It seems like their strategy is to sell every meal at the same price regardless of how cheap it is to make. If you just choose based on taste and to get a variety you are going to massively overpay for some of them without realising. Anyway if you go to a grocery store just to buy 10 ready meals you can be done and out of there in 5 minutes so why are you paying for delivery.
hellofresh was great for me and my bf to give us meal prep/recipe ideas and it helped us get into the habit of cooking but i could not imagine doing it for more than a few months. this microwave shit looks worse than my middle school food tho lmao
Let me let you in on a secret. They're old people meals. My mom, before she passed away, got a meal plan exactly like this through her medicare. They'd send you packaged meals that looked exactly, 100% like these, that you heat up for a couple of minutes in the microwave.
love the point at the end about factor being good for people who are SO overworked they literally do not have the time to cook. but also have the kind of money to drop on 10$/meal. like that's such a weird niche to be aiming at, because if people are working that much out of necessity then they probably can't afford a service priced like factor, but anyone who has the money for factor is probably just gonna spend their money on better food than that. really not sure what their customer base looks like
Note that it's also not just good for people who spend a lot of time working but also a lot of disabled people who might not be able to plan their own meals or cook for themselves, but that also falls into the range of generally not going to have the money to justify spending that much on a service like this. it really sucks because something like this would legitimately be a good help for a lot of people had it just not been for the price.
@@ajmoment8091 oh no literally I am disabled and I previously got excited abt factor because I would KILL to have genuinely cooked food ready for me this easily! but like hell I can spend 10$/meal when I'm already struggling to get by on disability income, believe you me I know I hate being a potential demographic but being priced out of it entirely
I bet you could find someone to make you enough meals for 3-4 days and it wouldn't cost much more than factor, but finding the person would be a hassle. It's like paying someone to clean your house. If you're really that busy and you're making decent money, it is worth it. Frankly, I bet if you got to talking to a local, independent restaurant, you could cut a deal for pre purchased meals.
My favorite part is when TH-camrs are promoting Factor, half the time they dont even show themselves really eating it. Instead you get a lot of shots of the meal and maybe one shot of taking of bite, not chewing or swallowing, just eating a bite and thumbs up.
I didn't see Factor sponsoring youtubers until Doug Doug mentioned them in a non-sponsored video talking about his health. And it was like after he mentioned them Factor was like "hang on, we can just on the youtube sponsorship train too!"
That’s because a lot of people find eating on camera to be gross and off putting. Trust me, the meals aren’t so bad they’d have to fake a reaction because they are so disgusting
TEN BUCKS for one meal? Bro jesus christ, I'd rather just buy my ingredients and cook everything myself. As much as I am one to often pay for a convenience cost, that is absurd.
I remember most Factor ad reads mention that it is a cheaper option than going out to eat or going to the store, which considering the price means their studies were done by people who really impulse buy at inner city whole foods or something.
it's such a crazy claim because a bland microwaved tv dinner that costs 2 dollars less than a huge entree at a Chilis is just not going to scale price for flavor lol
I work at FedEx as a package handler, and the number of factor boxes, among other meal kits,we get is absolutely insane. At least a full 1000 piece box truck of just factor a day, and that's not counting the other meal kit services.
I enjoy meal delivery services cause I eat better with them (as otherwise I eat breed and cheese repetitively). I am currently using cookUnity because it's uses local. Shipping adds so much extra packaging (which some is recyclable-ish but not really, and the isolation takes up a lot of room in my shared recycling bin...), and that's a lot of environmental costs in the shipping across the nation every week-- that's a lot of boxes you're handling! Vs Cookunity is similar to factor in food, price, and has similar per meal packaging, but it deliveries in insulated bags instead of insulation+boxes, and the delivery persons picks up last week's bag/ice packs to reuse. So the only waste is the meal packaging itself, which is a lot less and mostly recycling also. I choose it over microwave meal cause sodium content and does taste better then most microwave meals.
@hefoxed I'm glad you have an alternative to cheese and bread, lol. I can imagine the cost of shipping could get out of hand after some time, but instead of worrying about groceries and meal planning, meal kits are quite convenient. Also, I'm not sure where you're from, but where I live, it's near impossible to recycle properly. Considering that and I love cooking my meals, I never really had a good reason to try any of these ready to eat kits.
I used to with at FedEx and I can agree. I thought hello fresh was a niche thing no one actually signed up for. But every shift we definitely got a truck worth of meal subscriptions.
@@Ybeetus Thankfully, it's easy to recycle the main stays where I live (we have explicit recycling bins), but been learning a lot of stuff isn't actually recycled even if it goes to a recycling center -- particular plastic doesn't tend to get meaningfully recycled :x Also, many of meal kits use items that can be recycled but need to be dropped off/sent to specific places to actually recycle. So, less goes into the bins, the better. Also, I share one bin with two other units on a property. We could switch to separate bins, but more expensive and more importantly, uglier (would have to find the extra bins in the pretty part of the yard)
@@hefoxedAmerica's waste system is the same, and it's infuriating. All the trouble of sorting trash, and they don't do anything, just throw it in the same landfill as the other trash. I blame the manufacturers, who know their shit isn't reusable but lied anyway to get the EPA off their backs; and the waste management companies who seem too lazy to actually say anything about how it's a waste of time and trash bins, the way it currently is.
current state of the economy allows bullshit fluff products that probably dont make actual profit surge in money for stocks because of speculation, honestly most tech companies survive on stock speculation alone and would probably die if a major stock crash happened
There’s a hole in the market for it, simple as that. There are many demographics that benefit greatly from having convenient solutions for their meals, and companies have simply capitalized on this.
the big thing is, at least in the UK, those pre-packaged supermarket meals that you said taste pretty much the same are usually half the price of a factor meal !! like, i'd much rather go to the supermarket and pick them myself then lmao
I'm disabled so meal delivery services make a lot of sense for me. That said most of them, including factor are awful. The best you'll find are options that are exclusively local and work with local restruaunts. Anything else is going to be overcooked sousvede mush
Another thing worth noting, and this is true of all meal-delivery type deals, the sheer amount of plastics each package contains is NUTS. I’m no environmental nut, but it’s pretty egregious. Especially for the price.
Not really, same as any other packaged food. Just because you buy something in the store doesn’t mean it wasn’t packaged in plastic before they put it on the shelf, lmao
If you're not able or willing to prep food yourself, it's either factor, or you order take out. If youre getting takeout, chances are you're also gonna get a plastic container anyway.
All processed foods have this issue. There are solutions, farmers markets, gardens, hunting, fishing, etc. those also save you money, but they take time. It’s high time we brought back glass, wax paper, and tinfoil but sadly I’m not king of the world. 😢
The thing that drives me crazy about Factor is that it's almost exactly the same as those pre-packaged fresh meals you get at grocery stores (as you mentioned at the end). If these busy, overworked but well-off people were to go to a higher-end grocery store they could get something that's the same quality (IMO grocery store meals taste better than most Factor ones), roughly the same price if not cheaper, more quantity, and you can easily adjust what/how much you get based on your tastes or how much you'll be eating out that week, etc.
I think what helps is that a lot of those supermarket meals are usually made that day, and sometimes you can even get them still warm depending on the area. And as a bonus, they don't get that microwave *mush* texture that a lot of these TV dinner type things have
I get that, a bunch of sponsors/advertisers work really well for disabled people but neurotypical/able-bodied people have less of a need for. I wish it wouldn't be so expensive, disabled people deserve healthy meals too!
The problem with Hello Fresh isn't really about the quality of the food, but more about how unethical they are, with how they treat their staff and everything
I had it for a long time and it was actually good. It made me not eat unhealthy food lol. My only complaint was the lack of seasoning, but besides that it’s really worth it (at least where I live.)
@@SykoMuffinthere's really a specific population that it's meant for because it's cheaper for me when I'm manic and I would order delivery 3x in a day just because , but if I were to just, idk, not do that, there's no way I'd ever be able to justify Factor lmao
@@Firevine This is actually kinda interesting, because where I live that is a complete impossibility. 20-25 is pretty much the bare minimum once tax and tips are added. I guess their pricing model works pretty well in some regions of the country and horrible in others. I don't know where you're getting food that cheap, but a frozen Pizza's $9.49 where I live.
