while it's sitting in a box? Is it packed with dry ice or something?
 
This service makes no sense for me. Why not order take out? Or just go to the grocery store? I understand its convenient I guess, but it seems like a worse option than both sides of the spectrum.
 
NandoGip said:
Or just go to the grocery store?
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Why go to the grocery store when the grocery store can come to me?

I'm actually really interested in trying things like this out when I move to the US. I'm abysmal at cooking but willing to get better. I don't want to walk around a store looking for ingredients that I'm not familiar with though. Send me everything I need in a nice box, tell me how to cook it, and I'm happy.
 
NandoGip said:
This service makes no sense for me. Why not order take out? Or just go to the grocery store? I understand its convenient I guess, but it seems like a worse option than both sides of the spectrum.
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It's the mid-point between ordering takeout (which is generally not great for you) and actually knowing how to cook and what ingredients to buy.

For people who live alone or with a partner and spend a lot of time working I imagine it helps extra ingredients not spoil before you use them too.
 
I've always wanted to try this stuff but always felt it was kind of weird to have the UPS guy come every single day to deliver my dinner.
 
Cool. I was part of the beta for Amazon Fresh in NY and I assumed that as a result, I couldn't do a free trial of Fresh, but it looks like I can.
 
I don't know that it'll completely kill Blue Apron. My brother gets it, and he lives pretty deep in the country. I can't get Amazon Fresh in the middle of my state's capital city.
 
I don't know if it's just because I do a lot of cooking anyway but this just seems odd to me, kind of like being overcharged for your groceries but having a printout of a recipe chucked in to make up for it?

Couldn't you just look up a recipe on the internet and then just do the shopping yourself on the way home or have it delivered from the supermarket? Either way it's surely going to be cheaper than $10pp, plus you'll likely have excess herbs/spices that you could use for another meal.

As I say, maybe it's because I cook most meals fresh but this just seems expensive to me, especially if you have a family.
 
NandoGip said:
This service makes no sense for me. Why not order take out? Or just go to the grocery store? I understand its convenient I guess, but it seems like a worse option than both sides of the spectrum.
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Teaches you to cook, its cheaper then eating out food of the similar quality. Nothing will beat cheap chinese take out but this also doesnt have like 2000mg of sodium in it.

Also living in a city without a car and walking access to a decent grocery store. The time to get one set of groceries can be over an hour.
 
NandoGip said:
This service makes no sense for me. Why not order take out? Or just go to the grocery store? I understand its convenient I guess, but it seems like a worse option than both sides of the spectrum.
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Well this is more healthy than say fast food or takeout, depending on what is bought. I mean if it's say Chilis or Olive Garden to go, it's like taking microwaved food home, you pay for them heating it up for you

Also most prep is done, you just follow steps and cook
All ingredients sized and portioned out
It's a benefit to get fresh food, cook it yourself quick and not cost much
 
NandoGip said:
This service makes no sense for me. Why not order take out? Or just go to the grocery store? I understand its convenient I guess, but it seems like a worse option than both sides of the spectrum.
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People like to cook you know. Also it's way healthier than take out from shops.

It's a big hit in Germany with Hello Fresh.
 
Amazon now has gathered the resources to be able to:

- Allow you to browse meal kit recipes from their website.
- Choose a meal kit for assembly.
- Choose to have it sent OR have it assembled at a nearby Whole Foods for pickup later that day.
- Walk into a Whole Foods to pick up a box with all the predetermined ingredients to make a meal or series of meals.

Amazon really has the ability to change the game with this move and their acquisition of Whole Foods.
 
entremet said:
Not in this political climate.
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The problem with US antitrust laws as I understand it (and I could be wrong!) is that it's not about competition, it's about price. So the reason Apple got nailed for book price fixing whilst Amazon crushed all their competitors underfoot is that Amazon sells them cheap to the consumer and to the Government that's not an issue even if it means they monopolize the industry.
 
NandoGip said:
This service makes no sense for me. Why not order take out? Or just go to the grocery store? I understand its convenient I guess, but it seems like a worse option than both sides of the spectrum.
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Restaurants are largely trash around me unless you want to drive 35 minutes.

I like cooking but it's impossible to buy reasonable amounts of certain ingredients that you might not want more than a meals worth of.
 
adj_noun said:
Step 1: Go to Blue Apron's cookbook

Step 2: Write down ingredients

Step 3: Buy ingredients

Step 4: Cook
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I live near a grocery store and it takes 30 minutes to walk there, peruse, checkout and get home.

Costco almost 45 minutes.

I mean if you know your recipe down pat and you know which sauces are good and you have a stacked spice rack and condiments of course that's way easier.

If you don't then it's much easier to just leave all the portion measuring and meat cleaning to them?
 
dl77 said:
I don't know if it's just because I do a lot of cooking anyway but this just seems odd to me, kind of like being overcharged for your groceries but having a printout of a recipe chucked in to make up for it?

Couldn't you just look up a recipe on the internet and then just do the shopping yourself on the way home or have it delivered from the supermarket? Either way it's surely going to be cheaper than $10pp, plus you'll likely have excess herbs/spices that you could use for another meal.

As I say, maybe it's because I cook most meals fresh but this just seems expensive to me, especially if you have a family.
Click to expand...

It's kind of a halfway step for people who want to cook, but don't have much time or ingredients on hand. I suspect that these services are replacing people eating out more rather than people cooking at home more.
 
Publix is rumored to be entering the market at under $10 in an Uber partnership. That will also further undermine blue apron.
 
Carl said:
Christ, why not just order the ingredients from a supermarket?
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This is for those who can't make it to the store

This isn't for families or students or regular people who go buy their own groceries

This for the millennium crowd or couple who have busy lives and can't really do the normal things and amazon supplies them with the support
I mean this is through Amazon Fresh, so those people paying for that service already would easily buy this too!

It's like an add-on for them
This isn't going to be Daily Deals or Lightning Deals of Steak and Potatoes for $13.99 delivered to you quickly. Only 2500 in stock!
 
I understand the cooking at home part and all that jazz, but this service doesn't seem worth paying triple the cost just for the convenience compared to going to the grocery store
 
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