Summary: This post provides a Blue Apron cost analysis and recommends a cost-effective alternative.
In late November I went back to my hometown to attend my Aunt’s funeral.
I stayed with my parents and while there my mom informed me that she had just ordered a package of three meals from Blue Apron.
Upon hearing the details I was immediately skeptical (especially regarding the price), but I decided to wait it out and see what happened.
BTW, my mom had paid $20 for three meals for two people (six meals total) as part of an introductory offer. Regular price is $59.94 for six (or $9.99 each).
Blue Apron Arrives
The next day, the package arrived and mom and I unwrapped it together.
She had ordered three meals — one with steak, one with chicken, one with eggs.
We unpacked everything bit by bit. It was nicely wrapped, nothing was broken, and all the ingredients appeared fresh. She also got three recipes telling how to make these dishes.
After we unpacked everything my first thought was, “Is this it?” The amount of food seemed like something my wife and I would eat in a meal and a half or two meals — certainly not three meals. The portions seemed way too small.
But at $20 it seemed like an “ok” value. At $60, it was an entirely different story.
Two Meals Made
After I left my mom did make two of the meals and said they were “ok”. My dad is more of a meat and potatoes guy and Blue Apron seems to specialize in fancier fare. She said that the recipes took more time than Blue Apron had estimated and more time than what she’d normally spend because they were quite complicated.
They still hadn’t eaten the egg dish for one reason — there was no meat in it! I’m not sure why she even ordered it.
We talked about it and I reiterated how it seemed like a bad deal financially to me (my dad and I had joked about this when I was home). She cancelled any future deliveries and we moved on.
Meal Kit in the News
A few weeks later I saw a piece on Facebook (can’t remember if it was an ad or a friend had posted it.) It was a CBS news story comparing the cost of meal prep kits (as they called them) to buying food at the grocery store. They looked at Blue Apron, Chef’d, Hello Fresh and Home Chef. Their key findings:
Chef’d offered the most variety including recipes from the American Diabetes Association and Weight Watchers.
But at a cost of $56 for four entrees, the store was a lot cheaper – costing just $43-dollars. A savings of nearly $13.
The store was also cheaper compared to Hello Fresh, which cost $69 dollars for the box of six entrees. But the store was $61, $8 less.
There were savings with both Home Chef and Blue Apron. Four entrees, including delivery, were $50 at Home Chef. The store was $57. A $7 savings buying the meal kit.
Six entrees from Blue Apron cost $60. At the store, ingredients were $65-dollars. $5 dollars in savings with Blue Apron.
No matter which one you use – if you keep the price per meal to $10 or less – it’s likely buying the kit will be less expensive than buying all of those ingredients at the store.
Wow. As I type I realize this is yet another example of someone in the media doing a story on something they know nothing about. I’m putting it into my “not experts” category for sure. Have these people ever planned and shopped for a meal? $10 is a good price per meal? Remember that later as math will prove they know little about the topic.
But we’ll get to the pricing issue in a minute.
Not How You Plan and Shop
The flaw with the CBS story was that they let the box kit providers set the menu. Then they went out and bought the exact items with two major price disadvantages for the grocery store:
- There was limited sale pricing/couponing to lower prices (which always happens when you get food that you just “have to have” and don’t really pay attention to the price).
- They had to buy more than what they needed for this one meal because that’s how things are packaged at the grocery store. If a kit called for a tablespoon of something, at the store they had to buy a bottle of it because the store does not sell tablespoons of anything. This of course costs more but you’d also have it left over for future meals. Any savvy shopper could tell you that the cost-per-use would be way lower with the store item.
In addition, most people don’t plan meals this way (at least people who don’t want to spend a fortune on food). They think about what they want/like, then look at ads to see what they can get for a decent price. And this is what they buy.
Even with these disadvantages, the store won two out of four times. This alone should give a big hint that these kits are way over-priced.
But as I said, we’ll get to pricing in a minute.
