Why Major Meal Kit Companies Lose 90% of Customers in a Year | WSJ The Economics Of
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 เม.ย. 2024
- HelloFresh, Home Chef, Blue Apron and other prominent meal kit companies are struggling to retain customers. In 2022, about 90% of customers at the five major meal delivery services canceled their subscriptions by the end of the year.
WSJ examines how these food delivery companies, big and small, are competing to find and keep customers in a saturated market with an uncertain future.
0:00 Rise of meal kit companies
0:38 Get the customer
2:54 Keep the customer
5:10 Profitability
6:11 Differentiate
The Economics Of
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#HelloFresh #MealKit #WSJ
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"One thing about the American consumer is they don't like dramatic changes in prices". As opposed to the rest of the world that is thrilled when you ask them to pay more.
Right. Trying to make the American consumer feel special or intelligent. They continue to pay more for cheap/low quality products and services, like a bunch of oafs, more than any group of people in the world.
Tell me about it! Classic case of some desk jockey rambling nonsense as he has no idea of the working class.
Well, iPhone price is rising every year and people still buy it.
@@einsam_aber_freiAnd the worst part, the people with the least money (teens and young adults) act like the iPhone is the ONLY choice for them and always ask for the most expensive one like it's an investment. Sure enough they end up losing or breaking it within a month and need to "borrow" more money to buy another. If that's not jacking up the prices of everything I dunno what is. Frankly the people who CAN afford it aren't spending their own money, they're e-begging everyone else to give them a dollar so they can live in luxury.
@@einsam_aber_freisame as fast food.
One thing about the convenience.
No matter how many meals per week my family ordered, we still went to the grocery store every week. We still needed drinks, butter, eggs, oil, laundry detergent, and many other things. The convenience never really materialized because even if the time in the grocery store was a shorter each week, the trip was still necessary.
True unless u use insta chart lol
okay? Meal kits supplement the grocery story, not replace it. Introduce you to new recipes and assist with making it. The only logical way to use these companies is to just resub when you get a coupon that makes it worth it.
Jason your point is very true. why would I pay for groceries and also meal kits? Why not save money just from getting thinks in bulk at the groceries? I’ve always wondered that when I had My Hello Fresh subscription for a time
I get this, but when we had meal kits to avoid the grocery store, we would also pay to have groceries delivered. It was about convenience more than anything
@@snooploopsIf you could have your groceries delivered anyway, did the meal kits really add any convenience?
I found with Hello Fresh that they always forgot a few items everytime there was a delivery. They would compensate me with a coupon for my next order. It got so repetitive that I began to suspect that they were purposefully leaving out items so that I would have to spend my coupon, and thus I would have keep ordering
That’s exactly what they do
In what country do you live? I've never experienced that and I wonder whether they adjust their strategy depending on what they can get away with
@@miraj5569 Australia
@@miraj5569 I'm not the OP, but I've had terrible experience with Hello Fresh UK, I found they really aren't convenient and if you're having to shop for other food anyway then they are way more expensive.
The service is pretty awful too, had rotted salad items (half a cucumber that was shrink wrapped slime which had oozed out over everything and a black and slimy lettuce), meat that smelled and looked off, missed deliveries which weren't refunded or replaced but compensated with codes or vouchers that could only be spent with them or promises of replacement boxes which never arrived.
Hello Fresh Customer service was terrible, when I complained I was told that I was being unfair to them for expecting to get expensive meal kits delivered when promised and in good condition.
@@miraj5569 It's definitely a thing in Germany. "Here, have five bucks off for your next order, sorry for the inconvenience."
Every other meal had something missing or rotten. We often didn't even bother anymore.
Often it was the main spice-mix, making the whole meal pointless. Or that rare ingredient that nobody has at home, ever, and usually can't even buy in a regular store.
My pet peeve with these companies is the trash. I was left with a big box, gel packs, small boxes for each meal, and a number of smaller trash items for each meal. It got to be ridiculous the amount of trash I was setting out each week
Agreed. Can’t imagine the shipping cost! If I were the CEO, I would sell them at grocery stores for cheaper
@@siamimam2109 I know Hello Fresh uses a service called Roadie for delivery to your door. I've seen some stuff online about the pay for drivers and it is VERY little. You pick up like 12 orders at once, and it pays like $40 total. While the overall distance isn't bad and the route is well planned for quick completion, it does stop Hello Fresh from having to pay more than probably $10 total for the actual delivery and packaging.
@@siamimam2109 This would be such a good idea and I'd totally buy it. A single bundle of food with a recipe card attached? Perfect for a night when I don't know what to cook.
@@siamimam2109 Not sure where you are, but here in the Seattle area, grocery stores sell Blue Apron meal kits in a refrigerated cabinet that you can buy without all the box/gel/packing materials.
I've not used any these services but have seen on pictures of the packs little plastic sachets of herbs etc just for that meal that increase waste. Makes no sense to me when they could exclude non perishable items like herbs, spices, tins that you would normally keep in the cupboard anyway. Then just make it clear of those things you will need prior to ordering.
I think it's because the meal kits work TOO well. Meaning, they take people who don't know how to cook and teach them how to efficiently prep and cook well-portioned, healthy meals with variety. So after a few months the person realizes that with a little planning (and the easy-to-follow recipe cards they got from meal kits) they can put together the same ingredients at lower cost if they bought everything themselves. They no longer need the meal kits because now they have ideas for what recipes to make and learned how to make them.
If you read through the comments, many of them back up your assertion
Yup, I hated cooking & now I know how to do things easily & efficiently and I'm tired of them messing up my orders, so I'm ready to give them the boot
@@kegsofvomitspit It certainly applies to me.
This is exactly it! I knew how to cook, but was getting tired of eating the same meals each week and didn’t have time to flick through recipe books or go scouring the web for new recipes. I thought hello fresh would be a cool way to try cooking new meals without having to put the effort into buying loads of new ingredients each week. After about a year or so, money was getting tight and I had to start skipping weeks every now and then. I missed some of the regular hello fresh meals I enjoyed, so occasionally had the box as a “treat”. Then, I started to realise just how expensive it was, looked at how many recipe cards I had collected and decided to just buy the ingredients myself. While I can’t afford hello fresh anymore, I am grateful for all the wonderful new recipes I’ve been able to discover through the service. Things that I would never had cooked had I not subscribed. Dishes I knew about but assumed were too boring or even too difficult. I’ve also developed techniques that I can incorporate into every dish. I now add garlic to pretty much everything I cook with and that’s all down to hello fresh and the tonnes of garlic they send!
@@jammydoughnuts Your comment reads like a paid ad if I've ever seen one.
At the prices they charge, the meal kit companies manage to combine the costs of eating out with the convenience of cooking at home.
😂
Eating out for 12,49 ? Where ? Small Menu at McDonalds ? You call that eating out ? 🤣
Dunno where you're getting a solid cooked meal for that cheap eating out lol
@@TheJerbol My husband and I do it all the time. We just went to a local Mexican restaurant, both of us including drinks came to $18, and we even had enough food for leftovers to take home for a 2nd meal. But I believe Default78334 is being sarcastic.
@@TheJerbolyou can get a large burrito at Moe's for 11bux, with way more calories than the meal kit stuff
I had HelloFresh for several months before cancelling, and I wouldn't get another meal kit service. My issues with it were numerous:
- The price really is higher than if you buy at the grocery store. I estimate at the grocery store I can spend half as much per serving.
- It's not really convenient, since you have to still cook it and you still have to go to the grocery store for other stuff
- There is nothing unique; I cook the same recipes now without being a customer
- Greenwashing; They brag about being environmentally friendly and yet all their recyclable packing is not recyclable other than the cardboard. I brought it to my city's recycling center and they would not take any of the bags or insulation. They way they shipped my food was also really inefficient, no joke driving it 418 miles when I only live 152 from their distribution center, adding a lot of shipping based CO2
- I'd find meals I really like and then they wouldn't be available for weeks at a time.
- I like to eat a lot of meat/protein, and a lot of their recipes either didn't have any or were really light on the meat, probably for costs
- THE BIGGEST REASON: Shipping was a nightmare. They use FedEx, and FedEx at my building sucks. Never deliver on time, deliver to the wrong place, etc. I called HelloFresh three times, telling them to fix it, but it's clear they have absolutely no control over the shipping part of their shipped meal kit business. Super annoying
Yeah, and if Amazon Fresh is their competition.... that's where I get my groceries for about the same price per calorie as I do shopping manually. I only have to pay a bit more in tip (The dude packed my stuff and drove it here, it's NO problem to add an extra $7), but on a per meal basis, I'm eating a month's worth of food and covering drinks and other things. I mostly do it when it's cold though as in the spring, summer and fall, I will just walk to the store.
Did you really think that it would be cheaper to have somebody else buy your food, portion it, package it, and ship it to you?
FedEx and UPS are total morons about delivering! And they never, ever follow my instructions! (By contrast, Amazon delivers almost always without problem, at the same location.)