Let me deal with Hello Fresh quickly. My mom did that because the pandemic hit and we couldn't go to Walmart or food lion as much, but also she was tired of cooking the same thing. Pretty decent food actually. But it is ALL. THE. SAME. INGREDIENTS. Same beef, same pork, same potatoes. Sometimes they mix up what you get with what, but it's like taco bell. Same ingredients in different orders. We have since changed to Dinnerly which I haven't seen much advertising if anything and the variety is MUCH better than Hello Fresh.
We usually get a lot of variety out of HF. Yeah they use a lot of green onions and sour cream, but it’s overall just so much more convenient and varied than what we’d normally make if we had to plan meals every week. And weirdly enough, their fish is ALWAYS huge.
That’s why I stopped using hello fresh, because after a while everything has that “hello fresh taste”. For me a big component was that every single cream based sauce was crème fraîche. Every single cheese was cheddar or “hard Italian style”. I did try Green Chef for quite a long time and they were absolutely fantastic. Loads more recipe variety and variety in ingredients. Don’t know if they’re available outside of the uk, but they’re my go to. I still use a lot of their recipe cards.
Might I suggest the humble balaclava for a face covering? It keeps you warm, and doesnt make you too hot depending on the material you go with, obscures your face, while still allowing you to see and depending on the design you go with, allows you to eat without removing it. you could also design your own balaclava and sell it as merch too if thats your kind of thing.
Is there even a good sponsorship product? This almost feels like a bubble that's going to burst with every sponsorship being useless crap or complete scam.
A lot of stuff advertised on this platform would be booted off television by the Federal Trade Commission. The internet doesn’t have those kinds of regulations so you get a lot more crap.
@@GreenShark4 TH-cam gets more eyes than anything on tv, even the super bowl. Regulations being loose at best is just the icing on the cake. Why would they go anywhere else?
When my dad was diagnosed with cancer, his coworkers pitched in to sign our family up for an absurd amount of Factor meals. I ate so many of those things while crying lmao.
@@vectorthehop3945 I am, thank you! My dad is still alive and doing quite well. He started on a new chemo pill that ended up working incredibly well for him. The cancer is still terminal and he’ll never go into remission, but he’s still very active and energetic. He’s exceeding his doctor’s expectations by a long shot. :) We just got home from a family vacation where he had more stamina than me, and I’m 25 with no health conditions. Cancer is a bitch, but I’m very grateful for modern medicine.
@@bzipoli This was 2021ish and many of them were pretty weird at the time. A lot of fruit jam + meat combos. Also my dad’s cancer symptoms severely limited his appetite so it was all too rich for him, which is why I ended up with a lot of the meals lol. The meals look better now. I so appreciate the coworkers who got those meals for us, but they probably weren’t aware it was mostly feeding me. 😬 Also, my dad is doing great. His treatments are working better than any of his doctors anticipated. :)
I love it when the funny man releases another audiovisual critique towards a popular sponsorship used in the same platform and/or other popular social medias
If you're going to spend extra money on microwave dinners and you're in the US, just buy Amy's meals. All their stuff is organic and they have gluten-free and vegetarian options. The meals are kinda pricy, anywhere from $5 to $8 depending on where you shop, but that's still less than Factor. Obviously you're better off just cooking your own meals, but I can't blame anyone for choosing microwave dinners. After a long day of work you may not feel like cooking, and it's a lot easier just to throw something in the microwave for a few minutes and go sit on the couch.
I don't live in the States anymore, but man when I did those Amy's meals were my jam. I don't know if the Mac and Cheese one is as good as it was 10 years ago, but 10 years ago it went unfairly hard for a microwave meal.
@@LazarNaskovas someone who loves mac & cheese and always sees Amy’s at my local store, I’m gonna have to pick it up next time I go! Thanks for the plug
Unless they're cooking the meals day of near where you live or providing a specific niche diet or food, there's literally nothing any meal service can do to improve quality. The requirements for mass producing, preserving the food, and maintaining cost basically homogenizes them all. It's sad how much content creators have to lie through their teeth just to get decently paying sponsors.
Factor actually IS cooking the meals directly before packaging and sending. That’s why you have to pre-order, so they know how much to make each week. They’re expensive, but if I’m doing a pre-prepped meal for any reason, I find Factor meals to be the least offensive. They taste like someone just cooked up some basic ingredients at home and packaged them up for the next day.
I think the most horrifying thing is that Dougdoug's love for factor makes more sense if you've seen his guy fieri cooking stream. He is his own food desert.
So my Mum is like 80 now and gets a catalogue for something called "Oakhouse Foods" which is... literally this. Delivered microwave meals with fancy descriptions using words like "hand finished by our chefs" so old people don't get fussy.
@@greenhowie so if its too expensive its ass because of the price but if its cheap and affordable like they promise then its fishy and weird? yall really cant make up your mind
@@Lennyxxi think they meant it in the context of "Exactly, so if those are 6 bucks a pop makes you wonder why these (Factor) meals range from 10-15 dollars, which is literally double that for essentially the same product"
I always found a meal delivery service sponsorships unintentionally funny because there really is no good reason to have it as your main source of food so all of the creators always say stuff like you don’t have to eat out and not explain why that’s a selling point
@@Rolandeld1999 uh... no. you clearly dont know ANYTHING. for example, i have executive dysfunction at home but lots of motivation outside of the house... meaning my disability literally is location dependent, and this is *very common*. youre also saying that either disabled people cant work(false), or if they do work they shouldnt seek ways to make their life easier. im not promoting factor, im attacking the idea that there is no reason to do so
@@TheLakabanzaichrg it overwhelms lots of people, because people usually want to eat something different every day. meal planning is easy if you make ONE thing, because youre only planning one meal! but meal planning is important, otherwise we reach for high calorie snack foods instead of balanced meals, which is clearly a problem in america.
Cooking is one of the few hobbies that will always save you money. You eventually learn how to do less work to cook more food. For those with no time to cook: Chocolate milk + coffee for breakfast, Sandwich for lunch, and for dinner, Rare steak and sashimi with equal parts (don't worry, you don't have be exact): Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, fish sauce, and distilled white vinegar, with optional sugar. If you need more Vitamin C then swap the white vinegar with apple cider vinegar. For dessert, whole milk and clearance rack bakery sweets. There's also the Crockpot Chili Mac & Cheese meta, but that's not recommended unless you've already mastered Portion Control or your portions are already controlled by your budget.
that just looks like aeroplane food lmao Also I love how it's under Hello fresh, it's like HF realized there's people who just can't be convinced to cook no matter how convenient it is, and went "ok fine here's a microwave meal"
I'm a flight attendant and legit thought the same 😭 Plane food is cheaper too, and thats a captive market at 30,000ft with all the associated logistics. Maybe Gate Gourmet and dnata need to get into the food delivery business
I don't understand Factor at all. Nothing about them is any way unique or even particularly convenient. If I wanted a bunch of microwave meals to be shipped directly to my door, I could just order some from Amazon for half the price.
No shit you don't understand them if you would order frozen food from Amazon. You aren't their target market and never will be. That's disgusting and probably the laziest thing I've ever read
Also "never frozen" is just. Well, why is it being advertised? It's not a good thing. Frozen vegetables and flash frozen meat are just plain identical. It's a difference of temperature, not chemicals, and it means you can use less preservatives and salt. Then there's "wellness shots" and "wheatgrass". Ginger is good, wheat is edible, neither are special. Like it might not be an OUTRIGHT scam but it's absolutely bordering on dishonest advertising, leaning more on buzzwords than quality.
@@timotheataeWendy's advertising is similar. but here the trade-off is less time to prepare. no thawing , no icy frozen potatoes. ppl claim frozen isn't as good, and that's how Wendy's maintains a customer base. apparently.
@@timotheatae The expectation of never frozen is that it sort of implies it to be fresh from a nice restaurant quality. Its just a deceitful way of taking advantage of expectations.