Blue Apron Marketing
Even with the CBS piece the issue was out of my mind until I saw a Blue Apron marketing page (this one was an ad on Facebook for sure) where they claimed, “Research shows that shopping at the grocery store is 70% more expensive than Blue Apron.”
At this point, I hadn’t run the numbers but simple math, gut instinct, an awareness of how pricing works, and knowledge of what things cost said Blue Apron was way more expensive than buying at the grocery store.
Here are some highlights from the article/marketing piece:
Is this convenience more cost-effective than grocery shopping in the long-run? The answer is yes, according to a study we conducted with Nielsen.
We worked extensively with researchers at Nielsen to determine how much Blue Apron customers spend (or in this case, save!) in comparison to shopping at the grocery store. Here’s what we discovered: On average you save $40 per week with Blue Apron.
Uh, no. No way!!! I knew there was a catch in here somewhere and I didn’t have to read much more to find it:
Here’s how the study was conducted: We recreated 12 weeks of Blue Apron recipes (2-person plan) using the Nielsen database national average prices from traditional grocery stores. While the price of Blue Apron was consistent week after week ($59.94/week for 3 meals), the average cart of groceries for three meals serving two people each was $103.07. Grocery prices for each week fluctuated but were on average 70% more expensive than Blue Apron.
We looked at the prices of ingredients exactly as they sold (e.g. herbs had to be bought as they were sold in a big bunch, condiments had to be bought in their full containers, etc.). However, if specific ingredients were not readily available, we substituted alternatives as long as they were approved by our Culinary team.
In general, specialty condiments you wouldn’t necessarily use on a regular basis (think capers and spices) can be pricey or difficult to track down, not to mention they often go unused for months, taking up space in your pantry or fridge (hello, giant bunch of cilantro of which you only used a pinch!). This brings up another advantage Blue Apron has over the grocery store: less food waste.
By using Blue Apron, you’re not just paying for convenience and incredible meals; you’re actually saving more money than you would shopping for groceries and reducing your food waste in the process—in other words, a true win-win!
In this case, Blue Apron gave the stores four disadvantages:
- There was no consideration for alternative meals as noted above. Blue Apron picked what food would be priced. Anyone think they tested a hundred different combinations to come up with the ones that showed them in the best light? Of course they did. I was in marketing for 30 years and you ALWAYS portray your product in the best possible light.
- No coupons or sale prices. I’m sure most of the food was purchase at full retail. I worked with Nielsen data for YEARS (decades really) and you can make that data say whatever you want to if you’re sharp enough. For instance, the Nielsen database has many different price fields — retail price, promotion price, price on feature ad, price on display, etc. You can use whatever price you want to get whatever answer you want.
- The grocery store items were purchased “exactly as they sold”. In other words, if a recipe called for two eggs (which my mom’s egg dish did), Blue Apron charged themselves for two eggs. But the store was charged for a dozen eggs since that’s “exactly as they [were] sold”. A bit of ketchup from Blue Apron compared to a bottle of ketchup at the store. A couple leaves of lettuce from Blue Apron compared to a head of lettuce at the store. Of course the store cost more! But it probably had three times the food (in weight) purchased as well!!!
- There were specialty condiments used. These are some of the most expensive things you can buy in a grocery store. And if you’re comparing a pinch of this and a spoon of that to a bag of this and a bottle of that, the costs are going to go through the roof for the larger-sized options.
So if you tilt the table as far as you can in one way, sure the other option looks better. But facts have a way of ruining a party.
Cost Analysis of Blue Apron
Let’s just consider a few facts and some basic math:
- Blue Apron is marketing itself as a cheaper alternative to buying food from the grocery store.
- The cost of Blue Apron is $9.99 per meal. Let’s round it off to $10 to make the math easy.
- Let’s assume you had Blue Apron for every meal for a year for a family of four. That’s 4 people * $10 cost * 3 meals a day * 365 days = $43,800.