The root problem, imo, is that the customer of FedEx and UPS is the SHIPPER company, not the recipient; it's the opposite for Amazon.
Thank you for mentioning the shipping. Leading reason why I canceled
Its good to see the downside of it.
This has been an entertaining comment section to read. I don't particularly care about meal kits and have never tried one, but now I feel like I'm an expert in meal kit consumer psychology and economics
The comments for better or worse are a great litmus test to how people currently REALLY feel about them. Regardless of what the video may be saying, these are all real people expressing thier pleasure/distaste. Really like how engaging they are, I'm SURE a HelloFresh rep is reading every single one to see what they may be doing wrong too.
I remember when meal kits first came out. Gave them about 1 minute of consideration before deciding: No way, ever.
I clicked this video JUST to read the comments lol.
I REFUSE to eat Lab Created Meats!
Same!
I found it annoying to have to cook every single meal. Some recipes could take an hour or even more and I found that I prefer to make a big meal and have that for a couple days as left overs than cook every single day. Not to mention the packaging waste, storing the food in your fridge is an issue, and if you don't cook one day your meals start piling up.
Same. The appeal and the marketing were great but actually fitting the meals into my lifestyle was difficult and I found it frustrating. If I was going to spend that much time cooking a meal, I wanted to cook in bulk.
I use Schwann's frozen home delivery, once a week and I keep my freezer stocked too.
Schwann's delivers to your home, with a person, and a big freezer truck.
Almost everything is cooked, just need to be heated in microwave, air fryer, or conventional oven.
And it's not meals -- bags of meat, chicken or fish
-- bags of vegetables, potatoes, rolls, whatever.
Mix and match your own meal.
When they showed the interview with the CEO of Hellofresh, they said offline grocers were their main competitor.
Wouldn't grocery delivery be the main competitor? Like the only advantage is the convenience of having the food pre-sliced/pre-peeled/pre-portioned etc., no? Basically mise en place in shrink-wrapped trays.
Can't they just send you a bigger portion of like shredded chicken and pureed tomatoes for an bigger pot of tomato chicken curry or something? Or is there some method to the seemingly-arbitrary insistence on units of a single meal each?
Try mealprepping.
It helps to to reduce time and waste. And you don't have to eat the same dish every dinner.
if you have to spend 1 hrs more to cook one meal,you are not cooking meal ,you are serving yourself dishes.
you can make saled in 20 mins and as a veg source of the hold week. pan fire you protein every day ,just need a few mins or stew,let the oven do the job.
and buy food once a week.
meal kit is just a money grasper
For me the real problem is the subscription itself. There's no reason to require a subscription when you pay per meal. I sign up, try some meals, then cancel because I dont want to skip deliveries every week, then inevitably forget and get shipped food i didnt ask for.
Exactly I prefer no strings attached
That has been my problem with Factor. I've used their discount to sign up several times. Then I inevitably forget to cancel and get hit with a big charge. I'm sure that's exactly part of their plan. No worries, I just don't use their service anymore. Food was good though.
For me, there's also the issue that each meal is designed for 2 portions at least. And while I could order 2 instead of 3 meals per week - it costs almost the same. So no point in that, either. They aren't really made for a (or at least my) single person's lifestyle.
That happened to me. I forgot to skip a delivery week before I could cancel my account. I kept the box then let them hound me for payment for awhile. It's amazing that you can get a meal kit and not pay in a way (I also did this for a bit of research in their collection policy and experience). I did pay for the meal box however as I did it did take me a few weeks to do so.
Lies again? MMA SKC USD SGD
I felt like I was on a treadmill with HelloFresh, making meals even when I didn’t feel like eating to keep the food from going bad.
Yes. There would inevitably be a night when I couldn't be arsed to cook one of the three meals amd then the ingredients would just sit around going bad. And jeez, they just will not leave you alone once you've cancelled. I got phone calls, texts, emails, post (makes sense now that I know they are losing 90% revenue after a year). This is not one of the companies listed in the feature, but this retention practice annoyed me so much that I have sworn off them forever.
This, 100%. I wish they had an option for a smaller box with half as many meals per week. It's just me and my partner, we just don't eat that much food.
SO MANY CARROTS
SAME. Plus if I forgot to change the menu options or cancel the week I’d just keep getting the same recipes or the kits would get unused and I would just toss them, it’s literally just money down the drain… and then the harassment when I cancelled! Sheesh.
@@baronvonslambertI'm poor and live alone. I cook every meal. The trick is freezing your own ready made meals. Make a pot of chili and put half of it in individual containers and freeze it. Don't wait a few days, freeze it as soon as you make it. You can make 8 burritos for $7. Freeze them on a cookie sheet then put them in a ziplock bag in the freezer... tastes great 2 months later or next week. You get the picture...meatballs, hamburgers, beef stew, bbq... it all works and YOU control the salt and sugar content.
My biggest gripe with meal kit companies (and I've tried three) was that once the promotional period or promotional meals ended, the quality of ingredients dramatically dropped! I can't tell you how much spoiled and damaged food I had to throw away and replace out of pocket each week. It got to be that I was buying twice as much, instead of saving.
It felt like a massive scam. So, I switched companies and found the exact same problem.
What I also didn't like was the lack of variety. I felt like most of the meals were variations on the same basic ten ingredients. Some would be too spicy or too acidic, some would be exactly the same ingredients just a different protein.
And again, the same problem as with the first, once the promotional meals ran out, the quality of produce (and occassionally the proteins themselves) went way downhill. Damaged and spoiled foods was a huge problem.
That's interesting, they're really telling customers that only morons would stay with them after the subsidies run out, it's actually hilarious.
just like cooking at home. Your meals will round around about the same 10 ingredients.
I found Right from the beginning the overall quality was mediocre at best.
The worst produce so far were potatoes. Absolutely terrible quality, nothing I would ever buy for myself. Though after doing the maths I paid premium quality…
I just liked the planned meal aspect. Now I get an app to do it for me and I can get the quality of food I would like.
@@becci8099which app good netizen?
Mine didn't even give me good food through the first month. The first box was half spoiled (melted celery, rotting potatoes which is ridiculous given how long they last, rotted carrots, soft onions, etc) and there were a few pieces missing. I cancelled the service immediately and regret even considering it. The price I pais for the box was really just the price of discovering that I love refriend beans in my tacos, which I guess isn't the worst thing to know.
This wasn’t really mentioned in the video. Hello Fresh taught me how to cook. And for that I’m grateful. Eventually I realized I could just get my own groceries and build out meals that had more variety. As well as meals that only took me 20-30 mins to cook. So in a way it’s a natural transition for people who’re simply trying to figure out how to be healthier in a condensed timeframe.
TH-cam Videos are cheaper when it Codes to teach cooking.
Actually, they didn't teach you how to cook. I already knew how to cook when I tried HelloFresh, and their directions are terrible. You should mix your veggies in a bowl to make sure they're complete coated in spice and oil, not ont the tray. You weren't taught well. So you still don't know how to cook.
@@marijkestoll816 🤓
Tray, bowl, makes no difference, Karen. Also, why would someone who already knows how to cook ever use HelloFresh?
@chrisel4349 makes a huge difference if you're trying to coat all your veggies evenly in oil and spices, it's harder to do on a tray. And I was offered a discount to try it out and was curious about the service, Kevin.
I’ve always thought that the fact most major supermarkets barely bother with meal kits is a pretty clear indication that they aren’t a good business proposition.
Some markets in foreign countries do sell meal kits, especially since the pandemic. They have been fairly successful so far, but who knows.
@@bluerationalityin Japan they're fairly popular but size of these ready made food is smaller .
Major supermarkets aren't exactly on the forefront of innovation lol
@@AQHackAQ it’s a mixed bag. Some have to be quite innovative to keep their prices down. Either way it’s generally a pretty profitable sector and if they thought they could make money from meal kits they absolutely would. It seems that pre-prepared food is a safer bet though - I assume because people are more comfortable paying a premium.
@@shivanshna7618Japan ısually sells cheap ready made food not meal kits with frest produce. You only need to heat the food or do nothing at all with them. It is different..
The biggest convenience for me was not having to think about what to make. It's easy to cook and not that time consuming as long as I'm told what to make. But the price per quantity was just not sustainable, and after getting a bunch of recipe cards I can just reuse those.
Depending on how you roll, you don’t even need recipe cards. Understand the general idea behind a recipe and you just use it and make adaptations.
I also gained weight in just a few weeks.. All the recipes involved cooking meats in oil on the stove because it’s fast. Roasting is the more healthful technique.
don’t they have the recipe cards on their website for free?
I made a hello fresh cookbook with a hole punch and a three-ring-binder.
The fact that I make adaptations doesn’t prevent the recipes from being useful
@@SigFigNewton that's how I taught my daughter to cook and grocery shop she has a binder with hellofresh recipes in it! More cards are almost always available on Facebook Marketplace and sometimes they're free!