@@NEEDbaconThis tells me you’ve never had Factor in your life because in no way do they remotely taste like Hungry Man slop. Hell, I’m willing to bet the majority of people here haven’t ever had a meal and are just jumping the band wagon because it’s cool to blindly hate any sponsored company these days.
this video is reminding me how good i had it during quarantine when a local middle school with a big cafeteria kitchen made ready to pick up meals for all students in the county. now that was actually a fresh and cheap meal with pretty big portions (and you returned the plastic container it came in so they could wash and reuse them, so less plastic waste) local options always seem to be the best.
instant click whenever a new episode of another paid promotion comes out Also, I would love a full episode on Established Titles that examines the scam.
Finally, a TH-cam channel that acknowledges the shady sponsorship practices that have been rampant on TH-cam for years. I really doubt that most of my favorite creators actually really use the services they promote. It’s just so fake
the thing about meal delivery programs that completely shatters their business model is that they don’t replace getting groceries. everyone who I’ve ever known who’s used blue apron or hello fresh, etc, didn’t stop getting groceries while using the service. These services always position themselves as being a cheaper, more convenient replacement of buying groceries and making meals from a recipe, but when you realize the portions are so far from a home cooked meal, it really doesn’t make sense economically. For the cost of one serving of a given meal, you could make the entire meal’s worth of food from grocery bought ingredients.
I feel like we don't need a raid shadow legends video. Sure it's a huge sponsor, but you can see if it's good for yourself for free. Stuff like this factor video is great because it's expensive so we can see if it's worth it without having to sink a bunch of money in, but if you need to see if raid is good then just download it and see for yourself
So I'm homeless, and we got a couple Factor meals sent to our site. I tried it and immediately threw it away. Literally the prison dinner level meals we get are better than Factor. Heck, some food we get is on the edge of expiring and I still wanted it more than any of the Factor garbage we got.
This 100% makes sense why DougDoug advocates heavily for them. Someone who drinks olive oil to avoid cooking for years would probably find this delicious by comparison.
Every service that tries to replace something I do every day just screams "scam" to me. Like, if you were that good, you wouldn't need hundreds of people pushing your promotions.
I did factor in my dorms because the meals all fit in the mini fridge easier than real groceries and the severe lack of a kitchen made cooking hard. I was allowed an air fryer and microwave but doing ALL your cooking in that was a bad experience in a space that was only 9 by 9 square feet. It worked when needed and was cheaper than the scam that is college campus food plans.
My general rule of thumb is: If I see more than 50% of the youtubers I watch advertise it, then I know it's a shit product. Because at that point they've spent more money on sponsoring youtubers than actually making a good product
As a person that workouts quite often, I would need to at least eat FOUR of these factor meals. (I'm 5'8, 136 pounds.) And it speaks on how these are barely meals.
4:12 at that point just get mc donalds or something. Yeah yeah, "its heathier to get this" I dont honestly care, if you want health cook yourself, if you want easy food, get fast food.
I used to subscribe to these meal plans because I used to work long hours and I was dieting. I rarely had time to cook, so instead of getting fast food, I subscribed to these meal services. I honestly used Factor because Freshly went out of business. I liked Freshly a lot more. They were cheaper (probably why they went out of business) and had a larger variety of healthy meals. With Factor, I had to stick to only a couple of meals that were within my diet plan, and it got real old real fast. I eventually canceled my plan because I wasn't a big fan of the variety and I got a new job where I worked a regular 9-5, so I had more time to cook every night.
Years ago I got a a sheet pan cook book. It’s effective “dump all these ingredients on one pan”. It is not hard or expensive or messy, and the recipes are actually good. It cost $12.
Cant wait you for you get big enough to get a sponsor that is just as sketchy as most of the current big ones are while also preaching about something that the sponsor kind of goes against. And yes, I've witnessed one or two youtubers like this.
Got it before. They tasted really good just on the small side. The issue is once the promotion price ends, and you are paying $140 for a week's worth of meals that will only fill up a child.
It's ridiculous how had sponsors are getting. I use Premium and I pay for ad-free services, yet sponsors in videos are practically just as annoying and just as shady as regular ads too. Yeah, I know it's out of YT's control. Yeah, I know TH-camrs need to put food on the table. And yeah, I am aware SponsorBlock on PC exists, and I'm aware sponsors are skippable. But this sponsor BS is putting a bandaid on the problem. For one, it's ridiculous how every year, TH-cam keeps making it so creators earn less and less revenue, and even more ridiculous how they keep making monetization guidelines stricter and stricter. Creators have to put in more effort for less money, and that's stupid. For two, there's a lot of TH-camrs who already make a lot. There's creators with tens of millions of subscribers and yet they need sponsorship money? And think about this for a second: so I joined your channel membership. I joined your Patreon. I donated money to say "Thanks" on your videos, I even bought your merch from your merch store. And you're telling me that _none_ of that is enough and you want me to buy from/subscribe to a shady company? Some of these creators I know for a fact make a _shit_ ton of money, and sponsors just seem so ridiculous. At the end of the day, an ad is still an ad. I just hate how no matter how much effort you go through to get rid of them, and no matter how much you pay for an ad-free service, there's still always going to be ways to advertise to you anyways. They are so damn intrusive and have the time scummy, and it's just the same with sponsors. It's just ads with extra steps. I don't care that Adblock and Sponsorblock exist. It doesn't make advertisements and sponsors any less annoying. The point is that I shouldn't _have_ to go through all this workaround BS. This shit should just be a given. Like my Prime Video subscription is not cheap, and they just made it so I have ads now, and have to pay an extra $3 a month to get rid of them. I'm not using your service for free, so how about I get zero ads because I'm paying for it? And Amazon makes so much money and even paid negative-percent taxes once or twice one year, you can't tell me they can't afford to not have ads. Even dumber still is a lot of Prime content is only available on FreeVee now, which has no ad-free options period. I haven't seen YT ads in so many years since getting Premium, but I always hear about just how bad they've gotten. Numerous unskippable ads back-to-back, excessively-long ads for a 5-10 second video, etc. And since YT doesn't moderate ads, anyone can make an ad which means there's been a lot of scam stuff. If people really wanted to put sponsors on their videos, save it to the freakin' end so it's not intrusive. Not that it matters anyways because nobody ever researches their sponsors, they just take the money and run without a care in the world. I'm so tired of there being advertising in everything that I see and do no matter how much I try to avoid it, or pay to avoid.
unfortunately these people usually have no say in their sponsors. They start okay, but quickly get worse and worse, and you have no choice but to shill it or lose your next ten sponsors. Which is how you get ridiculous bullshit like a united states museum shilling bullshit titles in a foreign country. This caused a big divide in youtubers, those who complained about it and made change happen, and those who shilled with all their heart for things they knew were bad.
I’m so happy to see someone is doing legitimate reviews on these things. Sponsorships are obviously a no go, and you can’t really trust customer reviews on a lot of websites. I can see this series getting a lot of attention. Good stuff ❤
I just don’t understand why I would buy this when my local grocery store has an aisle full of frozen meals that are just as good, if not better. Plus they’re cheaper.