- Let’s assume you had Blue Apron for every supper (evening meal) for a year for a family of four. That’s 4 people * $10 cost * 1 meal a day * 365 days = $14,600.
- So if Blue Apron was a better deal than the grocery store (by 70%!!!) then I should save a ton of money by using it, right?
Well, look at the numbers. $43k per year for a family of four is out of control. But that could be considered an unfair comparison since Blue Apron is more of a meal replacement for lunch and supper (not breakfast).
If we only take SUPPER alone, the annual cost of Blue Apron for four people is over $14k! That doesn’t include any spending for breakfast, lunch, snacks, eating out, etc. Yikes!
I looked at Quicken and here are the annual costs we had the past three years for four people (grocery purchases plus eating out):
- $10,780
- $12,172 (this is the year we ate out 2-3 times per week because of hectic schedules)
- $10,765
They are all well below $14k. And remember, the $14k includes only supper meals. So it’s probably more like $20k when you add in other meals and eating out.
And I guarantee you that I got way more food (in weight) for my money than what $14k at Blue Apron would buy me!
In other words, Blue Apron is AT LEAST TWICE AS EXPENSIVE as the combination of shopping at the grocery store and eating out. If you compared it to shopping at the grocery store alone, it would be even more expensive (as we all know eating out costs more than eating at home)! And if you did it on a food-weight basis, it would get even more expensive.
BTW, when we eat out, the four of us spend anywhere from $25 at Taco Bell to $50 at Olive Garden and the like (yes, we use coupons). That means Blue Apron’s costs of $40 a meal for us (assuming the amount of food is the same — which it is not) is about the cost of eating out. Now, just on a basic gut check level, do you think eating out is pricier than buying food from the grocery store?
Bottom-line: Blue Apron is VERY expensive!
Other Data Says It’s Expensive Too
That’s just the information from my household. What does the USDA say about food costs? Here’s their chart of annual food costs at home (i.e. food bought at a grocery store and prepared at home) at four different income levels (family of four with two kids — I used monthly costs and annualized them):
- Thrifty plan — $7,806
- Low-cost plan — $10,255
- Moderate-cost plan — $12,775
- Liberal-cost plan — $15,518
These numbers do assume that all food is purchased and eaten at home (no eating out). So we’re in the middle of the pack (especially considering our kids are older and eat more than the kids used in this example).
It also shows that Blue Apron, which is $14k+ for ONE MEAL a day only, is way over-priced, even on a liberal food-spending plan.
Blue Apron Advantages, Disadvantages, and Alternatives
There’s no denying that Blue Apron has some advantages such as:
- Eliminates shopping and meal planning
- Portion control
- Gives recipes you can keep and create on your own
- Unique cuisine
But there are disadvantages as well:
- Small portion sizes
- Longer prep time
- Food is too “exotic” for those who prefer basic American fare
But the biggest disadvantage is cost. It costs SUBSTANTIALLY MORE than shopping at the grocery store. It’s more comparable to eating out.
The fact that they try to skew the numbers and say they are less expensive than the grocery store is disingenuous at best. On that basis alone I will never order from them.
So what’s the alternative? If you want to eat at home, buy your meals at the grocery store. You can save time and money if you work your shopping in to one big trip a week or so. And heaven knows there are more than enough easy recipes out there to keep your cooking fresh for years. You can then supplement this with occasional restaurant visits as you like. The combination of these two will be well below the cost of Blue Apron.
What’s your take on meal prep kits? Do you use them? Why or why not?
photo credit: stadtbraut bruschetta via photopin (license)
Coopersmith says
LOL… this is a good analysis. There are so many things I could say but won’t. To over generalize people are lazy. People do not want to plan meals ahead, get the ingredients together and make a complex meal. Heck I have even done the take out because I was tired. That is why take out and eating out is popular in that we want that “ food experiences”. Food experiences should be a treat and not your everyday meal. Granted there are some meals I would rather not make because of the time an effort but I am knowledgeable enough to make like a lasagna from scratch if I so choose or just about any meal I eat. I guess that extra cost in meal kits this is the price you pay because you don’t want to think and plan a meal.