They’re nice, but the only step you really skip with meal kits is deciding what to make. It’s not like you’ll never go to the grocery store again- you’re still going, and you can’t help but notice that it would be a looooot cheaper to just buy the ingredients yourself 😂
It’s amazing to me that the main selling point with their advertising is that it’s “cheaper per meal” with their meal service, when it is simply never true, unless it’s a single medium. Like maybe it is cheaper to have the meal kit cup of overnight oats, or a smoothie, but most people don’t classify that as enough food for a meal.
If you follow complex recipes and buy food from whole foods, blue apron is actually a good deal. Especially if your time is valuable.
Nobody who follows complex recipes and shops at Whole Foods is budget conscious. If you are on a budget, you shop at Costco and prepare simple meals at home. Meal kit and meal prep companies are for bougie Millennials with more money than sense.
I make complex recipes every day and buying in bulk is much cheaper than even the introductory discounted prices of every meal service. My time would have to be worth at least $100 an hour to justify these services since it only takes like an hour to go to the store and buy everything I need for the week. The full price markup compared to buying the ingredients is insane.
Also the fact that they force you to sign up before even showing you meal options is incredibly shady and should be illegal.
I have a blueapron signature for years now. I am not under the illusion that using it is cheaper than going to the grocery story and buy everything by myself, however, it is a lot cheaper than a restaurant or a delivery which if I am going to be honest with myself it is probably what I would do if I had nothing prepared to cook at home.
My biggest problem with Hello Fresh was the harassment after I cancelled. I got calls every 3 days to every week asking why I canceled, if I would come back for a discount, etc. They didn’t want to take no for an answer. The calls didn’t stop until I pretended I changed my number. I still get offer letters in the mail every week to every other week from them. (I cancelled at least 4 years ago) it never ends.
How do they have your phone number? They require that on sign up or something?
Same! Letters in the mail and spam texts. My biggest reason for cancelling was all the food I was getting was mouldy 🤢
Wow. They never called me when I quit - I do still get come-ons in the e-mail, but those I have no problem ignoring. I think this was two, possibly three, years ago. (It could be I never gave them my phone number, or so I think...)
I’m sorry but this is hilarious. They’re acting like a pathetic ex-boyfriend.
The constant mail is so obnoxious!
The problem I had with the kit we had for a while (Every Plate) was they advertised it as only three simple steps per meal, but didn't tell you that the first step was chop all the vegetables which might be three or four different vegetables and several actual items per vegetable. So a meal that was suppose to take 15-30 minutes to prepare, might be 15 minutes just to chop all the veggies. Plus, all the ingredients for a week's worth of meals were all in one box, frozen and none frozen and no separation by meal, so we had to spend a good half hour as soon as the box arrived separating everything and finding room in the freezer for what needed to be there, etc. It wasn't nearly as convenient as it claimed.
You were basically ordering groceries with recipes cards it sounds!
This is why I ended up canceling my subscription and why I never got another one. It was not saving me the time I was looking for.
I was an early adopter and really wanted to like the service, but I ran into too many hurdles that didn't justify it for me anymore. The first was I received too many boxes that by the time I got home and opened them, the ice packs had completely melted and the food had reached room temperature. Since I had no way of knowing how long they had been warm, I couldn't use them. Second was the food went bad quickly in my experience. I'd open up a three day old kit and the broccoli would be moldy or the tomatoes would have started to liquify. Third, I got the services because I was so busy at work, and I would often forget to pick my meals by Thursday at noon (or whenever the deadline was), and they would send me one automatically that would contain meal kits with ingredients clearly on my "do not send" list, like shellfish. Finally, as a commenter below said, I still went to the store to buy necessities so the convenience never materialized.
Now with remote work people have extra time at home to cook a meal from scratch. I think meal kits will be good for those who live by themselves and work so many hours and don't have time to cook at home.
I loved Blue Apron in the beginning. It saved me time with shopping, figuring out what to cook, and buying more than I needed. The meals were unique and delicious, with a wide range of ingredients and recipes. They taught me how to make chef-quality meals and each week felt like an adventure. I was with them over 2 1/2 years eating great meals. It was well worth the extra cost. But then they started catering to the crowd that wanted fast, cheap, very easy to make meals… lots of burgers, pasta, and chicken with simple side dishes. Back then, the smallest quantity you could get was 2 servings 3x a week… for a single person those 6 servings were a lot of uninspired meals and not worth it since I wanted the experience of feeling like a chef. Since then, I have purchased several great cookbooks and am diving deep into cooking from them.
We use blue apron... Not too sure about you findings?
Yeah, if we don't pick meals then we get burgers and stuff. But if you pick them it's wildly different.
I also used them about seven years ago it was really fun time and I looked forward to them because it was highschool in a single parent household and felt really special. I can’t speak to the price but the quality and recipes were amazing they hold a really special place in my heart
@@hannahfreckles247nah that's just the cholesterol
That's really cool that you had that experience!
A tip on saving time: you don't shop for a meal.
You shop, and then you do a meal with what you have.
You need staples, you need to buy and cook it regularly so it won't spoil and then you save a ton of money and time.
It is not "I want to cook X I need to go shopping" but "I have X, Y and Z items, I can do ...."
When he said "our major competitors are the offline grocers" I literally laughed out loud just from how insanely out-of-touch that statement was
It is true tho. They deliver you the ingredients which you could just buy at the grocery store. Add in a cook book and they offer nothing more
@@tomlxyz But they save you the terror of proportioning the food for yourself.
@@jamese9283Whats the point if you still pay the same
I tried a couple of meal kits hoping that they would help simplify meal planning for me as a busy working mom, but I didn't find them particularly convenient in the end. I still had to grocery shop for staples and even the more simple meals are often too involved for a weeknight meal. Grocery pickup has been the gamechanger I was looking for: I can pick out ingredients for quick meals I know my kids will like and that I will have energy to cook, and I save time on the shopping.
Meal planning is a nobrainer. I don't get what is complicated about that. Lesen how to cook and you can make a tasty mal from everything.
I think people should learn basic life skills BEFORE breeding.
But what do I know, I am only 21 and childfree and have no problems with cooking healthy meals from scratch. I go to University and work and do professional Sport and have friends and Hobbies and still manage to get Food on the table.
@@CordeliaWagner1999 ok
@@CordeliaWagner1999weirdo
I find it funny that meal kit companies’ natural evolution is the company becoming a TV dinner one.
I even called it out years ago when these companies started up;
"LOL you think people *want* to cook? Shoulda made that a TV dinner and watch them lap it up"
And here we are.
I wonder what the prices of TV dinners were like? I can't imagine if they were on par with Chinese food level pricing or Factor pricing during their time.
Right? Factor was the first time one of these companies actually got my attention lol
We tried Hello Fresh. The food was NOT fresh. Intially, it was OK but went downhill quickly. Dried out and moldy produce. Rusty canned goods with unknown brand names from who knows where. The vegetables looked like something that was forgotten in the bottom of the fridge for months. It all went in the compost pile and we canceled the service.
😦😨😱
Same! Nearly all the vegetables were rotten in the few times we tried the meals!
Agree! HF sent us carrots that were as skinny as a #2 pencil. Unusable veg was so frequent that we had to cancel.
🤮🤮🤮
@@ellenflanagan2220 skinny carrots is not a bad thing... it's either a baby one or organic. The fat ones at the grocery store are not natural.
I find meal kit services to be the worst of both worlds. They combine the disadvantages of a restaurant (you're limited to what's on the menu) with the disadvantages of cooking for yourself at home (the time spent prepping the ingredients yourself). The only thing I can see them doing is saving me time spent grocery shopping, but I want to choose my own ingredients. I find the existence of this entire business difficult to understand. Also, for some reason, I just hate the name "Hello Fresh".
I strongly suspect the entire point of this product segment is that millennials and zoomers are giant toddlers that lack basic life skills. So these services feel to them a lot like mummy doing all the work for them, but they get the independence of feeling like they made the meal.
And that I suspect is why the bulk of the drop off happens between the 9 to 12 month mark. Because that's how long it takes to develop life skills like how to cook an assortment of recipes, what ingredients you'd need to buy and what "ripe" looks like.
@@tjmarx TBH, the main thing that makes me not want to cook is the hassle of deciding what to make and deciding if I have the right ingredients. I think things like eatthismuch are probably a better solution to the problem. Also, a service that just handled the annoyance of spices and some the nonperishable ingredients would probably do a lot better. Get those ingredients now and then you can get the fresh ingredients closer to when you want to use them from a local grocery store. Most of them have pickup or delivery these days anyways.
@@SmallSpoonBrigade Dried herbs, spices and condiments are long shelf life items. For most people you buy them once every 3-9 months.
Meal rotation is a long held household skill. You find an assortment of 6 weeks of recipes, and you rotate through that same 6 weeks over and over. Now you always know what you're going to have. If you're not fussy, you can do it on a shorter timescale. I rotate through a 3 week rotation of meals. If you're fussier, just add another weeks worth to the rotation, or do a scattered rotation where you shuffle the weeks at the end of each rotation.
