Blue Apron becomes a penny stock, trading under $1 for the first time
Always seemed a strange business model.
Appealing to people who "want to cook", but doing so by turning yourself into a production-line assembler.
Like saying your want to learn carpentry, by buying some Ikea flat-pack.What confused me (and makes me think I've overlooked something) is why nothing more interesting has come along from the supermarkets. In the UK at least, they're all online and deliver - but they all seem to stick to "buy your ingredients and we'll deliver them".
I'd quite enjoy one that let you browse recipes and would stick all the ingredients in your basket - but then added some intelligence.
e.g. You add the "roast chicken weekend meal" to your cart, and it asks "are you going to eat all that chicken?"
For £5 extra would you like to add some bacon, creme-fraiche, tarragon, frozen-pastry & peas to enable you to make a lovely pie on Monday?
Or asks "what's in your fridge" - here are some recipes and prices for things to use it up?
Could even add some intelligence - I don't like mushrooms, so when recommending a chicken pie and providing a recipe, switches something else into my basket & recipe (leeks are lovely).
Or would further adjust the recipe - you said you needed to feed 8 at the weekend, so I picked the larger lump of meat, and have adjusted the cooking time in the recipe.
Or "Do you own a pressure cooker, a freezer and have 2 hours free this weekend to batch cook some chilli"
Or... basically Blue Apron and the rest seem to be trying to solve a real problem, completely the wrong way.