They a Uber-like venture capital business that is looking to gain a monopoly on food, or whatever?
Trash Future have an episode on them?
Or are they just a new business model on par with Weight Watchers that is getting big due to increasing ability to ship shit quickly and manage just-in-time logistics?
The food is legit good and I'm tempted. I mean, I use Amazon, so it's not like I won't use an evil company, but, like how evil?
all the blue apron recipes are free online: https://www.blueapron.com/cookbook
Good to know. The "here's everything you need" part is the bit I'm most attracted to. Cooking and recipes aren't that hard. Just don't like meal planning tbh
So I tried a few of the boxes of these while I worked at Target this summer, id just defect them out and take them home with me. I liked the pot roast one but the rest sucked, they all cost like 20 dollars for ingredients you could easily buy for cheaper and have more control over. Most of them went unsold, just seemed like a waste of food.
That's literally the only way one should try this product. Kodus on taking the 'wasted food' that's very cool and good 😎
I wish it felt more like stealing because target is fucking evil, but this shit really did not sell, it almost always just got thrown out.
buy local, in bulk, in season, can / freeze what you don't eat.
the meal in a box is bullshit to make you feel like you're being involved in your food, which is true compared to like getting Arby's. it's like how putting together Ikea makes you feel like you built your nightstand. only furniture is sturdy/durable. food is your daily, ephemeral connection to community and place. the meal in a box is an attempt to paper over the industrial food system and make it feel good.
also the logistics of those setups, re: transportation, are wretched and I've heard the production jobs are fucked up.
I'd consider it a replacement for going out to eat at a restaurant, more than groceries for sure. I buy stables and throw stuff together, but rarely bother with a "protein, greens, carb" type meal of the hello fresh type business.
Ooo hold on I remember a video about this gimme a sec.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GQmlZHNA28 Here's a youtube video on how to get Blue Apron shit for way cheaper. Basically in order to upcharge these companies will add weird exotic ingredients that don't really add much to the dish, and can be replaced with cheaper ingredients.
Looks like an interesting channel. I'll check it out Post it over in /c/videos. That place needs love
This is the stupidest I'm baby and can't be bothered to shop or learn to cook shit I ever saw. Way to expensive for poor people too.
I mean I get the educational aspect but, like, YouTube. Plus I'm probably jaded from having to cook as a child because my mom worked nights and from being a line cook for decades. Cooking is definitely something everyone can do. The stakes are pretty low and being is becoming so just try what you like and improvise.
There is no single right way to cook. Just start with what you're comfortable with and be safe.
I haven't heard anything about them being particularly worse than other companies, but I just have to question why someone who's considering it wouldn't just learn to cook.
My main concerns would be:
- Everything is shipped portioned and such, which is going to create a lot of excess packaging
- Not sure exactly how deliveries work, but a grocery run that could last you a week or two would be more efficient than a delivery truck arriving every 1-3 days transportation wise.
One of my goals this year is to create less waste by buying in bulk with reusable containers, and selecting products that use a minimal amount of recyclable packaging. In my case HF/BA would be directly opposed to this objective
They a Uber-like venture capital business that is looking to gain a monopoly on food, or whatever
That's everything now
It costs as much as eating out, creates a ton of extra packaging waste, and enriches useless middlemen. Do not use.
My in-laws bought this for us for a couple of months and I fucking hated it. I love cooking, I do it almost every day, and these things felt like the opposite of cooking. Absolutely soul-sucking.
Their tortillas were good though.
I'm struggling with decisions like this especially with Amazon and fast delivery. At what cost? But then again the onus is put on the individual but does it even matter? At this point out only path to making any difference on climate change seems to be large corporate changes in the energy sector. Finding out we still had one of the hottest years on record and even with coronavirus lockdowns , etc it still didn't seem to matter on our carbon footprint. I offer no hope.
I'm a doomer, for sure. Just looking to enjoy life and minimize the evil I do in the world, but also realize there is do ethical consumption under Capitalism, so got to choose ones battles. Figure I got a few evil coins to spend by minimizing my meat consumption. Plus, it's not like Kroger is a great company either
Yeah it kinda sucks. I contemplated using Instacart curbside pickup to minimize my own traffic in grocery stores. I thought maybe their workers collected groceries and put them out, which would be a pretty great measure in stopping the spread. But I found out their employees are usually forced to go store-to-store, which would increase the spread more than if I just went alone. I don't even care about protecting myself, I wanted to protect others - but this system just harms others even more while keeping me protected. Fuck that shit.
That's the "venture capital trying to build market share" thing. A company like hello fresh only works at scale so they have to market it every where they can, just to focus on growth. Podcast are cheap for the earballs, I'd assume. Hard to parse out how much is normal evil capitalism and how much is off the rails silicon valley capitalism, you know?
Idk i use it because I'm awful at over buying ingredients for something and making waste, have about 0 freezer space in my apartment, and something like meal prepping is a lot for me (maybe its just me, maybe its my ADHD, idk). Plus I come home braindead from work and its nice to have a recipie where all the ingredients and everything is laid out for me so I don't have to think too hard. I'm probably a shitty person who should get gud and learn to cook and meal prep and blah blah blah but fuck I forget my pass to get into the office every other week so im not exactly well put together.
Thanks for the write up. This is how they get you. And by they, I mean Capital. They sell you "solutions" that's may seem like it's solving a problem, but really it's only making things worse. All while ignoring the actual problems of atomization and commodification of our fucking lives