@@Cyrotex I know. People are saying carbs like that's a bad thing when there's a reason we centered our civilization on them... Weird how plain rice is available in every grocery store but plain wheat is harder to get though
My mom works at a frozen meal deliver service and tbh just go for that. they have like 50 options and are pretty cheap since they're primarily bought by elderly folks
ngl i really like factor but so much depends on: 1. whether the price is worth it for you. If $20ish/day on food is too much for you or $12/day for 1 supplementary meal/day is too much for you then factor wouldn't be good even if meal was literally 5 star chef quality. 2. what meals you actually get. So many of factors meals are honestly just gross. ESPECIALLY the ones they pick for you by default. But some are really good at least for what it is. in other words there's _enough_ meals in every weeks menu that taste like an above average home cooked meal. I'd recommend finding like 4-5 that you love and making half of ur meals each week at least one of them ( you need a couple bc some meals alternate every other week and I haven't really studied it but I imagine some are even less frequent than every other week). Off the top of my head some of the good meals are pork ragu fusili, jamaican style chicken thighs, poblano beef bowl, taco bowl, the tamale bowl (ive only tried the meat one but i forget which meat it is. i imagine the vegetarian one is good too) 3. Cook them in the oven not the microwave. Microwaved food tastes bad. especially if it's fresh food and not frozen food designed chemically to be heated up in the microwave. all u have to do is put it on a baking tray, and throw it in the oven for 12 minutes (it says 7 on the packaging but they're wrong) 4. and this could maybe should've been a 1 pt 2 or something but _Game The System._ Factor is a direct to consumer brand, and like all these companies they spend wayyyy too much on marketing and will eventually go out of business once they run out of investor money. The important part is they have way too much money in marketing and just want customers at any cost. This means that the rules on their welcome bonuses are very lax and there are loopholes. I won't go into specifics in case they read this and get rid of it but in simple terms. If you're smart, you can keep paying the welcome deal price forever. I can't afford the base price but I can afford the discount price and as somebody who has a gluten allergy, and is disabled so I can't really cook for myself very easily this company and their very excessive marketing bonuses are a god send. I can actually eat a real meal that tastes good (in the comfy grandma way not the indulgent restaurant way) with vegetables and balanced macros every day. Something I've never been able to do on my own for more than a couple weeks at a time
The price is the main reason why I stayed away from a lot of these Factor meals. You can get a pre-packaged meal at a grocery store that is cheaper and fills you up more. Heck, even the chicken meals that I got at the grocery store were not only cheaper. But, also more filling! And, that's what you want when it comes to lunch and supper. And, you wonder why I still go to fast food restaurants every weekend. At least with places like Wendy's and McDonald's, you only have to pay one or two meals per weekend as opposed to paying over $100 for 6 meals and $154 for 10 meals! The phrase, good lord comes to mind. Not to mention, Wendy's makes some of the better fast food burgers in my opinion. Especially compared to places like McDonald's, Burger King and A&W. It's no wonder why they got a sponsorship deal with Trackhouse Racing. Believe me, these kind of burgers most definitely get the Ross Chastain Seal of Approval. So yeah, Factor is just not worth it to me. And like you said, some meals are already inexpensive and easy to prepare on their own which kinda defeats the purpose.
Idk I liked factor when I had it I was working a crazy schedule and left like I didn’t have time to cook, and it was a better alternative to buying lunch every day Food was surprisingly yummier than I expected and healthier than what I would have been buying It’s definitely not TV dinner tier, but I’ve canceled it now that I’m back to a stable schedule and can meal prep
"Wow this is a fun review of products I see everywhere and-- Is that Walk Through the Park playing?" DankPods you beautiful man, now I associate the music with food AND headphone reviews.
i work at a local version of this, and from what i can tell the lack of seasoning could be mainly caused by what seams to be a heavy marketing focus to the ederly the amount of orders i pack for delivery is insane sometimes
The crazy thing about Factor is they went for rebranding microwaved food. Their competitors at least try to appear fresh but Factor just went "fuck it, you'll eat our microwave food and you'll like it". Weirdest food delivery service for sure
![เป็นไปได้ไหม - WanMai [Teaser] | 05-12-24](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/P5Uto6e453w/mqdefault.jpg)
Factor is just TV dinner cosplaying as healthy food
Underrated comment
It seems like their strategy is to sell every meal at the same price regardless of how cheap it is to make. If you just choose based on taste and to get a variety you are going to massively overpay for some of them without realising. Anyway if you go to a grocery store just to buy 10 ready meals you can be done and out of there in 5 minutes so why are you paying for delivery.
Should've renamed the brand as TH-cam dinner
Yeeessss
True, but it is also healthier than TV dinners by a pretty wide margin
every meal service program is just an elaborate way to make adults eat like they’re in their middle school cafeteria again
For some adults, that would be a step up.
Make? no sorry this is what they want they just make an excuse.
Agreed
this is far better than what is served in a middle school
hellofresh was great for me and my bf to give us meal prep/recipe ideas and it helped us get into the habit of cooking but i could not imagine doing it for more than a few months. this microwave shit looks worse than my middle school food tho lmao
Let me let you in on a secret. They're old people meals. My mom, before she passed away, got a meal plan exactly like this through her medicare. They'd send you packaged meals that looked exactly, 100% like these, that you heat up for a couple of minutes in the microwave.
My grandfather had also a very similar thing 15 years ago, just a local producer doind these things for senior homes basically.
my elderly aunt had the same thing and frankly the ones she got tasted better.
its the insurance business for a new generation of nepo flunkies
If the company you're talking about is who I think it is, then I can say while similar, the quality is not the same.
this!! we get meals delivered for our grandparents that live with us and they look like these meals. actually better quality honestly
love the point at the end about factor being good for people who are SO overworked they literally do not have the time to cook. but also have the kind of money to drop on 10$/meal. like that's such a weird niche to be aiming at, because if people are working that much out of necessity then they probably can't afford a service priced like factor, but anyone who has the money for factor is probably just gonna spend their money on better food than that. really not sure what their customer base looks like
from what I've heard the idea customer base is youtubers
Note that it's also not just good for people who spend a lot of time working but also a lot of disabled people who might not be able to plan their own meals or cook for themselves, but that also falls into the range of generally not going to have the money to justify spending that much on a service like this.
it really sucks because something like this would legitimately be a good help for a lot of people had it just not been for the price.
@@ajmoment8091 oh no literally I am disabled and I previously got excited abt factor because I would KILL to have genuinely cooked food ready for me this easily! but like hell I can spend 10$/meal when I'm already struggling to get by on disability income, believe you me I know I hate being a potential demographic but being priced out of it entirely
I bet you could find someone to make you enough meals for 3-4 days and it wouldn't cost much more than factor, but finding the person would be a hassle. It's like paying someone to clean your house. If you're really that busy and you're making decent money, it is worth it.
Frankly, I bet if you got to talking to a local, independent restaurant, you could cut a deal for pre purchased meals.
Yeah honestly those people are probably just gonna get fast food or something. Not the youtube frozen meal kit
My favorite part is when TH-camrs are promoting Factor, half the time they dont even show themselves really eating it. Instead you get a lot of shots of the meal and maybe one shot of taking of bite, not chewing or swallowing, just eating a bite and thumbs up.
I didn't see Factor sponsoring youtubers until Doug Doug mentioned them in a non-sponsored video talking about his health. And it was like after he mentioned them Factor was like "hang on, we can just on the youtube sponsorship train too!"
@alienatedpoet1766 Hello Fresh owns Factor so I doubt this is the case
It's similar with airup
That’s because a lot of people find eating on camera to be gross and off putting. Trust me, the meals aren’t so bad they’d have to fake a reaction because they are so disgusting
Even better: UK/European creators being sponsored when Factor isn't even available here in Europe 😅
TEN BUCKS for one meal? Bro jesus christ, I'd rather just buy my ingredients and cook everything myself. As much as I am one to often pay for a convenience cost, that is absurd.
Not everyone gets it doesn't take that long
Not only that, but you probably get higher quality food depending on how well you can cook.
You can get a double cheeseburger, fries, and a medium drink from In-N-Out for about that much, sheesh! Most likely tastes better too.
Ten dollars in my country could buy you a luxurious meal, freshly made.
Bud has an AI generated pfp. @@hydrailce3404
They should've factored this into consideration.
😑👉🚪
Heh
Ha ha haaa
UP TOP ✋
That's a knee slapper!
They should’ve factored in some seasoning
I remember most Factor ad reads mention that it is a cheaper option than going out to eat or going to the store, which considering the price means their studies were done by people who really impulse buy at inner city whole foods or something.
They probably just pulled that quote out their ass. I doubt they expect anyone to verify their research
Specifically I think they're marketing to people that spend a lot on food deliveries, which yeah are significantly more expensive
I can still get a cheaper meal at Whole Foods. Factor is Erewhon level.
it's such a crazy claim because a bland microwaved tv dinner that costs 2 dollars less than a huge entree at a Chilis is just not going to scale price for flavor lol
It’s half the size of a meal you get for the same price AT BEST. It’s such a terrible value.
I work at FedEx as a package handler, and the number of factor boxes, among other meal kits,we get is absolutely insane. At least a full 1000 piece box truck of just factor a day, and that's not counting the other meal kit services.