On a different note is that media outlets you are talking about are in high rent districts. While out in LA, a meal out which was not to complex, would cost a bigger chunk of money that in my home. So my $8 bar burger meal would set me back almost double at $14. So when a reporter see that these meals only cost $7ish that is one heck of a deal if you are use to a $14 bar burger and they don’t have to think. Hence the problem. They perpetuate the fake new belief that it is cheaper because to them it is.
Thanx for point out this example in educating that when you hear something in the news ask yourself. “ is this really true or is it another one of the fake news stories everyone complains about” because it does sound like a good marketing campaign to make you believe it is cheaper.
ESI says
That’s a good point about food cost differences in various cities. While Blue Apron may be a terrible deal in Des Moines, it may only be a bad deal in LA.
K D says
I have not been tempted to try them, even with all the promotions available. I can’t get past what I assume is a lot of negative ecological impact from these meals. I didn’t even attempt the price comparisons because I was sure it was cheaper to cook at home. I read almost 20 years ago about the Pantry Principle of meal planning in The Tightwad Gazette and have loosely followed it since. Basically you stock up on items at their rock bottom prices and then plan your meals based on what you have on hand.
One of the things that we have found with eating out is that often a meal contains enough food for two or more people. We will sometimes order takeout and split a meal and/or have leftovers. This further lowers the price of a meal.
ESI says
I didn’t think of that. There was a lot of packaging/materials in the shipment.
Greg says
Well said.
If Blue Apron is a bridge from eating out (expensive) to cooking at home (cheap) for someone with little cooking experience, then great. But as a long term meal source it is a terrible deal. Here in the Midwest my household’s food costs (grocery + eating out + garden) average less than $4000 per year for two adults. There is an enormous cost gap between that and these meal plans.
D. R. Hunter says
I do a lot of my own scratch cooking at home, but I really don’t have an exotic set of dishes that I fix. I’m thinking of the idea of doing each of these on the first time trial basis only, while they’re still offering massive discounts while there are way too many competitors in this field. Some day, there will be a shakeout, and the promo pricing will vanish. And I expect per meal prices to go upwards.
But for now, I can think of it as a hands-on cooking school for foods that I would normally not try on my own without some encouragement. And it is very possible that I may be able to snag a few “come back, we miss you” promotions from them, furthering my education. It’s one thing to watch a TV show on Food Network and say to yourself, “Hmm, that looks interesting,” and another to have it all right in front of you to work on.
H.N. says
I used Blue Apron for a few months — off and on, because you can skip weeks — specifically to learn cooking skills. I never learned to cook when I was younger and have a lot of anxiety in the kitchen as a result. BlueApron is WAY cheaper than cooking classes, and more flexible.
Aside from the article you quote above, I’ve never seen Blue Apron try to position themselves as cheaper than the store…their business model is based on convenience, variety, healthy ingredients, etc. And on all those fronts, I think they succeed, more or less. On cost of ingredients alone, *of course* they’ll never win, or even come close. They have to package and ship the stuff; how could it possibly be cheaper than grocery shopping?
Fwiw, I’m now moving on to a different (identically priced) service — Home Chef — because BA doesn’t offer low-carb options, and I got tired of trying to work around for that. At the point that I feel comfortable in the kitchen (not there yet), I’ll transition to meal planning and shopping for myself; but in the meantime, I really love these services. Beats eating out or eating poorly, which is basically what I’ve been doing until now.
ESI says
Yeah, if they hadn’t started putting Facebook ads on my page touting how they save people money, I probably would have let the issue die.
But once they did, it just seemed so dishonest to me. I’m a marketing guy after-all, so trying to make your product sound good is always a balance — how to be truthful but compelling. They just crossed the line with me in this case.