Now when you do the groceries, you shop for the things you're going to make that week, any pantry staples that are running low, and luxuries on top. Easy peasy and you never get bored.
You can either do the week straight, just following a predetermined order or you can use the week as a reducing menu where you choose from that weeks meals on the day and tick it off that you can have that meal any other day that week. By the last day the decision is made for you. And you can alternate.
And of course none of it gets in the way of special occasions because you just plan those out and factor them in for that week.
Or could it be that Americans have shifted from a nuclear family with one person who stays at home. Now many people work 2 jobs and don't have the time or energy to plan meals, shop, and cook.
@@tjmarxSomeone has lost the life skill of discussing a topic without insulting people
I would love to buy a single meal kit right when I need it from the supermarket. I need more flexibility than having to pre-plan for the whole week.
I agree. I swear Target used to have Hello Fresh meals but guess they stopped when subscriptions became more popular.
I don't know where you live, but both major grocery store chains in Texas offer exactly that. It's possible your grocery store(s) might as well if you look for it.
It’s called Healthy Choice and they can be found in your grocer’s freezer 😂
I tried hello fresh and it’s cheaper counter part every plate (which I liked more)
For me, the portion size didn’t really make sense. They advertised each dish as two servings when I needed 1.5 to be full, so the price per meal was higher in reality. And I’m a small person (5’1”, 110lbs) . The ingredients they sent were on the small side (e.g. small potatoes) , and often the produce were stale or withered. Everything was also wrapped in individual plastic bags which felt wasteful.
The convenience part is also questionable because you basically needed to plan when to stay home to receive the box, and refrigerate it quickly (especially in summer)
A couple times the boxes were also delayed so if you didn’t have other meal plans, you’re just sad
Overall I appreciated the service but doubt it’s cheaper than actual groceries. It was nice to be taught some new dishes and have everything laid out for you though
The convenience is also questionable when every other recipe has at least one or two ingredients that aren't included
I tend to use these services to get me out of a food rut.
I’ll use them for a week or two, try out some new foods, learn some new dishes and then use that as inspiration for throwing together some new stuff.
I think the major flaw with these companies’ business models is that you still have to grocery shop. Hello Fresh and others are hyper focused on dinner but don’t really acknowledge that breakfast, lunch and snacks are things….so you (the consumer) are still on your own for those needs. For me personally, if I’m already at the store, I might as well just buy stuff for dinners too rather than going through a separate purchasing process to get dinner stuff specifically via meal delivery.
Well said. It’s a solution in search of a problem.
I use recipe books to "get me out of a food rut". For example, a couple of days ago I made "Wholewheat & Oatmeal Soda Bread" for the first time ever, and it was magnificent! A real keeper of a recipe from a book I've had since the late 70s, and I had all the ingredients already in my pantry.
I just checked hello fresh and they have a lot of breakfast, lunch and snack options. Like, a lot...
I'm not sure what you are talking about...
The biggest problem with meal delivery services is that you can't see the full menu until after you've signed up and paid.
Can you imagine a restaurant that won't show you its menu until after you've paid?
I can't and that's why I've never signed up.
That just isn't true, because you only pay when you buy meals, and you obviously need to see the menu to make selections. So yeah maybe they're gated behind signups but definitely not paying.
@@ryeguy01 that's still a hindrance on the barrier for entry for new customers. My data is a product with value & I'm not willing to give it away for something I'm just trying to see I'm actually interested in using the service.
@@PMickeyDee
Your individual data has no value, user data is only useful in large amounts
@@MrGeary08 the point is that it's a transaction that I'd be making due to only wanting to look to see if I'm interested in what they're offering. Giving ANY data to anyone where I'm getting zero benefit from. Data is a commodity at this point and is treated as such by these companies I'm not voluntarily giving them anything.
Same issue. I wanted to see the menus, itneonlynletnmenwjth an account, give them my full name, email, address, and credit card. I cancelled after the discount wearied off.
Had Hello Fresh for about 3 years, while in the Midwest. The experience was completely different in the 6 months after I moved to the East Coast area. Not only items were missed from our orders, many times proeuce and meats came spoiled. I didn’t mind the subscription and its cost, I didn’t mind the “variety” (of the lack of one: all meals have ultimately three or four flavors). But not sending me items or sending me spoiled products was a big deal. Pulled the plug maybe 3 years ago, still receive “please come back” mails and e-mails from them.
I absolutely love these meal kits for all that they have to offer: portioned ingredients, delicious new recipes, and the convenience of having them all nicely packaged for you.
But ultimately the biggest drawbacks are:
1. They are too expensive. They come out to roughly $10-$12 per meal per person, which is absurdly high.
2. The serving sizes are too small
3. The calories are too high.
I'm sorry what's your idea of a grocery store? Do you think they throw the food at you? It's already packaged there and they invented a thing called a food scale, why is it that I can scale all my 6 meals everyday and y'all can't be hassled to be adults?
@@genxx2724 i found that calories usually were too low for the volume and time spent. Some mains had like 500kcal. And half of them were nutritionally worthless rice or noodles.
@@notjustforme8857 Interesting. I found that the calories were too high.i was still hungry, yet I was gaining weight. The meats were all cooked in oil on the stovetop for speed instead of roasting.
@@pascalsimioli6777What?
For me, it was like the early 90s when the long distance carriers were offering huge rewards and even cash for signing up with them as your carrier. I just constantly switched carriers, as soon as the reward was gone. The same is true with these kits. There are like 10 available in my location, each of them has a HUGELY discounted first few months. For everyplate, I was getting meals for $1.49 per meal.... and as soon as that ended, I joined a different one that also offered crazy discounts...until the discounts ended. The problem with these companies is they are ALL pump-n-dump business models. They don't care about profits or having a sustainable business, they all did the same thing... deep discounts to get customer numbers up, and then the owners sell the company before anyone looks at profits or even future profits.
I hate how prevalent sales and starting discounts have gotten. Same with all other subscriptions. If you want to watch something you don't need to have every streaming service just rotate through a new one each month. Its just a headache to keep track of and to only shop on discounts. I guess it probably a better experience than couponing used to be.
Well, if you had actually watched the video, they mentioned that HelloFresh has been profitable for years (and is publicly-traded, so their results should be reasonably-reliable.)
If you look at it from the company's perspective, if they don't offer steep discounts like their competitors, they lose customers.
@@stelity That's where Methodology is a smart business model. They don't offer big discounts. And their prices are quite a bit higher. But because there are no steep discounts for new customers, thry don't attract these kinds of fickle, discount chasing customers who nevet planned to stick around after the initial discount period. And because they are very specific in targeting a more cash laden customer who needs a long-term solution, they don't need to offer big discounts and can be sure of retaining customers as the new customers havr already accepted the normal pricing plans.
Even with that "heavily discounted" price, I could make something for a fraction of that buying the ingredients myself. Ok some pricier meals, like a seafood dish, might be more but a lot of basics are cheaper than this particularly if you're a clever shopper.
Meal kits might be cheaper than groceries if you're replicating the recipe they're offering that week, but for shoppers like me that plan their weekly menu around what's on sale at the store, there's just no way, especially once you factor in shipping
You doN,t even need to plan that much. Just buy some items in bulk, and learn to store food properly.
@@arakwar Yep, I've become a real fan of the frozen food aisle. If you learn how to work with frozen fruits and vegetables, you can create some pretty healthy meals that are also easy and still tasty.
Love the discounted meats. Will come in the morning, buy a bunch of discounted beef, pork, chicken, and salmon, and toss it in the freezer. That'll be enough protein for weeks.
They’re not cheaper if you’re cooking for a family.
The key with price is discounts. These companies will offer you deals to try the service for 60% off, and at that rate it's cheaper then groceries. And with four of them you can string them together for a month, and by the time you come round to the first the've sent you a new offer to come back.
I bet that's a lot of what the "lost" customers are
those “perfect portion sizes” are a double edged sword
no leftovers == got to cook / order out tomorrows lunch…
Exactly right. My wife and I cooked dinner one night and eat that as leftovers for lunch the next day. Not only do we not need to spend money on lunch, but we also don’t have to think about it, and because we both work from home, it makes a quick and easy way to eat lunch and get back to work
Switched away from factor meals because they simply were not enough food per meal! In fact both my dad and I have had instances of fainting from low blood sugar because we thought we had enough calories and nutrients from our factor meal lunches when in fact we didn’t. Not to mention it just feels kinda dystopian and a little saddening to eat.
Dystopian 😂 … so true
As a mobility-challenged person, I did quite a bit of research on these companies. The numerous nightmare customer scenarios, which included the inability to cancel a plan while still being charged for unordered meals, completely turned me off. They seem to operate under the same business model as "fitness centers".
Lure you in with heavy discounts and hoping you'll forget to cancel it for a few weeks, paying double in the end.
Sounds about right.