I enjoy meal delivery services cause I eat better with them (as otherwise I eat breed and cheese repetitively). I am currently using cookUnity because it's uses local. Shipping adds so much extra packaging (which some is recyclable-ish but not really, and the isolation takes up a lot of room in my shared recycling bin...), and that's a lot of environmental costs in the shipping across the nation every week-- that's a lot of boxes you're handling! Vs Cookunity is similar to factor in food, price, and has similar per meal packaging, but it deliveries in insulated bags instead of insulation+boxes, and the delivery persons picks up last week's bag/ice packs to reuse. So the only waste is the meal packaging itself, which is a lot less and mostly recycling also.
I choose it over microwave meal cause sodium content and does taste better then most microwave meals.
@hefoxed I'm glad you have an alternative to cheese and bread, lol. I can imagine the cost of shipping could get out of hand after some time, but instead of worrying about groceries and meal planning, meal kits are quite convenient. Also, I'm not sure where you're from, but where I live, it's near impossible to recycle properly. Considering that and I love cooking my meals, I never really had a good reason to try any of these ready to eat kits.
I used to with at FedEx and I can agree. I thought hello fresh was a niche thing no one actually signed up for. But every shift we definitely got a truck worth of meal subscriptions.
@@Ybeetus Thankfully, it's easy to recycle the main stays where I live (we have explicit recycling bins), but been learning a lot of stuff isn't actually recycled even if it goes to a recycling center -- particular plastic doesn't tend to get meaningfully recycled :x Also, many of meal kits use items that can be recycled but need to be dropped off/sent to specific places to actually recycle. So, less goes into the bins, the better. Also, I share one bin with two other units on a property. We could switch to separate bins, but more expensive and more importantly, uglier (would have to find the extra bins in the pretty part of the yard)
@@hefoxedAmerica's waste system is the same, and it's infuriating. All the trouble of sorting trash, and they don't do anything, just throw it in the same landfill as the other trash.
I blame the manufacturers, who know their shit isn't reusable but lied anyway to get the EPA off their backs; and the waste management companies who seem too lazy to actually say anything about how it's a waste of time and trash bins, the way it currently is.
I don’t get why there’s so many meal delivery services. All of them are practically the same.
current state of the economy allows bullshit fluff products that probably dont make actual profit surge in money for stocks because of speculation, honestly most tech companies survive on stock speculation alone and would probably die if a major stock crash happened
Most are owned by hellofresh after being bought out
Lazy people who don't want to shop or cook
Gimmick of factor is it's microwave ready
There’s a hole in the market for it, simple as that. There are many demographics that benefit greatly from having convenient solutions for their meals, and companies have simply capitalized on this.
*PLEASE* do Raycon next, I am DYING to see if they've gotten any better since the Dankpods reviews.
YES we need this to happen!
They have not gotten any better, they’re still pieces of shit
Spoiler: they’re still garbage
Yeah not sure when that review came out, but mine went to shit fast.
@@wadematthews5605last time I got them they gave me a really bad ear infection.
My man’s three videos into his YT career and he’s already broken out the Shia LaBeouf “I’m not famous anymore” bag.
i dont know what this means
neither do i
Seeing the reply chain is making me sad.
was the shia labeouf meme so long ago that (younger) people don't know about it?? man 😔
@@femmev1lIt was that long ago and people just don't care probably.
the big thing is, at least in the UK, those pre-packaged supermarket meals that you said taste pretty much the same are usually half the price of a factor meal !! like, i'd much rather go to the supermarket and pick them myself then lmao
Same, here in the states I tend to dress up frozen meals with extra fresh ingredients to make them a full meal.
tbf the way those taste makes me suicidal
fr, nothing from factor can beat a tesco microwave tikka masala meal
@@etasjo nooo but the indian food!! :( and the soups!!
@@EngineerRunner you get it !!
I'm disabled so meal delivery services make a lot of sense for me. That said most of them, including factor are awful. The best you'll find are options that are exclusively local and work with local restruaunts. Anything else is going to be overcooked sousvede mush
13 dollars for a microwave meal is insane...
Right? You can get a whole box of like 12 Marie Callendar chicken pot pies for that price
@@gavo7911 and they are so good 😋
It’s not that much
@@rickyaburgosyou’re overpaying for garbage food. You’re better off eating at McDonald’s at that point.
That being said, I really still like Hungryman TV dinners lol.
Another thing worth noting, and this is true of all meal-delivery type deals, the sheer amount of plastics each package contains is NUTS. I’m no environmental nut, but it’s pretty egregious. Especially for the price.
Not really, same as any other packaged food. Just because you buy something in the store doesn’t mean it wasn’t packaged in plastic before they put it on the shelf, lmao
@@Ooweeeooo like what, potatoes in sacks?
If you're not able or willing to prep food yourself, it's either factor, or you order take out. If youre getting takeout, chances are you're also gonna get a plastic container anyway.
All processed foods have this issue.
There are solutions, farmers markets, gardens, hunting, fishing, etc. those also save you money, but they take time.
It’s high time we brought back glass, wax paper, and tinfoil but sadly I’m not king of the world. 😢
@@scott_hunts I'd have voted for ya. wait
The thing that drives me crazy about Factor is that it's almost exactly the same as those pre-packaged fresh meals you get at grocery stores (as you mentioned at the end). If these busy, overworked but well-off people were to go to a higher-end grocery store they could get something that's the same quality (IMO grocery store meals taste better than most Factor ones), roughly the same price if not cheaper, more quantity, and you can easily adjust what/how much you get based on your tastes or how much you'll be eating out that week, etc.
I think what helps is that a lot of those supermarket meals are usually made that day, and sometimes you can even get them still warm depending on the area. And as a bonus, they don't get that microwave *mush* texture that a lot of these TV dinner type things have
Yeah that's just not true at all. Everyone else in this comment section is talking out of their ass so what does it even matter at this point
Hot take: I actually really liked Hello Fresh. Wouldn’t pay full price, but for someone who’s disabled it really helped me cook real food.
I get that, a bunch of sponsors/advertisers work really well for disabled people but neurotypical/able-bodied people have less of a need for.
I wish it wouldn't be so expensive, disabled people deserve healthy meals too!
The problem with Hello Fresh isn't really about the quality of the food, but more about how unethical they are, with how they treat their staff and everything
I had it for a long time and it was actually good. It made me not eat unhealthy food lol. My only complaint was the lack of seasoning, but besides that it’s really worth it (at least where I live.)
@@SykoMuffinthere's really a specific population that it's meant for because it's cheaper for me when I'm manic and I would order delivery 3x in a day just because , but if I were to just, idk, not do that, there's no way I'd ever be able to justify Factor lmao
I feel like it’s useful for someone who has little prior cooking experience so that they aren’t just eating the same 3 meals every week
My boss is a big fan of factor. Course I suspect that this is just a lingering effect of being in the army
I bet they're at least a small step up from MREs.
I’ve had a MRE, they are better than the vast majority of insta meals. Which is nice to know .
@@SpottedHares I'd take MREs over Factor
2:18
ah yes the dankpods headphone testing music
Haha yess, was hoping of finding a comment mentioning this
i’m glad i’m not the only dankpods fan here.
But where are the freakish ears on a stand??
Huh Duh Six Hundos from ol' mate Senny.
Mate I found it at cashies
I find it kind of crazy that they were able to market TV dinners into some sort of premium dining subscription and no one ever points this out
my god im so sick of seeing ads for this company im glad you made this
Thank you for singlehandedly annihilating million-dollar ad campaigns. What a time to be alive.
To be fair it doesn't take much thought to guess that a glorified TV dinner delivered in a hot AF delivery van isn't going to be a good deal.
10 to 15$ a MEAL???! BRUH! i can go to my local restaurant for dinner at that price!
bigger portion sizes AND supporting local businesses!?!?!?!
Man I can eat good as hell for $10 at local places.
Why is food in America so cheap..
@@Firevine This is actually kinda interesting, because where I live that is a complete impossibility. 20-25 is pretty much the bare minimum once tax and tips are added. I guess their pricing model works pretty well in some regions of the country and horrible in others. I don't know where you're getting food that cheap, but a frozen Pizza's $9.49 where I live.
i can get a large spaghetti at my local station for 8 bucks.