If it works for you, then I’m happy for you. You’re doing it for specific reasons (eating better) and it’s working, so congrats. If you were doing so to try and save money, then there are likely better options.
FYI, I’m cutting down on carbs too. Bring on the meat!!!!! 😉
Max Your Freedom says
I have always wondered about the numbers behind blue apron and reality. Thanks for saving me the mental bandwidth and summarizing it so nicely. We tried blue apron’s free 1 week trial, and I immediately felt the same way when I saw the delivered package. Portions were way too small, recipes were complicated, and I found myself doing twice as many dishes on top of it all. My wife liked the idea of it, but I couldn’t get past the pricing. We spend roughly $300 a month on groceries at our household (2 adults and a 7 year old), plus another $400-500 eating out on weekends, simply because we enjoy food. At the high end that’s still only $9,600 a year for all meals, and we could easily cut that by another $2,500 if we stopped going out. Your analysis quantified my gut feeling, which was that blue apron was just a bad deal. Thanks again!
JayCeezy says
ESI, you really know how to bring the analysis! You know both accounting and marketing, thanks for giving us the benefits of your practical knowledge.
I do hear radio commercials for Blue Apron on Sirius XM, and the target market appears to be for singles, busy professionals, and those in need of ‘portion-control’ if you know what I mean, and I think you do. (“No more lonely takeout! No more time wasted stuck in the checkout line! Healthy food prepared without waste!”)
A family member uses Blue Apron (and similar) occasionally, as they are caring for another disabled family member. They are unable to go out to restaurants, and even shopping at the market is problematic between the driving, parking, moving through the aisles, and check-out. So the benefit to them is in the time-and-convenience. A good deal for them, but, as you rightly point out, the service is not for everyone.
ESI says
Yes, I could see how in a case like you note above that it’s a worthwhile service, especially when the alternatives are limited.
DIY$ says
I LOVE how you break this down.
We tried Blue Apron a while back and felt similar. When we tried it I feel like they were advertising themselves to be an alternative to eating out, which appealed to us since we wanted restaurant-like meals but didn’t want the added cost of a babysitter or the hassle of bringing kids to a restaurant. Prep time was a little bit longer than advertised but wasn’t too onerous, but we did get some dishes that I never would have ordered from a menu and were only ‘ok’.
The other giveaway that it is expensive is the sheer number of copycat companies that have been popping up that do the same thing as Blue Apron.
The Green Swan says
I love the thorough analysis and your take on it. Crazy to think of the cost for every meal for the whole year!
I will say that I’ve been a Blue Apron customer for maybe two years now. My wife and I have a box delivered about once a month. We see it as a lot of the advantages you laid out and have always compared it to the cost of dining out, not replacing or grocery budget.
Especially with a two year old now, we aren’t dining out as much, we enjoy trying new meals, we enjoy the time together prepping the meals, and we enjoy the convenience. And also, we have remade a number of the meals multiple times for ourselves or when we have dinner guests and they have always loved it.
The portions are perfect for us and we even have leftovers sometimes (we must not be big eaters). But same goes for dining out, we’d often share a meal and an app or get two meals and take home leftovers.
All in all, we’ve enjoyed it for what it is and plan on continuing with it for now. As a matter of fact, we got one delivered on Thursday!
Thanks again for the great analysis, ESI.
Full Time Finance says
We’ve used other services that are like blue apron except slightly cheaper. Usually we’ve done it when it’s on sale. The motivation in our case was to replace eating out by giving us at home alternative. Unfortunately that didn’t work out as we ended up still doing the same admittedly low amount of eat out as before. The service covered grocery store food which was not a good trade-off. As I sit back and think about it the reason is why we eat out. My family eats out for convenience not different tastes. My wife is a great cook with a recipe list a mile long. So we already get that. These services were no more convenient then buying at the grocery store. We’ve hence stopped buying.