In my experience, as long as you know 1.5-2 weeks beforehand that you won't need a box that week it is very easy to pause or cancel using the website.
@@johnsonaustinj A lot of things are very easy and simple. Yet a lot of people don't manage to do them in time, or at all.
Great choice, I lost $800 to hellofresh because their browser via the Internet isn't synced up to their own app - so anytime I logged in and canceled for that week, I got charged and food anyway!
It's a well-known design flaw that two employees confirmed for me and it's deliberately been not fixed because it makes them money.
Only one I ever had issues cancelling was Good Food which required you to call, though when I did call it was pretty straightforward.
Might be because I'm in Canada though, so YMMV.
I liked HelloFresh at first, but eventually it was like eating at the same restaurant every day. Sure, it was a burger or pasta or "mexican" or "thai" but it really lacked variety in flavour and authentic ethnic dishes. It was like eating at Denny's for every meal.
Authentic food is usually quite time-consuming. Quick and easy is the opposite of making your own curry paste by hand.
@@icedcat4021 : Which is why I'd occasionally go out to a decent Indian or Thai or Mexican restaurant. Eating out a lot is bad for your health anyway (WAY too much sodium, etc).
@@rogergeyer9851 Eating out isn't bad, overconsumption is
Depends on the restaurant
@@rogergeyer9851 Depends what you eat when you eat out. Plenty of things made with not a lot of sodium. In fact a lot of places under salt their meals so you can adjust the level yourself, especially if you have HBP.
Very interesting as an MBA student and a former HelloFresh customer. :)
I tend to see the same behavior in myself. I tried the first box for 60% off and immediately canceled the plan afterwards.^^
One missing piece is reliability.
With Blue Apron, every few months they'd screw up ingredients. If you're a normal home cook, you already have a fridge and pantry full of stuff, so if one egg out of a carton is missing, you have more eggs. One egg isn't likely to be a huge factor in how often you have to buy groceries. Plenty of other missing ingredients, you could probably find something to substitute.
If you were actually doing this instead of grocery shopping, and the meal kit forgets or breaks the one egg they were supposed to ship you, now you not only have an extra trip to pick up eggs, you suddenly have a ton of eggs you have to use up or throw away.
And eggs are one of the easier problems -- easier to find than the more exotic ingredients the kits sometimes want to push, and easy to make a meal out of by themselves.
A few mistakes is understandable, but if you actually do this instead of groceries, each of those mistakes is a much bigger deal than it'd be if you forgot one of the items on your own grocery list.
And if you do this and groceries, how much convenience are you really buying?
Very interesting take
We actually like our meal kit (Hello Fresh). We're an older couple, no kids. We had 2 major problems. The first was that we could never decide what to make for supper each week and hence what to buy. This is natural as the two things humans don't deal well with are infinite choice and insufficient choice. But this meant that we tended to make the same boring unappetizing quick to make meals every week. The second problem was that we'd buy groceries and end up not using them and they'd go bad. A recipe might call for 1tsp of a fresh herb that's sold by the cup at the grocery store. But other times, we might decide half-heartedly that we'd make a recipe but never feel like actually making it. The food waste was getting to me. The meal kits break both those cycles. We have an ample but limited selection to choose from. There are a number of easy to prepare recipes (but double the amount of time they say it takes). We're not left with a fridge filled with rotting overstock. The extra cost for the groceries is minimal. We're eating healthier and more enjoyable meals. AND we enjoy making the meals together. For us, it's a win. But that of course is us. Not everyone is like us. But if you're wondering who might enjoy these kits, now you have an idea.
Sounds like you need to get better organizational skills. I'm older & I don't have a problem with planning a weekly menu or food spoilage. If a recipe calls for a fresh herb just make enough meals for that week that call for that herb. Better yet, you can use dried herbs instead.
@@sweetkitty3249that may be true, but it's okay to use a service to make your life more convenient so you have time for other things than meal prepping and constantly thinking about how to use up all the groceries by the end of the week.
Good analysis. We’re at the same stage. What about the uncontrolled salt, fat, and sugar content you get from processed meals?
I'm just like you; I'm just not that good at consistent meal planning... I have too many cookbooks, and it makes too many choices. And I'm not good at improvising either, which means I end up throwing away a lot of odds and ends if they are perishable.
Thank you! Your comment reflects our experience as new empty-nesters as well.
For every dollar Hello Fresh spends to get a customer it takes them six months to earn that dollar back. Given the retention rates, these businesses don't seem promising at all. The new macro environment will probably kill most of these companies.
what new macro environment?
@QuantPhilosopher89, can you show me how did this calculation? TIA.
@@RKanth54 He meant new macaroni environment.
@@cnam1258 😂
@@RKanth54 Pretty sure they're referring to the increased interest rates in the US. The video talks about how these companies got started with a lot of VC money, and that's really drying up now.
I bought one of these subscriptions because I didn’t know how to cook, ordered a bunch of meals I would want to cook in the future, got the basics down and cancelled the subscription and now use the cards as a recipe book.
You can find just about any recipe right here on TH-cam & a cook to show you how to make the meal.
My mom and dad started off with Blue Apron several years ago and really liked it at first. What happened is the shipping company they used in the area had screwed up the packaging three times, meaning not only was the box dented and some of the food crushed, the cooler pack had thawed out and was leaking all over their food. My mom called customer service and she would get a credit but her next credited order would come crushed again. So they switched to Hello Fresh and really like it.
I never could justify the subscription commitment but what I liked about Blue Apron was that they supplied novel ingredients like black garlic that either aren’t in grocery stores or are in quantities that would leave left over ingredients and the risk of food waste because you either don’t know what to do with the leftovers or you found out you didn’t like the ingredient. I like the idea of experimenting with exotic cooking but can get scared off when a recipe has an ingredient I never heard of and I’m not sure where to find it or even identify it if it is in my local grocery store. I can’t justify it myself but I think it would be a fun luxury purchase if I made more money
I think meal kits make sense as a novelty but not as an everyday thing for most people.
Yeah, I can something specialized and exotic like Wine of the Month club.
They were good for us when my wife was pregnant and after giving birth. Once things started to become normalized, the meal kits became more burdensome.
They are fine for people who have no monetary worries whatsoever, but for the average Joe, these services just drain your wallet and take advantage of people who could easily learn to make these recipes themselves.
Having worked for a meal kit company the biggest problem they have is definitely retention of customers and shipping and maintaining the quality and temperature of their products. So many times the products become damage due to handling and thawing and leaking of the proteins. This is a major reason why many customers cancel the quality that they’re receiving after shipment is terrible spoiled vegetables leaking meat on frozen food due to the shipping and non-refrigerated trucks.
As that guy said, it's a business where the initial entry barriers are quite low BUT the barriers to scaling up to massive levels are very high. It's the logistics of everything, and the issues that you discuss are the problems that are difficult to solve unless you're a huge company with extensive resources and a sophisticated system.
@@SY-ok2dq the problems they face are related to their business model of being a centralized nation wide service that relied on investment and loans to grow their business. When dealing with food locality is a very important factor, but their business model didn't take locality into account. For this kind of business to provide consistent high quality service it needs to be decentralized and vertically integrated, both of which require large upfront costs if you want to serve the whole nation. There is a reason why most restaurants and grocery stores do not ship fresh goods with UPS, FEDEX, or USPS. Most large chains have their own fleets of refrigerated trucks for a reason.
@@evancombs5159 I'm currently living in a country that is physically a small land mass, but densely populated in the major cities which is where the demand for door delivery of groceries and ready-to-eat meals is very high, and the delivery systems work very quickly and reliably and at relatively very low cost - all possible due to the dense concentration of customers. People mostly order food though, already made, from restaurants or fast food places. But there are meal kit packs online and in supermarkets - limited to a small selection of popular national dishes. Cost-wise, it's only a little cheaper than dining at places that make that dish (unless it's a fancier restaurant). There are lota of complaints about the extra charges for getting deliveries these days, I hear. But they remain extremely popular with a number of well-known delivery services.
Naturally a country as vast as the U.S. poses huge logistical problems. These kinds of services work better in say N.Y. state, as it has N.Y.C.
As that guy who was interviewed said, the barriers to scaling up to a national level are enormous and require huge investment as well as excellent management.
I used to drive a semi. The amount of beef and produce I would deliver to Blue Apron would blow your mind
I found the meal kit boxes to be more expensive than the supermarkets with significantly worse quality which is why i’ll never touch them again.
Then there’s the relentless bombardment of marketing when you leave them… hello fresh is on my blacklist over that.
I think the retention rates tell the story. We tried Hello Fresh for its novelty, was not all that convenient as when the kit arrived you pretty much had to make it whether you wanted to that day or not. Being tied to a subscription and subsequent price rises was also a turnoff. The target market is people who don't care about their spending and have high disposable incomes and no incentive to plan or cook meals at home.
Won't those people just order take out or go to a restaurant?