1:38 Jazzy background music, TV dinner food, memes while eating it, this is the closest we have to another Brutalmoose food video
Let me deal with Hello Fresh quickly. My mom did that because the pandemic hit and we couldn't go to Walmart or food lion as much, but also she was tired of cooking the same thing. Pretty decent food actually. But it is ALL. THE. SAME. INGREDIENTS. Same beef, same pork, same potatoes. Sometimes they mix up what you get with what, but it's like taco bell. Same ingredients in different orders.
We have since changed to Dinnerly which I haven't seen much advertising if anything and the variety is MUCH better than Hello Fresh.
@@CH4NN3L_o_o That's usually what potato is for anyway.
Yeah I noticed that sometimes ingredients would go bad faster than they should.
They source stuff from around you so it's fresher, if I remember correctly.
@@EddieNoon oh yeah the quality is good.
But I hope you like potatoes, green onion, tiny steak, and pork chops.
We usually get a lot of variety out of HF. Yeah they use a lot of green onions and sour cream, but it’s overall just so much more convenient and varied than what we’d normally make if we had to plan meals every week. And weirdly enough, their fish is ALWAYS huge.
That’s why I stopped using hello fresh, because after a while everything has that “hello fresh taste”.
For me a big component was that every single cream based sauce was crème fraîche. Every single cheese was cheddar or “hard Italian style”.
I did try Green Chef for quite a long time and they were absolutely fantastic. Loads more recipe variety and variety in ingredients. Don’t know if they’re available outside of the uk, but they’re my go to. I still use a lot of their recipe cards.
Might I suggest the humble balaclava for a face covering? It keeps you warm, and doesnt make you too hot depending on the material you go with, obscures your face, while still allowing you to see and depending on the design you go with, allows you to eat without removing it. you could also design your own balaclava and sell it as merch too if thats your kind of thing.
There's only one talking balaclava and he's been on the run after an assassination attempt
@@Rolandeld1999 There is another talking balaclava. An Estonian man who goes by the name of Boris.
For the price, I'd much rather have a mediocre microwave meal from the frozen aisle
Is there even a good sponsorship product? This almost feels like a bubble that's going to burst with every sponsorship being useless crap or complete scam.
If their product was good they wouldn't need TH-camrs hawking it
That being said I do love my Away suitcase lmao
A lot of stuff advertised on this platform would be booted off television by the Federal Trade Commission. The internet doesn’t have those kinds of regulations so you get a lot more crap.
Ground News, maybe?
@@GreenShark4 TH-cam gets more eyes than anything on tv, even the super bowl. Regulations being loose at best is just the icing on the cake. Why would they go anywhere else?
@@kingofhearts3185 Well duh, that's rather my point.
When my dad was diagnosed with cancer, his coworkers pitched in to sign our family up for an absurd amount of Factor meals. I ate so many of those things while crying lmao.
Hope you're doing well
@@vectorthehop3945 I am, thank you! My dad is still alive and doing quite well. He started on a new chemo pill that ended up working incredibly well for him. The cancer is still terminal and he’ll never go into remission, but he’s still very active and energetic. He’s exceeding his doctor’s expectations by a long shot. :) We just got home from a family vacation where he had more stamina than me, and I’m 25 with no health conditions. Cancer is a bitch, but I’m very grateful for modern medicine.
aw thats nice of them
they're the GOAT
@@bzipoli This was 2021ish and many of them were pretty weird at the time. A lot of fruit jam + meat combos. Also my dad’s cancer symptoms severely limited his appetite so it was all too rich for him, which is why I ended up with a lot of the meals lol.
The meals look better now. I so appreciate the coworkers who got those meals for us, but they probably weren’t aware it was mostly feeding me. 😬
Also, my dad is doing great. His treatments are working better than any of his doctors anticipated. :)
I love it when the funny man releases another audiovisual critique towards a popular sponsorship used in the same platform and/or other popular social medias
If you're going to spend extra money on microwave dinners and you're in the US, just buy Amy's meals. All their stuff is organic and they have gluten-free and vegetarian options. The meals are kinda pricy, anywhere from $5 to $8 depending on where you shop, but that's still less than Factor.
Obviously you're better off just cooking your own meals, but I can't blame anyone for choosing microwave dinners. After a long day of work you may not feel like cooking, and it's a lot easier just to throw something in the microwave for a few minutes and go sit on the couch.
Seconding this, Amy's slaps for what it is.
I don't live in the States anymore, but man when I did those Amy's meals were my jam. I don't know if the Mac and Cheese one is as good as it was 10 years ago, but 10 years ago it went unfairly hard for a microwave meal.
@@LazarNaskov I just bought one a few weeks back, can confirm the mac and cheese still slaps
@@andy-xg5iq Good to hear that some things in the US are still holding strong.
@@LazarNaskovas someone who loves mac & cheese and always sees Amy’s at my local store, I’m gonna have to pick it up next time I go! Thanks for the plug
Unless they're cooking the meals day of near where you live or providing a specific niche diet or food, there's literally nothing any meal service can do to improve quality.
The requirements for mass producing, preserving the food, and maintaining cost basically homogenizes them all.
It's sad how much content creators have to lie through their teeth just to get decently paying sponsors.
Factor actually IS cooking the meals directly before packaging and sending. That’s why you have to pre-order, so they know how much to make each week.
They’re expensive, but if I’m doing a pre-prepped meal for any reason, I find Factor meals to be the least offensive. They taste like someone just cooked up some basic ingredients at home and packaged them up for the next day.
I think the most horrifying thing is that Dougdoug's love for factor makes more sense if you've seen his guy fieri cooking stream. He is his own food desert.
So my Mum is like 80 now and gets a catalogue for something called "Oakhouse Foods" which is... literally this.
Delivered microwave meals with fancy descriptions using words like "hand finished by our chefs" so old people don't get fussy.
I’m not expert but even those are only like 6 quid each according to their site. That seems significantly cheaper than these
@@roryh2241 good point, raises even more questions lol
@@greenhowie so if its too expensive its ass because of the price but if its cheap and affordable like they promise then its fishy and weird? yall really cant make up your mind
@@Lennyxxi think they meant it in the context of "Exactly, so if those are 6 bucks a pop makes you wonder why these (Factor) meals range from 10-15 dollars, which is literally double that for essentially the same product"
@@roryh2241yeah and they look awful. Wow it's so cheap! You get what you pay for.
I always found a meal delivery service sponsorships unintentionally funny because there really is no good reason to have it as your main source of food so all of the creators always say stuff like you don’t have to eat out and not explain why that’s a selling point
meal planning isnt easy, especially if you have some form of disability. having it all done for you, even once a week, is *incredible*.
@@ouravantgardeif you have a disability the chances of affording factor are around zero
Meal planning is easy, just meat and vegetables and you're set
@@Rolandeld1999 uh... no. you clearly dont know ANYTHING. for example, i have executive dysfunction at home but lots of motivation outside of the house... meaning my disability literally is location dependent, and this is *very common*. youre also saying that either disabled people cant work(false), or if they do work they shouldnt seek ways to make their life easier. im not promoting factor, im attacking the idea that there is no reason to do so
@@TheLakabanzaichrg it overwhelms lots of people, because people usually want to eat something different every day. meal planning is easy if you make ONE thing, because youre only planning one meal! but meal planning is important, otherwise we reach for high calorie snack foods instead of balanced meals, which is clearly a problem in america.
Ahhh this was one of the sponsors I was hoping you'd review! Thanks so much! You're awesome!
Cooking is one of the few hobbies that will always save you money. You eventually learn how to do less work to cook more food.
For those with no time to cook: Chocolate milk + coffee for breakfast, Sandwich for lunch, and for dinner, Rare steak and sashimi with equal parts (don't worry, you don't have be exact): Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, fish sauce, and distilled white vinegar, with optional sugar. If you need more Vitamin C then swap the white vinegar with apple cider vinegar. For dessert, whole milk and clearance rack bakery sweets.