Arrgo says
Maybe if you get a deal on it and want to try it for fun thats ok. But I dont see how it is really saving you money. Its like nobody knows how to cook a basic meal for themselves anymore. I’ve bought some of those frozen pouched meals in the bag on sale and they are ok. But you dont get that much meat in them either. Many sandwiches at the fast food places are now the size of a hockey puck. I usually dont buy any unless I have a BOGO coupon. The portion size of everything is shrinking but they keep charging you more. Take note of the oz size in coffee cans, candy bars, and even frozen pizzas. I’ve noticed how they have shrunk over the years. I fight back by buying less often or look to stack coupons with other promotions etc. I dont like corporate america trying to control my wallet. And of coarse, I just try to find deals at the grocery store and cook at home much more now.
Jeno says
All this helps if we have the deal, otherwise it will cost more than the Grocery store purchase.
Lisa says
When I entered early retirement this past summer 🙂 I had the grand idea to try every one of these services over several weeks to get the promotional free meals and to see what the fuss was all about. I got as far as trying Blue Apron and Sun Basket. I found that I really resented having these pre-planned meals, sitting in my frig, that I had to commit to because I didn’t want to waste them. I also forgot to skip one week and ended up with a shipment I didn’t want :s I definitely liked Sun Basket better than Blue Apron…better recipes, quality, less carbs, but as others have mentioned the recipes are pretty complicated which can be fun sometimes, but other times not so fun. The only other positive was that it kind of forced me to try recipes & ingredients that I never would have tried on my own. One really horrid Blue Apron meal was a salmon dish. It was so bad that my husband and I have a joke about if he misbehaves he’ll find me wearing a Blue Apron saying, “Guess what’s for dinner tonight Honey!” Lol…
ESI says
Ha! Maybe I should tell my mom to threaten my dad in the same way! 🙂
We did have quite a laugh at the portion sizes — so we found humor in it like you did. My dad could probably eat twice the food they sent.
Clare says
We’ve used emeals for YEARS and love this program as an alternative to Blue Apron! For $5/month, you choose the meal plan and get a weekly menu (we chose the 30 minute meals, but have also used clean eating, quick and healthy, classic etc.). We pick the meals for each week and it has a corresponding grocery list. This service is so worth it in my opinion and saves me a ton of time in preparing a meal plan for the week. The food and corresponding recipe is always on hand for anyone (… my husband!) to make any night of the week and is much much cheaper than Blue Apron. The recipes also use a lot of the same ingredients each week, so there is not much food waste. Highly recommended – saves time, money and reduces grocery waste!
ESI says
No one is probably still reading this, but I want to record the following here for posterity.
I received this email from someone for my other blog:
“We think your site and audience would be a great fit for a partnership with our client Blue Apron. Blue Apron is a food delivery service where you can cook incredible meals from scratch, and we’ve seen a lot of success partnering with similar sites. Would you be interested in posting a review in exchange for a week’s worth of meals?”
Uh, no.
I answered back politely and said I just didn’t think it was a fit for me.
FYI, I heard Blue Apron pitched on a podcast from a personal finance blogger I admire today. The commercial talked about the fact that it was a cost saver. I lost some respect for that blogger as a result.
ESI says
Ok, their PR person is not one to give up. She sent this back to me:
“Thanks for the quick feedback and reply! While I completely understand your hesitation (especially for a frugal site), I’d love to point out a few things below:
· A lot of people have started to consider meal delivery services and Blue Apron is one of the least expensive options
· We find our key demographic to be ages 24-40. This may be why your parents were not impressed by the service
· People that do their own shopping for cooking similar meals would spend 60% more and waste more food
· Part of the savings include not having to go to the grocery store about (43 minutes per week)…and time is money!
I understand this service is not for everyone but is does fit the lifestyle of over 8 million busy people and families per month. We would love to have you send you a box and try it out for yourself if you’re interested!”
My response was:
“Thanks. I appreciate your enthusiasm, but it’s not for me.