I think they are non-cooking people who give it a try, but even with pre-portioned ingredients, and a pictorial step=by=step recipe, they find it's too much effort for them. You know, the TL/DR people... @@tomlxyz
@@tomlxyz exactly
@@tomlxyz people like to try new things. Buy first, think later.
My parents like them because they enjoy cooking, like trying new recipes and don’t mind skipping orders if they are going on vacation. They also often end up already having some of the seasonings and sauces so they save the individual packets if siracha sauce and other seasonings for traveling. They sometimes cook on vacation
Am I crazy or is an increase from 13 companies to 382 companies a lot more than 300%? 382 / 13 is roughly 29.4 which would be an increase of about 2,940%...
You got the right idea, but its actually (382 - 13) / 13 = 28.4 which is an increase of 2,840%. The reason being, if its a stagnation of 13 companies to 13 companies by your logic it would be a 13 / 13 = 1 or a 100% increase.
First rule of journalism: IF numbers are mentioned there are numbers but the numbers mentioned are inevitably wrong, especially if they were derived by using "math".
That makes sense -- thank you so much @@Hoacook ;-)
The sloppyness is crazy
math is not a core subject at journalism school
I love when meal kits challenge me to cook things I've never tried before. It boosts my cooking skills and I end up trying new things. But as the recipes are recycled, you get over the novelty factor really quickly and you can then reproduce the recipe at home without having to pay for the meal kit service. Grocery shopping is ALWAYS cheaper than the meal kits, at least it is the case here in Texas. HelloFresh and co sit somewhere between homecooked meals and restaurant dining. They don't save you any money unless you were planning to go out.
Should mark this video as a commercial ad for Methodology
😂 facts "we're a lifestyle"
@@stevenp25100 i mean, at least they are honest about their target demographic, pricing, and are profitable. you can hate on them for being expensive and smug, but it seems like a legit business plan and aren't bait and switching on their customers that are price sensitive with intro pricing that is not sustainable
Seems to me like having to throw away such a large quantity of packaging so often is a killer as well. Its like an extra chore that comes with a subscription. You will be taking out your trash bags, VERY frequently.
The packaging is incredibly wasteful.
@@samsam0329 One of the big selling points is eliminating food waste. But they casually skip over how much plastic there is instead. Two cheese slices in their own plastic bag. And if you're doing 4x meals you get two separate bags.. All those packets of sour cream and stock. I actually find the sauce packets to be the most annoying thing though. Squeezing out 8 packets of sour cream into a meal is way more effort than just spooning out a giant glob from a plastic tub from the store. Cost per meal and the packaging are the two main reasons I plan on cancelling my HF sometime soon.
@@scopie49 I had Factor75. The meals were quite good but 90% of the packaging weight was in ice packs and insulation. Necessary, but unsustainable.
@@samsam0329 They were a very nice gateway into getting me into cooking with how easy/tasty some of the meals are. I actually just finished cooking a meal earlier using store-bought ingredients and following the HF recipe card. The ratios of ingredients is a little bit different but it still tastes super good.
I plan on cancelling fairly soon because there is SO much packaging waste. I'd rather waste a 1/4 can of tomato paste extra rather than need a huge box, ice packs, plastic wrap, and everything else.
I'm thankful for the opportunity HF provides but it's not sustainable at all without HF also providing the ability to reuse stuff and eliminating the individual plastics. I feel like we should be able to load a box with icepacks and then once every few months the delivery can take those packs back to HF warehouses for reuse.
@@samsam0329 Now if a company like that could strike a deal with a gd GROCERY STORE, then cool. I miss all my tesco prepared meals...
I really tried with Hello Fresh and just found the food would go off 2-3 days after arriving meaning I couldn't reliably plan out my meals for that week or trust in the produce that I was receiving. That and the large amount of repeat menus (with small differences in ingredients, measurements) and packaging made it a hassal every week rather than a convience to get a clean system going.
Aaaaand we are back to TV meals 😂😂. But as a small business owner I am skeptical of discounts and incentives tbh.
I tried a couple of these food services but on average they were 2x more expensive compared with the grocery store. Choosing the grocery store is a no-brainer.
Lol, sounds like an unsustainable business model long term. I've tried several of these meal kit companies and always quit. Besides the cost and quality, the main thing that I never liked was the amount of waste each week's shipment produced. Yes, it's allegedly all recyclable, but it's still a lot of waste!
Yup
Almost nothing that is recyclable actually gets recycled. Most Americans that separate their trash are ignorant that it just gets all thrown back together after it leaves their home.
@@DistrustHumanz Yeah, exactly, and that too.
Milk bottles, aluminum cans & glass are the only material that can be recycled, everything else is not profitable to recycle
All those tiny packets or sauce/spices definitely aren't recyclable. It was also a putoff for me given how they lean so heavily into the "reduced waste" aspect of it.
because its cheaper to buy your own incregients AND cheaper to just order food
Exactly!!! 60 USD for 4 meals that I have to cook? I can eat out at that price!
@@oadka Just pointing out, here...a BK Whopper is now $9. That gives you six Whoppers and two orders of fries.
now every grocery store does curbside pickup so it's actually convenient and i jus use the app to find easy recipes
pretty sure 4 meals means 4 different meals 2 portions each, so enough for 2 people or another portion for the next day. Also most of the recipes are healthier than a burger and fries @@oadka
I have read through the menus of so many meal kit companies, and there is never any variety in food options, which results in customers refusing to eat the same meal on a recurring basis. Also, the price fluctuates, which forces loyal customers to pay a higher price, and new customers to pay a lower price. So the two main variables that drive human behavior for customers of meal kit companies are lack of variety and high prices.
honestly methodology sounds like a really smart company - they found their niche and stuck to it, good for them!
We tried HelloFresh. The food was mediocre in terms of freshness and there was a ton of unnecessary packaging. The final straw was when the cucumber that was supposed to be in our kit was switched out, without asking/warning us, for an "equivalent" zucchini. As if those two things taste the same, require the same prep, or work in the same recipes lol.
We cook almost every meal at home, but I prefer to choose my own, higher quality ingredients without having to worry about someone dropping a random zucchini on me 😅
Hahahah. They actually substituted it intentionally, or was it an accident?
The environmental impact of these delivery companies is astronomical. Their packaging and shipping practices are inefficient which leads to a TON of waste. If we were to implement a carbon pricing scheme these companies would have no way of being profitable because they'd have to pay for the impact of their methods.
Zucchini is way better than Cucumber
That’s funny! So, with their thinking…can I substitute an egg for a mushroom? I mean, they look a lot alike…
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I’ve tried both Hellofresh and Blue Apron, and I am leaning towards Blue Apron because they always have unique recipes and ingredients. Their food looks like restaurant quality. I also learned some new cooking tricks from Blue Apron. If they continue to offer the discount, I will stick with Blue Apron rather than Hellofresh.
I did Purple Carrot for a while. They sent me more food per week than I could ever hope to finish, even on their smallest plan, so it felt like I was just throwing money away. And they sent the same meals every week. After a while I just got tired of them. So overall, it wasn't cheaper, it was wasteful, and it lacked variety.
Factor 75 seemed like a good idea and value but besides the portions being sometimes really small the amount of salt and saturated fat that each meal had was mind blowing
Yep. It’s like they just added oil to get the dish to a desired calorie amount instead of increasing portions. Also, the side was always string beans.
I found the meals too big! 😊
And too fancy.
Factor is keto based to my understanding. And Keto diets are high in fat and low in carbs. There are not very many veggies that are low in carbs do that might explain the side items.
@@veramae4098 yeah im a big guy and usually got 2 or 3 meals out of the 1 i tried. and yes too fancy. take hour or more to make.
@@lurker5577 it’s not Keto. They have that option but you can get all types on meals. They claim to all be healthy. I chose a mix of regular low cal.
Hello Fresh severely underestimated how much I enjoy going to the grocery store. I like buying things I didn't put on a list, and making my own recipes.
To each their own. I hate grocery shopping.
@@zuzanazuscinova5209 But also there's so many grocery delivery services for people that don't like grocery shopping, so scrolling through your phone for ingredients isn't that much different than scrolling through your phone for meals. You can even reorder the same list each week with just a few minor adjustments after you've made an initial list so it's not so much of a hassle each time.
We've been having rolling subscriptions (with discount) of Hello Fresh and Marley Spoon now for the last 2-3 years. Works pretty well. I like the convenience and it forcing me to cook healthier - once the ingredients are in the house, I better cook it instead of letting it go to waste. For me it is the convenience, happy to pay a bit more.
We both like cooking and putting the time into recipes, sometimes altering them a bit on the fly.
Exactly. I love these kits. My favorite ones are Green Chef and Home Chef. Definitely better quality than eating out.
Tried it, after a while everything they sent was expired or lost.
Groceries are way better because they are not expired or expensive.
I’ve had HF for over a year. I definitely eat better because of it, but sometimes it’s Hello Not-So-Fresh
I ordered from Hello Fresh during Covid. The ingredients were never fresh and they sometimes arrive in a half rotten stage. If they cannot solve that problem, I doubt people would keep on ordering them.