There's also the Crockpot Chili Mac & Cheese meta, but that's not recommended unless you've already mastered Portion Control or your portions are already controlled by your budget.
that just looks like aeroplane food lmao
Also I love how it's under Hello fresh, it's like HF realized there's people who just can't be convinced to cook no matter how convenient it is, and went "ok fine here's a microwave meal"
I'm a flight attendant and legit thought the same 😭 Plane food is cheaper too, and thats a captive market at 30,000ft with all the associated logistics. Maybe Gate Gourmet and dnata need to get into the food delivery business
I don't understand Factor at all. Nothing about them is any way unique or even particularly convenient. If I wanted a bunch of microwave meals to be shipped directly to my door, I could just order some from Amazon for half the price.
No shit you don't understand them if you would order frozen food from Amazon. You aren't their target market and never will be. That's disgusting and probably the laziest thing I've ever read
I love scams that union bust. It makes the plain microwaved vegetables taste extra bitter!
Also "never frozen" is just. Well, why is it being advertised? It's not a good thing. Frozen vegetables and flash frozen meat are just plain identical. It's a difference of temperature, not chemicals, and it means you can use less preservatives and salt.
Then there's "wellness shots" and "wheatgrass". Ginger is good, wheat is edible, neither are special.
Like it might not be an OUTRIGHT scam but it's absolutely bordering on dishonest advertising, leaning more on buzzwords than quality.
do they union bust? whats your proof?
@@timotheataeWendy's advertising is similar.
but here the trade-off is less time to prepare. no thawing , no icy frozen potatoes.
ppl claim frozen isn't as good, and that's how Wendy's maintains a customer base. apparently.
@@timotheatae The expectation of never frozen is that it sort of implies it to be fresh from a nice restaurant quality. Its just a deceitful way of taking advantage of expectations.
@TemmiePlays it's also better than the other 2
my mom got some factor stuff for free and its literally just bourgeoisie tv dinners.
💀
Exactly. Like they're just rebranded Hungryman.
@@NEEDbaconit’s way better than hungry man.
@@NEEDbaconThis tells me you’ve never had Factor in your life because in no way do they remotely taste like Hungry Man slop. Hell, I’m willing to bet the majority of people here haven’t ever had a meal and are just jumping the band wagon because it’s cool to blindly hate any sponsored company these days.
@@samuszero100It’s literally just a TV dinner lmfao
Please never stop making this series. It is my new favorite notification
My mom used to work at factor but it was a very draining work environment so she quit
Mine still does and yeah it is.
HOLY CRAP, LOIS!!!!! LIPS REVEAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That meal looks like something I’d make. In 5th grade. At 12 AM. While sugar high and with greatly addled neurological functions.
this video is reminding me how good i had it during quarantine when a local middle school with a big cafeteria kitchen made ready to pick up meals for all students in the county. now that was actually a fresh and cheap meal with pretty big portions (and you returned the plastic container it came in so they could wash and reuse them, so less plastic waste) local options always seem to be the best.
You rock the bag head ngl, and I WHEEZED at the tasting bag- Props, mad props! Hope to stick around to see you grow man!
instant click whenever a new episode of another paid promotion comes out
Also, I would love a full episode on Established Titles that examines the scam.
Finally, a TH-cam channel that acknowledges the shady sponsorship practices that have been rampant on TH-cam for years. I really doubt that most of my favorite creators actually really use the services they promote. It’s just so fake
the thing about meal delivery programs that completely shatters their business model is that they don’t replace getting groceries. everyone who I’ve ever known who’s used blue apron or hello fresh, etc, didn’t stop getting groceries while using the service. These services always position themselves as being a cheaper, more convenient replacement of buying groceries and making meals from a recipe, but when you realize the portions are so far from a home cooked meal, it really doesn’t make sense economically. For the cost of one serving of a given meal, you could make the entire meal’s worth of food from grocery bought ingredients.
I'm really loving this series, I always wanted an honest review of these products
I love seeing ads/sponsorships for stuff not available in my country, or even continent
Raid shadow legends video is about to be golden
I feel like we don't need a raid shadow legends video. Sure it's a huge sponsor, but you can see if it's good for yourself for free. Stuff like this factor video is great because it's expensive so we can see if it's worth it without having to sink a bunch of money in, but if you need to see if raid is good then just download it and see for yourself
I gotta say,some of their packaging is kinda wasteful.
factor: takeout for people that refuse to admit that they eat takeout everyday.
Okay doing all the wellness shots in one sitting is BRAVE- even the ginger ones at grocery stores are definitely an acquired taste lol
Manscaped next?????
manscaped's entire niche is "holy hell nobody is going to review this without being paid so we can say whatever we want"
So I'm homeless, and we got a couple Factor meals sent to our site. I tried it and immediately threw it away. Literally the prison dinner level meals we get are better than Factor. Heck, some food we get is on the edge of expiring and I still wanted it more than any of the Factor garbage we got.
please keep this series up i love this ad your the only one i found doing this good and real
Factor is just a fancy rebrand for microwave dinners
if they were **as good as** microwave dinners that would be something
This 100% makes sense why DougDoug advocates heavily for them.
Someone who drinks olive oil to avoid cooking for years would probably find this delicious by comparison.
Every service that tries to replace something I do every day just screams "scam" to me. Like, if you were that good, you wouldn't need hundreds of people pushing your promotions.
Thanks!
I did factor in my dorms because the meals all fit in the mini fridge easier than real groceries and the severe lack of a kitchen made cooking hard. I was allowed an air fryer and microwave but doing ALL your cooking in that was a bad experience in a space that was only 9 by 9 square feet. It worked when needed and was cheaper than the scam that is college campus food plans.
I really appreciate the “putting the shot glass down upside down” part of this. Excellent!
You kept us waiting for a while. Glad your back to uploading.
My general rule of thumb is:
If I see more than 50% of the youtubers I watch advertise it, then I know it's a shit product.
Because at that point they've spent more money on sponsoring youtubers than actually making a good product
As a person that workouts quite often, I would need to at least eat FOUR of these factor meals. (I'm 5'8, 136 pounds.) And it speaks on how these are barely meals.
So glad you're keeping the throwing bit.
4:12 at that point just get mc donalds or something.
Yeah yeah, "its heathier to get this" I dont honestly care, if you want health cook yourself, if you want easy food, get fast food.
I used to subscribe to these meal plans because I used to work long hours and I was dieting. I rarely had time to cook, so instead of getting fast food, I subscribed to these meal services.
I honestly used Factor because Freshly went out of business. I liked Freshly a lot more. They were cheaper (probably why they went out of business) and had a larger variety of healthy meals.
With Factor, I had to stick to only a couple of meals that were within my diet plan, and it got real old real fast.
I eventually canceled my plan because I wasn't a big fan of the variety and I got a new job where I worked a regular 9-5, so I had more time to cook every night.
5:32 That's a large cup for a wellness shot. Usually, you're supposed to take a shot's worth. That's probably why it hurt.
And even the small ones are disgusting and undrinkable
Years ago I got a a sheet pan cook book. It’s effective “dump all these ingredients on one pan”. It is not hard or expensive or messy, and the recipes are actually good. It cost $12.
This channel has the energy of TH-cam from ten years ago (in a good way)
Cant wait you for you get big enough to get a sponsor that is just as sketchy as most of the current big ones are while also preaching about something that the sponsor kind of goes against.
And yes, I've witnessed one or two youtubers like this.
You’re describing every 100k+ TH-camr
Many such cases. Like putocynicla
Ah, Ann Reardon
Kurtis Conner
I subscribed for two reasons:
1. Honest reviews
2. You throwing things around 😂
(Bonus third reason? The tasting bag 10/10)
I've been looking for a video series like this for so long.. Thank you!!
If a company is advertising all over TH-cam then it's either a full on scam or so mediocre that they need to rely on artificial hype.
That tasting bag looked vile, dude. I love it
Got it before. They tasted really good just on the small side. The issue is once the promotion price ends, and you are paying $140 for a week's worth of meals that will only fill up a child.
2:07 dankpods enjoyers rejoice
Love this. I just want to remind you that we can wait for new uploads and to please dont get burnt out.
But if you are fine with this upload schedule that’s good too
Every meal service program is just “You wanna eat like it’s Michelle Obama’s health food initiative again?”