At $10 per person per meal, that’s $14,600 per year for my family of four just for supper (we’d then still have to pay for breakfast and lunch plus snacks, etc.)
We spent $10k per year on all sources of food — grocery and eating out — so there’s no way we’d save anywhere close to 60% with Blue Apron. We’d LOSE money from where we are.
See what I mean? ;)”
I’ll let you know if I get any response other than “ok, thanks”.
MikeS says
Love it!! They must have really fast shoppers to only spend an average of 43 minutes per week. I make 3 stops every week, ALDI, Walmart Grocery Store and BJ’s. Takes me longer than 43 minutes. Guess I’m slow.
FCSM says
Thanks for the emeals suggestion in the comments above. Excellent idea!
My wife tried Blue Apron for the introductory deal and then forgot to unsubscribe so we tried several rounds of it. My impression was exactly as above: some interesting things but no knockouts, lots of packaging, and much higher prices than we could have achieved with our own grocery shopping (assuming we used up the rest of the ingredients later in something else). Unless you eat out every day I just don’t see the comparative value for BA.
Jen says
I haven’t tried any of the meal kit services yet, but several of my friends (we’re all single busy professionals) use it occasionally and like it for the convenience. Given that free time is so limited, not having to go to the grocery store and not having to worry about wasting the remaining head of lettuce (happens frequently when you’re single) are big plusses, as is the opportunity to try new foods. I did discover that almost all of these sites publish their recipes for free. I’ve tried a few of Blue Apron’s recipes with my own ingredients and found them really tasty. (I avoided recipes that called for 2 leaves of lettuce :-).)
Jenni says
We used a local meal prep service (that ships nationally) a couple of times, and we thought they were super expensive.
For roughly the same price as the BA plan, we got breakfast, healthy tea (aided digestion and boosted energy without added caffeine), lunch, dinner, and dessert all completely prepared with organic ingredients based on the Mediterranean diet.
Left to my own devices, grocery shopping leads to quick-fix items like hot dogs and sandwiches, because I have my hands full as a sole, full-time caregiver.
But the service did introduce us to good foods we otherwise wouldn’t have tried like quinoa and cottage cheese mixed with grapes.
Debbie says
I love to cook and the prep time took much longer than stated so I can’t imagine what it would be like for someone who hasn’t been cooking all their life. Wasn’t impressed with the taste of the three recipes I tried, portions were small and then there was all that packaging wastes. Was gifted a box and had no intention of subscribing. Waste of time, money, impact on Earth with excessive packaging. I’ll just keep going to Aldi and my local Farmer’s Market to keep on eating healthier and vastly cheaper. New recipes are in all my cookbooks and found on the web!
JEFFERY PAYNE says
I love Blue Apron. In general the meals are healthy, easy to prepare, and exactly portioned so food waste is minimized. BA also does a great job introducing interesting flavor combinations and cooking techniques.
My family often uses the menu cards to repeat a past weeks recipes by going to the grocery store and buying the ingredients directly. Each time we buy the items from a grocery store, the cost of the items far exceeds the BA cost, the quality of the protein is usually subpar as BA usually sources organic high quality meat and fish directly from the provider, and there is food waste.
I would recommend BA to anyone.
Richard says
Blue Apron will probably do pretty well anyway, for all the reasons exactly as stated. Ane people will still buy whole life policies, or annuities, continue to buy high and sell low, dream of endless new cars, or houses they can’t afford, continue to think pundits must be wholesome and correct for simply looking nice, meanwhile preaching actively-managed funds and ETFs are perfectly fine, preferable to all that passive nonsense. All perfectly natural, and a common way for perhaps 90% of all Americans.
Richard says
Same attitude about Flaviar and all those wine clubs . . . I don’t even like wine (lol). Yeah, I tried them; I’m hardly foolproof. The deals just aren’t good enough to me, all things considered. I get the convenience thing, though, to your door or the post office, only because I dislike shopping, for the most part, and driving to various stores.