No way. Never. The quality in my home can’t be replaced.
I really enjoyed watching this. thank you
I'm amazed at the statistic that only 4.5 meals are cooked per week, that's how many times my family and I eat out for a month
I have to wonder what they consider a cooked meal. Is a sandwich a cooked meal? I eat a lot of those. If i make a pot of rice and fry up a bunch of chicken and peppers to eat for the week. I may have only cooked one meal for like 3 days.
We cook enough to eat leftovers and have takeout once a week, so I buy for 3 cooked dinners.
That's how many times I eat out a YEAR
@@justayoutuber1906 Pfffft, that's how many times I eat out per mega annum!
Yeah, but what exactly does that mean? Do they consider leftovers to be a cooked meal? How about a bowl of cereal and some fruit?
I broke a tooth on a piece of metal in a Hello Fresh meal. They blamed me. The metal didn't come from my non-stick pan or from my silicone spatula. I cancelled that night. Since then they've sent me several "please come back!" offers per month. Ha... no.
I had bits of glass in some soup cups I bought. I figured I should at least contact the company to let them know. Doing so was absolutely impossible, so I gave up and will never consider that brand again.
When I queried my co-workers who had these subscriptions, I heard several complaints about meal kit plans. The biggest complaint was that the produce wasn't as fresh as what you would buy yourself at the grocery or produce market. The second complaint was over portion size. I heard this from men who claimed they went hungry after eating a kit meal. I also heard about mistakes in deliveries, missing items, etc, and of course the price. After the initial discount period, usually two weeks, the regular price is more than twice what I would spend to cook the same number of meals. Unless you are eating out every night or ordering takeaway, meal kits are much more expensive than home cooking.
I worked at Hello Fresh for a little. The amount of plastic and packaging they use is absolutely astounding.
I tried a couple of meal kit services over the years and the main reason I stopped each one was the quality would begin to decline. Boxes would come either missing items or with spoiled items. The number of times I got spoiled meat was frankly unacceptable. And it was always months down the line when this started to happen, making it pretty clear that the company was attempting to cut costs to drive up profit. That plus the price being higher than if you bought the groceries yourself kind of turned me off the whole concept.
Someone else in the comments said quality would decline as soon as the promotional period would end, so you're not alone.
I work in the package delivery business and there are many many failure points that these packages can experience. We get a trailer full of these and throw out 2 or 3 % of that trailer when it arrives in a hub. The boxes might have become crushed under the weight of other boxes due to improper loading, it could have rained so the boxes in the trailer become soaked because most trailers leak a little during rain, the boxes might open up due to lack of enough tape. When we do tape-ups the minimum is 3 strips of tape for the top and bottom. Industry standard is one strip of tape for low value items. For example Amazon uses one strip so they have some of the highest failure rate for packages.
Another point of failure is temperature. These food packages only get refrigeration for part of the trip. They will be subjected to extreme heat or cold sometimes if the weather is bad.
BTW that 2 or 3% failure rate is only for the current hub. I imagine as it moves from hub to hub during the trip even more fail.
Of course when it comes to failure rate of some packages are really extreme where sometimes well over 50% of the packages will fail like when it comes to floor tiles. Basically the floor tiles are shipped with no packaging of any kind and the WILL get thrown around. I do not think we compensate them for this so the companies that ship them like this just accept a 50% failure rate as a cost of business.
Hello Fresh isn't too bad in terms of what you get. Problem is I just want to buy when I have time or interest to cook. With the subscription, I have to be on the ball and cancel or alter my order before it's sent out. I'd stick around if I could order stuff with more of an amazon model. Discounts don't matter much.
Right, you pick your meals. Shipped to you, and then you're just not in the mood for them.
Get used to mealprepping and daily cooking.
You don't need these boring bland kits.
I completely agree. I think they are counting on people forgetting to cancel the weeks they don’t want. When I cancelled I told them I would have kept an account if I could log in and order when I want.
I used to subscribe to HelloFresh. It was nice and all until the discount code expired. By then, I'd had just enough recipe cards from them to go to the local market and buy the same ingredients for a much more affordable price to cook whatever I want without having to follow their menu schedule.
It’s because some are a scam. I ordered Green Chef which puts in ALL of it’s marketing that it’s organic. So you pay the extra prices for it and it’s not. Not at all. A couple of vegetables in all the groceries are. Otherwise, it is absolutely no different than the much cheaper Hello Fresh. Some people even said it sends the same meat.
I’ve ordered 12 meals from Green Chef. I have not received a single organic protein. Most are not even grass fed and like in the pork, contain ingredients like “Natural Pork Flavor.”
I have received multiple packets of cream cheese/sour cream from Daisy and Philadelphia. So some of the cheapest dairy products you can find.
None of the rice is labeled organic. None of the sauces are organic and all contain highly processed chemicals like maltodextrin, seed oils, corn syrups, etc.
It’s literally like six carrots in your entire meal that’s organic. And that’s it.
I eat organic and would have done this one and paid the prices if they didn’t lie about their food.
It’s because their marketing practices are entirely deceptive, so they can’t keep customers once they figure it out.
Buying meal kits had my husband for the first time in 15 years helping cook!!!! We did meal kits for about 3 years, during that time he realized he loved prepping veggies and helping to cook. It has brought us way closer together and gave us time together as a couple. We mostly did Home Chef and loved how each meal was in a bag, no having to think about what to cook. I just wish they had more variety like half chickens or thighs.
The main issue that I had is that often times the food would be spoiled by the time it got to my house during the summer. I'd love to have a meal kit that just handles the most annoying parts of the meal, things like the spices. I can easily pick up the fresh ingredients at the local grocery store or have them delivered over a shorter distance in vehicles that are intended to transport food rather than ranomd other stuff.
I like that. I liked the recipes and the spices too.
Oh how I miss Hamburger Helper. And Tuna Helper. (They don't exist where I live now.) What a beautiful idea, you just pick up the meat and the "annoying part" is in the box.
What about learning to season your Food is annoying?
These are so well made
The model just doesn't make that much sense. You would want this for convenience, but you really don't gain that much. Sure you can skip buying the groceries, but you still have to prepare the food yourself and clean up all the cookware after the fact. Most grocery stores these days will shop for you and let you pick everything up without ever even exiting your car, for a much cheaper price than a meal kit.
The only ways this can work are if the meals are pre-prepared and you can just pop them in the oven (making the convenience justify the price), or if the price is consistently cheaper than the grocery (which just doesn't seem possible).
I'm also stunned at how infrequently the average person eats at home and how much people are spending on average per meal.
It would be pretty cool if instead of everyday dishes, they delivered meal kits with uncommon ingredients that are harder to find locally
Or ingredients with smaller portions, so annoying to have to buy an entire bottle of vinegar when I just need to use a few drops for a meal prep.
@@kuni2330cleaning fluid. Mix with water.
I decided to try out one of the meal kit services just to give myself a break a few times a week. I skip every second week or so, but I just really like coming home after work and not having to expend any mental energy on dinner plans, I just get the baggie out of the fridge and follow the instructions. I've been doing this for almost 3 years now, and it's really had a positive mental health impact for me. Sure, there are issues every now and then, but nothing so bad that it'll make me consider quitting any time soon.
Exactly! Grocery shopping is always stressful especially when they are out of stuff or the quantities available are way off from what I need. Not to mention the time wasted driving, parking, finding a cart and returning it, etc. The only drawback of meal kits is the extra packaging.
It’s just so hot where I live that I found many of the chilled ingredients weren’t as fresh bcs they sat on a hot truck too long despite being packed in cooling boxes.
I subscribed to one while living abroad, and used it to learn how to cook, both in general and also specifically german food. Once I felt comfortable with several recipes and finding the names of the ingredients in the grocery store in german, I stopped using Hello Fresh and started doing my own grocery shopping. I still use those Hello Fresh recipes all the time, and use the times and temperatures for cooking chicken, rice, and noodles as a reference.
I have never been tempted to try "meal kits" like these. I am not at all wealthy, and I live very close to the grocery stores and go frequently enough to know what is cheapest at which place. I also grew up learning to cook (though I realize not everyone gets this chance; many have mentioned in the comments that the meal kits helped them learn). I'm not about to pay $15+ for one kit that has three red potatoes, a tiny chunk of chicken, and a few asparagus spears when I can buy enough ingredients for maybe 4 meals of the same type for about $20, if I shop properly. I realize the "kits" may be useful to some, but I think about 90% of the population just does better without them.
The problem is convenience. The food kit companies solved the shopping hassle, but for most busy people, they would like most of the prep also solved. I don’t want to spend time cutting up carrots and would prefer something almost ready to cook by opening a bag and dumping it all into a pan or pot.
When I was using Hello Fresh I started to have work arounds for a lot of what they sent. No matter what they said I used the rice cooker. I got much quicker with onions through sheer reps and now understand quarter inch vs. half inch cuts without looking at my ruler on my dough scraper. I think it was great to do for a while if you want to learn how to cook actually, but we dropped it for a few reasons and now we just make our meals though.