It's ridiculous how had sponsors are getting. I use Premium and I pay for ad-free services, yet sponsors in videos are practically just as annoying and just as shady as regular ads too.
Yeah, I know it's out of YT's control. Yeah, I know TH-camrs need to put food on the table. And yeah, I am aware SponsorBlock on PC exists, and I'm aware sponsors are skippable. But this sponsor BS is putting a bandaid on the problem.
For one, it's ridiculous how every year, TH-cam keeps making it so creators earn less and less revenue, and even more ridiculous how they keep making monetization guidelines stricter and stricter. Creators have to put in more effort for less money, and that's stupid.
For two, there's a lot of TH-camrs who already make a lot. There's creators with tens of millions of subscribers and yet they need sponsorship money? And think about this for a second: so I joined your channel membership. I joined your Patreon. I donated money to say "Thanks" on your videos, I even bought your merch from your merch store. And you're telling me that _none_ of that is enough and you want me to buy from/subscribe to a shady company? Some of these creators I know for a fact make a _shit_ ton of money, and sponsors just seem so ridiculous.
At the end of the day, an ad is still an ad. I just hate how no matter how much effort you go through to get rid of them, and no matter how much you pay for an ad-free service, there's still always going to be ways to advertise to you anyways. They are so damn intrusive and have the time scummy, and it's just the same with sponsors. It's just ads with extra steps.
I don't care that Adblock and Sponsorblock exist. It doesn't make advertisements and sponsors any less annoying. The point is that I shouldn't _have_ to go through all this workaround BS. This shit should just be a given. Like my Prime Video subscription is not cheap, and they just made it so I have ads now, and have to pay an extra $3 a month to get rid of them. I'm not using your service for free, so how about I get zero ads because I'm paying for it? And Amazon makes so much money and even paid negative-percent taxes once or twice one year, you can't tell me they can't afford to not have ads. Even dumber still is a lot of Prime content is only available on FreeVee now, which has no ad-free options period.
I haven't seen YT ads in so many years since getting Premium, but I always hear about just how bad they've gotten. Numerous unskippable ads back-to-back, excessively-long ads for a 5-10 second video, etc. And since YT doesn't moderate ads, anyone can make an ad which means there's been a lot of scam stuff.
If people really wanted to put sponsors on their videos, save it to the freakin' end so it's not intrusive. Not that it matters anyways because nobody ever researches their sponsors, they just take the money and run without a care in the world. I'm so tired of there being advertising in everything that I see and do no matter how much I try to avoid it, or pay to avoid.
unfortunately these people usually have no say in their sponsors. They start okay, but quickly get worse and worse, and you have no choice but to shill it or lose your next ten sponsors. Which is how you get ridiculous bullshit like a united states museum shilling bullshit titles in a foreign country.
This caused a big divide in youtubers, those who complained about it and made change happen, and those who shilled with all their heart for things they knew were bad.
I’m so happy to see someone is doing legitimate reviews on these things. Sponsorships are obviously a no go, and you can’t really trust customer reviews on a lot of websites. I can see this series getting a lot of attention. Good stuff ❤
You can't go wrong with the classic TH-camr/NicoNico horse mask.
For the cause
I just don’t understand why I would buy this when my local grocery store has an aisle full of frozen meals that are just as good, if not better. Plus they’re cheaper.
the tasting bag is a part of your identity now and I expect to see it in every food review video from now on
Yeah $10 for one meal? I can make spaghetti w/ 8 garlic breads & salad for 8 people, at the price of $12.
Yeah that’s 100% carbs…
@@Ooweeeooo and?
@@tsm688 Carbs and leaf vegetables are the cheapest food. You could feed 22 people on 100g of uncooked rice each for less than $10.
@@Cyrotex I know. People are saying carbs like that's a bad thing when there's a reason we centered our civilization on them...
Weird how plain rice is available in every grocery store but plain wheat is harder to get though
My mom works at a frozen meal deliver service and tbh just go for that. they have like 50 options and are pretty cheap since they're primarily bought by elderly folks
ngl i really like factor but so much depends on:
1. whether the price is worth it for you. If $20ish/day on food is too much for you or $12/day for 1 supplementary meal/day is too much for you then factor wouldn't be good even if meal was literally 5 star chef quality.
2. what meals you actually get. So many of factors meals are honestly just gross. ESPECIALLY the ones they pick for you by default. But some are really good at least for what it is. in other words there's _enough_ meals in every weeks menu that taste like an above average home cooked meal. I'd recommend finding like 4-5 that you love and making half of ur meals each week at least one of them ( you need a couple bc some meals alternate every other week and I haven't really studied it but I imagine some are even less frequent than every other week). Off the top of my head some of the good meals are pork ragu fusili, jamaican style chicken thighs, poblano beef bowl, taco bowl, the tamale bowl (ive only tried the meat one but i forget which meat it is. i imagine the vegetarian one is good too)
3. Cook them in the oven not the microwave. Microwaved food tastes bad. especially if it's fresh food and not frozen food designed chemically to be heated up in the microwave. all u have to do is put it on a baking tray, and throw it in the oven for 12 minutes (it says 7 on the packaging but they're wrong)
4. and this could maybe should've been a 1 pt 2 or something but _Game The System._ Factor is a direct to consumer brand, and like all these companies they spend wayyyy too much on marketing and will eventually go out of business once they run out of investor money. The important part is they have way too much money in marketing and just want customers at any cost. This means that the rules on their welcome bonuses are very lax and there are loopholes. I won't go into specifics in case they read this and get rid of it but in simple terms. If you're smart, you can keep paying the welcome deal price forever. I can't afford the base price but I can afford the discount price and as somebody who has a gluten allergy, and is disabled so I can't really cook for myself very easily this company and their very excessive marketing bonuses are a god send. I can actually eat a real meal that tastes good (in the comfy grandma way not the indulgent restaurant way) with vegetables and balanced macros every day. Something I've never been able to do on my own for more than a couple weeks at a time
The price is the main reason why I stayed away from a lot of these Factor meals. You can get a pre-packaged meal at a grocery store that is cheaper and fills you up more. Heck, even the chicken meals that I got at the grocery store were not only cheaper. But, also more filling! And, that's what you want when it comes to lunch and supper. And, you wonder why I still go to fast food restaurants every weekend. At least with places like Wendy's and McDonald's, you only have to pay one or two meals per weekend as opposed to paying over $100 for 6 meals and $154 for 10 meals! The phrase, good lord comes to mind.
Not to mention, Wendy's makes some of the better fast food burgers in my opinion. Especially compared to places like McDonald's, Burger King and A&W. It's no wonder why they got a sponsorship deal with Trackhouse Racing. Believe me, these kind of burgers most definitely get the Ross Chastain Seal of Approval. So yeah, Factor is just not worth it to me. And like you said, some meals are already inexpensive and easy to prepare on their own which kinda defeats the purpose.
Idk I liked factor when I had it
I was working a crazy schedule and left like I didn’t have time to cook, and it was a better alternative to buying lunch every day
Food was surprisingly yummier than I expected and healthier than what I would have been buying
It’s definitely not TV dinner tier, but I’ve canceled it now that I’m back to a stable schedule and can meal prep
These videos are really going well so far, I love them
monster and cigarettes is like 5 dollars
truly all you need in life
Damn I want $5 darts. A pack of Marlboro is pushing $50 where I am
"Wow this is a fun review of products I see everywhere and-- Is that Walk Through the Park playing?" DankPods you beautiful man, now I associate the music with food AND headphone reviews.
i work at a local version of this, and from what i can tell the lack of seasoning could be mainly caused by what seams to be a heavy marketing focus to the ederly
the amount of orders i pack for delivery is insane sometimes
what, elderly can't taste, or elderly are just poor?
@@tsm688 first one yes, second one lol no (you cant afford these services if you are poor)
@@tsm688i think it's cus they can't taste lmao old ppl food is always bland so they can't tell
The crazy thing about Factor is they went for rebranding microwaved food. Their competitors at least try to appear fresh but Factor just went "fuck it, you'll eat our microwave food and you'll like it". Weirdest food delivery service for sure