That and having our choices mostly be which rice bowl and burger they were sending this week got old after a while honestly.
Even restaurant, schools, etc. will order pre-chopped things from the wholesalers. Why do the meal kit preppers think it's OK to just send whole stuff? I don't get it. :/
@@daffers2345 Because anything cut up that is fresh will have a substantially shorter shelf life and spoil quickly. Customers won't be pleased when they open the kits and the prepped veg has gone soft and slimy.
@@SY-ok2dq I was thinking weighing amounts and vacuum-sealing packs like they do at the warehouses, but maybe that wouldn't be economically feasible. These things already seem pricey.
@@daffers2345 I don't know about the details of the system these companies use, but I do believe that even some small extra steps can be surprisingly hard to implement and take a lot of time to incorporate, in addition to extra expense. There's machinery to buy and so on.
This is where very small businesses have an advantage as they can pivot quickly and implement somr changes quickly, and sometimes without much extra expense. For example, a small service that serves only one citiy, with say, 20 employees, the costs are in their wages really. It's fairly easy for them to do certain things like say offer double sized portions, do trial runs of an idea, and so on.
I absolutely love these kits. Currently using Green Chef. I despise going to the grocery store so even if it's more expensive it's well worth it for me.
I've tried several of these. There have been a few misses, with leaking packages, etc, but I actually liked most of them. In every case, I canceled because of the horrendous amount of packaging. The frozen gel packs are a nightmare, and I could have built a house from all of the cardboard. Until there's a solution to all of that mess I won't be signing up again.
For real, dealing with the waste and “recycling” of regular grocery items is already bad enough. I cringe at the amount of packaging and ice packs required to get a meal kit delivered.
It's shocking to me how this isn't the main complaint. It effectively tripled our non recyclable waste. absolute insanity.
Don’t know why this was not something you anticipated before signing up 😂
Given how unsatified customers are with the value (complaints about cost/portion/freshness/etc), it's amazing they fail to profit. It can't just be a matter of scale (mom and pop restaurants buy smaller volumes than them); there's got to be something fundamentally wrong with the business model.
The food isn't really that good, so it's not worth spending that much on. The only thing they had going was the food shipped to your door, dont have to go out and go shopping. Now it's easy and cheep to get groceries shipped to your door.
I agree. As an ex customer of hellofresh, for me, the fundamental flaw is that it costs just shy of what it would cost to eat out every night, but I still have to cook the food and it's not like it's any healthier either for the most part. Plus, we almost never had a week where we didn't have to buy at least one replacement item because the produce was bad. On top of all of that, they advertise lessening waste and "green" packaging as a big selling point, but they often give you extra ingredients that you basically can't use otherwise, and the sheer insane amount of packaging that was 100% not green in anyway other than sometimes it color. Basically, none of it lived up to its sales pitch. We managed to half our grocery budget just by dropping them, and in this economy, it was an absolute necessity.
Mom and pop restaurants are fine with making a decent profit. Public corporations need to make huge profits and have CEOs with large salaries.
Ha ha, learn about accounting. If you could look at the accounting you would understand how they can say we are not profitable. Salaries, travel, business vehicles, business lunches, dinners, etc, etc. I believe a lot of these companies are created by people looking for investors to support them until the next new thing comes in vogue.
Massive discounts and high churn explain lack of profit easily. I'm more surprised that Hello Fressh apparently _is_ profitable.
My problem with the meal kits were the food for the week all tasted the same…
There were spice packets and all of em had the same ones for the week. I got bored.
Plus it’s crazy expensive. With shipping it’s almost the same as eating out. $12/meal+$20 shipping. Might as well buy $15 takeout
I recently read an article about how dumpster diving has increased in popularity as food prices grow to be out of reach of more and more people. Some of the people who do it leave the extras they find in community cupboards, to be taken by people who need the help but can't bring themselves to go through dumpsters themselves.
But it's nice that your meal kits are a lifestyle product.
My husband signed us up for these to try to make things easier, mainly so I could just grab a recipe card and cook dinner for our kids without having to think about it. However, I only have them half the time (divorced household), so I didn't need a full week worth of dinners each week. But to get the cheapest cost per meal, I had to order 4 nights worth, so I'd use them over a couple weeks. The issue came in that every time I tried to skip a week of meals, their app would magically un-skip it, charge me, and ship out food I didn't want or need. We finally got fed up with it and cancelled the subscription to their service. The food was good, recipes too, but they need to offer more flexibility in how you can order and when you get charged. I'd love it if they'd offer one payment a month like any other kind of service and let you pick how much comes and when. Also, offer meal sizes for kids. Lots of families out there who could use a way to simplify dinner time, without too much hassle of course!
In my experience it is the meal companies that run off customers. We've tried two meal delivery companies, the first for 2 years and the second for 2 years. Both started off with good quality ingredients and an acceptable content and packaging. Both slowly devolved into multiple missing items, damaged items, bad produce, wrong item, missed delivery dates. We found a much better option that exists in most larger cities; precooked meals that are delivered weekly. They provide healthy meals packaged two meals per microwave trey. With 5 meals for 2 people we pay $8 to $9 per serving and get free delivery. They microwave amazingly well and we have not been disappointed with any meal. You can tell it focuses on the meals then the logistics. The big meal delivery companies focus on logistics over quality. Our service is called Front Porch out of Dallas. There are other providers out of Dallas as well so there is choice. Worth checking your area for similar companies.
Man that pre cooked and microwaved stuff isn’t healthy. Don’t eat it everyday. Learn to cook yourself.
@@dayros2023 The whole point is that people don't have enough free time any more to do it. Between work, sleep, and other responsibilities there just frequently isn't time.
Taking care of a household used to be considered a full time job, and now it's the thing people have to come home from their job to do.
@@dayros2023 I'm actually a good cook and do cook on the weekends. All of their meals are healthy, low salt, no added chemicals, just fresh proteins, vegetables, and carbs. Do some research, more companies are providing fresh cooked healthy meals and they are a great solution when you don't have much time during the work week.
Yum - I love nuked food.
Why don't you just order your groceries online and cook yourself.
4:34 I tried factor because a lot of podcasters I follow use and promote it. In the beginning I loved the convenience of not having to worry about prepping dinner for myself after a long day. It was easy and the food tasted great and had good variety. I ended up dripping factor after 8 boxes because every meal tasted the same after a while. I even skipped several weeks to give my taste buds a chance to reset. By the end the price for 4 meals was close to $90. In the beginning for the introductory period it was only $60 for 4 meals. I had one meal arrived damaged and 1 completely missing. They do apply a discount to your account for future boxes, not back into your method of payment. I understand that but went back to making my own meals because I just liked the taste of my own home cooking better.
I use Hello Fresh on and off with heavy discounts which brings the price to €3.5 a meal on average. This seems low but
a) you get almost no meat - a tiny amount per person
b) a lot of their meals use the same ingredients and so it often ends up tasting similarly : I have a dozen sachets of soy sauce in my fridge from just a few boxes for example
c) their vegetables are often of poor quality & they often use diced chicken which is clearly of lower quality full of fat
d) prepping takes way more bowls and stuff than a regular meal I'd make so you have a full dishwasher after you're done
e) the portions aren't big & there's always too little sauce - half the meals feel too dry
It's definitely cheaper to buy everything in the store even with the discount and you can get the ratios you like. Want more meat? No problem! Want more sauce? No problem!
The only reason I basically use Hello Fresh, is when I want to force myself to eat with a bit more variety (usually during a busier period where I'd otherwise grab unhealthy food).
I have always found it interesting that the TH-cam personalities who advertise Hello Fresh never seem to stick with it once the sponsorship ends. I am sure it is a good product, but in the end, it only saves you shopping. You still need to cook. So it is only really a good idea for people who love cooking but dislike shopping.
It also saves me having to come up with a meal. And because I live alone, it saves me from wasting a lot of produce.
@@loosilu It would seem to be best suited to busy single people or perhaps couples, but it sounds like the costs and the quality of the product (spoiled or too-old produce etc.) just don't make it an attractive choice longterm.
Then there seem to be those who simply don't like or don't want to have to cook every night, OR don't have the time.
Really, in the end it seems to me that only smaller,very targeted niche companies like Methodology, that target a customer with some cash to spare and who isn't going to hop from service to service to chase discounts and get the cheapest possible options, are going to be the most viable. And it is. As she said, they've been doing well from day 1 practically.
And then there's the huge dominant player like Hello Fresh, taking up the whole mass market cheap end of the market, and able to make good profits by selling on a massive scale.
I wouldn’t read too much into that, most TH-cam creators will advertise anything that pays them (see Raid Shadow Legends).
That’s true of 95% of the ads they take once the deal is done so is the product to them
@@ptshyu2it's always worth seeing how many of the TH-camrs that advertise a certain earphone brand wear them outside the sponsored segment